NREMT exam

[SMW83]

Anyone have any idea how the NREMT certification exams are? How hard are they and how many questions, and what would be best to study? Please give your own opinions about it as well as different sides of the story, so that I can make an informed decision. Is the exam hard?

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[Krazed_Medic]

Well, the Basic exam is 150 questions and Intermediate is 150 as well I believe. The Paramedic exam was 180 questions. I didn't feel it was all that hard. Really, you should just study what you feel the weakest. If it's ped's, study over peds, if it's OB/GYN study that. If I remember right, when they score the paramedic exam it's broken up into a few sections but I don't remember how many or what sections exactly. Sorry I'm not much help. I would say study what you don't know. When I took the paramedic exam, I didn't know pediatrics well, and didn't study peds well either and it hurt come test time. Good luck!

 

[beanbean]

The exam is hard. Not med school hard, but no walk in the park. There are two sections: written and practical. I forget how many questions are in the written portion, but it basically covers all of the subject matter in your EMT class. The practical consists of various medical and trauma "stations" where you enter the "scene" and treat the "patient" while your skills are judged by an evaluator in the room with you. You are expected to run the scene as though it was a real call and provide treatment. An example would be: At the door you are told by the evaluator that you have been called to the home of a 75 yo man with a medical problem. As you enter, you must indicate that you are taking all BSI precautions and inquire if the scene is safe. The patient will be wearing makeup to look sick and will act the part by holding their chest or pretend to have diff. breathing. You must obtain a quick pt hx., treat the patient with the appropriate interventions - O2, Nitro, etc and take vitals. You must also indicate if you wish for additional services (medics, etc) and what priority the call is. There is a time limit and time sensitive interventions such as O2 or C-Spine precautions must be done early to ensure a pass. Each station is pass/fail. Failure to do certain tasks results in an automatic fail (such as not giving a chest pain pt O2). In addition, points are given for each correct action and a certain number of points must be obtained to pass.

That being said, any good EMT instructor will prep you very well before sending you off to NREMT. In some states you must pass a state exam which is similiar to the NREMT exam.

I assume you were asking about the EMT exam since you are just starting out. Paramedic is a whole different beast!

How did you HazMat class go?

 

[Krazed_Medic]

oh crap, i forgot about the practicals! Most people that I know have freaked out over the practicals. I don't suggest you freak out, you will be well prepped for it i'm sure.

 

[Agent Splat]

One thing I've always heard, and sorta realized after taking the NREMT exam myself, is that you can't "read into" the questions too much. Just take them for face value. But read carefully, it's easy to miss a word that gives away the answer for you...like "unresponsive." That's the word I was basically skipping over as I read, causing me to spend an extra 5 minutes on one question. Once I noticed it, I magically had the answer. It's usually stuff you'd do automatically and subconsciously in the field (e.g. unresponsive hypoglycemic diabetic = don't oral glucose), but can easily mix up on paper accidentally.

As for the practicals, remember that your partner can just as easily cause you to fail a station as you can. If they did something wrong in real life, you'd surely correct them, so make sure you do it on the test also...they'll thank you for it, even if they are pissed that you told them they were wrong. Heck, that's partly why we have partners in this line of work, to make sure all the bases get covered.

Good luck, study hard.
--Marc

 

[Emergency!]

I didn't think that either the EMT-B or EMT-I exams were particularly difficult, although many medics I know who have taken the EMT-I exam feel that it is the hardest of the three NREMT exams.

As has been said before, don't read too much into questions. The words unresponsive and responsive are often key in what the correct answer is. Sometimes, they don't matter. NEVER forget your ABC's and C-spine. Many questions are designed to see if you skip those in favor of something else. If airway management of some type is one of the answers, its usually the correct one because it is always the first thing you do.

Practicals are usually not that bad, so don't freak. Know your skill sheets. Have someone give you different scenarios. In class, they tend to give you scenarios that require you hit every single item on the sheet - on the test that's not necessarily the case. I have known many people freak out because they couldn't remember what to do next if a certain step wasn't required. There is a wide range of "toughness" in practical exam proctors. If you know and do all of the automatic fail things, you will usually be fine.

