I hate certification exams
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Category: News And Views
Forum Name: Thoughts and Opinions
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Topic: I hate certification exams
Posted By: Linus
Subject: I hate certification exams
Date Posted: 19 March 2010 at 11:52am
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I truly do.
To be an EMT/Paramedic in most states, you have to take a national exam called the NREMT, and it uses a method of testing called computer adaptive testing, where no two people will EVER have the same test. If you get a question right, it gives you a harder one, and if you get one wrong, it gives you an easier one... it does this till it decides you are competent, and there is no set number of questions. According to the testing agency that makes the test, everyone will get about 50% wrong. It makes you feel like an idiot. Well, I took mine yesterday for the paramedic level. I was sure I failed... until this morning when I checked the site. I passed. Now all I have left is a skills test this coming Wednesday... if I pass that I am finally done! ------------- 
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Replies:
Posted By: Ceesman762
Date Posted: 19 March 2010 at 11:55am
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Congrats! GL!! ------------- Innocence proves nothing FUAC!!!!! |
Posted By: brihard
Date Posted: 19 March 2010 at 12:15pm
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I had the second stage of the Ontario police constable selection system testing yesterday... Now I get to wait a few weeks to hear back. If I passed that, I get the certificate I need to apply to a municipal force. ------------- "Abortion is not "choice" in America. It is forced and the democrats are behind it, with the goal of eugenics at its foundation." -FreeEnterprise, 21 April 2011. Yup, he actually said that. |
Posted By: Linus
Date Posted: 19 March 2010 at 12:22pm
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They've only been doing computer testing for the NREMT for a couple of years... before that it was paper/pencil and you had to wait 6 weeks to find out if you passed or not, and here I am spoiled with a 1 day wait. Good luck with your wait bri!
Thanks ceesman. Not looking forward to the practical skills testing... I've always been better with the cognitive portion even though 95% of the skills testing is pure memorization. -------------
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Posted By: ParielIsBack
Date Posted: 19 March 2010 at 3:25pm
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Hopefully I'll be taking the ASTB in a few weeks. If so, I'll come back here and commiserate with you guys.
------------- BU Engineering 2012 |
Posted By: Cedric
Date Posted: 19 March 2010 at 3:49pm
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4 years of exams sucks too. ------------- 
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Posted By: procarbinefreak
Date Posted: 19 March 2010 at 3:51pm
| I have a registry exam soon too and it's also the computer adaptive crap. although we get an immediate pass/fail after the test is done. |
Posted By: Linus
Date Posted: 19 March 2010 at 4:04pm
Yea I don't understand why the NREMT thinks it has to be different from everyone else and get the results sent to them before you can know if you pass or fail... but alas I'm done with it, so I don't care anymore. Do you have to take it at a Pearson VUE center?
Yes, they do, but they can't equate to certification exams. -------------
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procarbinefreak wrote:Posted By: mod98commando
Date Posted: 19 March 2010 at 7:19pm
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Good luck on your next test. I just took two tests on 2/27 to get my A+ certification and I know how you feel. I don't think they have an adaptive test like yours but I certainly felt like I was going to poop myself when I submitted my answers for grading; both times. I actually did pretty well on both though. I have 3 tests left to take before I'm done with my certifications, have to get on that. ------------- oreomann33: Everybody invades Poland Rofl_Mao: And everyone eats turkey Me: But only if they're hungary Mack: Yeah but hungary people go russian through their food and end up with greece on everyth |
Posted By: usafpilot07
Date Posted: 19 March 2010 at 9:34pm
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I failed my biology exam last week. It asked to name two things commonly found in cells. Apparently Blacks & Mexicans isn't the right answer... ------------- Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo |
Posted By: Uncle Rudder
Date Posted: 19 March 2010 at 9:38pm
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same style as the GRE ------------- 
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Posted By: Tolgak
Date Posted: 19 March 2010 at 9:46pm
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Please... how many of you have ever had a check ride? Fail one part of it and a few hundred $ goes down the drain in retraining and redoing the stuff on the next flight. On top of that, instructors never seem to cover the weird stuff that check pilots ask you. It's likely that you may have to redo everything. BTW. The process is in 2 parts, the oral and the flight. There's a simulator session in between at my school. You're also SOL if your method of doing something is different from the check pilot's and he's too stuck in his beliefs to accept your proposition. ------------- 
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Posted By: rednekk98
Date Posted: 19 March 2010 at 11:56pm
| Just took my first battery of MTELs (teacher certification, reading and writing portion) the other week on about 2hrs sleep thanks to unexpected family problems, holding my breath while waiting on results, but I'm reasonably confident. |
Posted By: BearClaw
Date Posted: 20 March 2010 at 5:23am
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That sound pretty ruff. Few years back i wrote for my certificate of qualification to get my 310t Truck mechanic license. That test was also a **edited**. You have to get 70% or above on it too pass and most the questions have multiple right answers but only one that is excepted. You have to choose the MOST right answer LOL. And its all stupid anyways as ya cant learn this trade on paper and half the correct answers on the test are NEVER done in the real world. Many guys fail once or twice before getting it. I thought for sure i had failed after the exam but sure as heck three weeks later i find out i passed quite well. I swear though i think if i re wrote id fail it LOL. Working for so many years in the real world now has gave me lots of habits and i dont remeber all the stupid therory from college any more. I can fix pretty much anything on a truck BUT writing tat test had little to do with fixing a truck in my opinion. ------------- AGD 68 Automag Azodin KPII Sheridan PGP2K Tippmann Crossover XVR Tippmann ProCarbine Tippmann SL68-II Tippmann TiPX |
Posted By: Rofl_Mao
Date Posted: 20 March 2010 at 12:54pm
| So Linus, all in all was it actually hard to become an EMT? I'm sorta playing around with the possibility of becoming one myself. |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 20 March 2010 at 1:37pm
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I sort of regret not becoming EMT certified while I was going through firefighting training. and getting it all done at once. On that note, my exam to become a NYS certified interior firefighter was a walk in the park. I don't know anyone in my class that failed, or even came close to failing. ------------- ? |
Posted By: brihard
Date Posted: 20 March 2010 at 2:06pm
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In other news, about 3/4 of this forum either are or want to be military or some sort of emergency services. ------------- "Abortion is not "choice" in America. It is forced and the democrats are behind it, with the goal of eugenics at its foundation." -FreeEnterprise, 21 April 2011. Yup, he actually said that. |
Posted By: Rofl_Mao
Date Posted: 20 March 2010 at 2:08pm
I like the excitement  |
Posted By: DaveEllis
Date Posted: 20 March 2010 at 3:55pm
Getting your B license is a piece of cake as long as you have a brain tucked somewhere in your skull. Stepping that up and getting your paramedic is a whole different ball game, it isn't impossible but it involves a lot more A&P and advanced knowledge. |
Posted By: ParielIsBack
Date Posted: 20 March 2010 at 4:12pm
There's gotta be a study someone wants to do on us. It's possible we're all just adrenaline junkies though. I'm not counting that one out. ------------- BU Engineering 2012 |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 20 March 2010 at 4:46pm
To quote my Emergency Vehicle Operations and Control (EVOC) instructor: "Who else would climb out of a warm bed at 3am on a winters night, scrape a hole in the ice of the windshield just big enough to see through and race to help someone they don't know, and most of the time doesn't need their help anyway?" Nothing I've done to date matches the adrenaline rush I've gotten from jumping out of a truck fully packed up to face a working structure fire. If that means there's something wrong with me.....so be it. ------------- ? |
Posted By: Linus
Date Posted: 20 March 2010 at 5:32pm