Amy

 

[necta]

The NREMT-P exam is no walk in the park. I have a number of friends who did not pass their first time around (or even second), and these are people with BS degrees and above. However, it is do-able and with the proper review materials it should not pose too much of a problem. I suggest getting the review booklet from the NREMT or getting a third party review book. Also, like it was mentioned earlier, go over the things that you feel the most weakness in. GOOD LUCK!

VOKAMIS
BS, NREMT-P
Post-Bacc UMD

 

[12R34Y]

never met anyone who hasn't passed it on the first try. I remember the EMT-B exam being very straight forward. The paramedic exam was pretty straight forward as well. I second the person who said that any good program will adequately prepare you for the exam and practical. There was no mystery to the test or practical and my whole class passed.

I also agree with the above poster that you should study what you're weak on (usually peds and ob). Trauma, Chest pain, dyspnea etc...everybody is usually solid on. no need to review that too much in the end. It should be automatic by that point............scene safety, BSI, assess LOC, assume C-spine...ABC's etc....blah blah ........I took that exam almost a decade ago and I don't think i'll ever forget that stuff.

FYI.....these skills you acquire in EMT/paramedic school help a ton in medschool.

later

 

[Freakingzooming]

I disagree completely about the NREMT-B test being straightforward.

I've taken the MCAT, SAT, and SAT IIs so I can kinda gauge how I am in multiple choice testing but I found the NREMT test to be vague, confusing and well just plain stupid.

The questions weren't designed to test what you knew but to test what little trivial information we weren't supposed to know on the test. Like activated charcoal. I never knew how much and at what dose to give to children, let alone a specific weight and age. But this was one of the questions on the July exam.

Overall it wasn't a difficult test, you'll have plenty of time. It was just frustrating to study and realize that none of the basics were covered. Just stupid little itty bitty things about sand bagging of all things to paradoxical movement in a flailed chest. Ugh and the prep books are completely useless. I had the Barrons one and there were so many useless trivia questions asked in that one too.

 

[leviathan]

Anyone have any idea how the NREMT certification exams are? How hard are they and how many questions, and what would be best to study? Please give your own opinions about it as well as different sides of the story, so that I can make an informed decision. Is the exam hard?

I am Canadian so I am not aware of the NREMT exam or what it consists of. As for practicals, just follow through each scenario step by step and use your logic to figure it out. If you have ever been given a flowchart on incident management, just follow it through from your initial LOC and C-spine to your ABCDs. Obviously practice as many scenarios as possible as well.

 

[leviathan]

The questions weren't designed to test what you knew but to test what little trivial information we weren't supposed to know on the test. Like activated charcoal. I never knew how much and at what dose to give to children, let alone a specific weight and age. But this was one of the questions on the July exam.

Isn't dosage a little bit important if you are administering meds to people? You might not always have a reference guide handy.

Just stupid little itty bitty things about sand bagging of all things to paradoxical movement in a flailed chest. Ugh and the prep books are completely useless. I had the Barrons one and there were so many useless trivia questions asked in that one too.

How is that a little itty bitty thing? Wouldn't you agree that the paradoxical movement of the ribcage in flail chest is paramount to recognizing the condition?

 

[CoverMe]

I thought the NREMT "B" and "I" tests were pretty simple. Other than going over the brady text (including the important points to remember for practicals, located in the back of the book), I also bought a book called "Pre-Test EMT-Intermediate Self-Assessment and Review" which got me used to the kind and type of questions asked on NREMT. After I bought it, i heard there was a better Mosby review book.

The county test was wayyyy more difficult than the NREMT. However, I think that it's more about being able to read questions and pick off answers, than actual knowledge. A friend of mine bombed the "B" test... but she's not so hot with reading (disability).

 

[45408]

NREMT-B wasn't that bad - if you can do well in a college science course, then you should be able to adapt to this without much trouble. The hardest part was actually getting that far - my class weeded people out beforehand with a final exam in the course before we even took the NREMT.

 

[ASDIC]

The Medical part of the NREMT was harder than the trauma part. They asked me questions on the various kinds of seizures Grand Mal, Petit Mal etc. Also know stuff about diabetes, stroke etc.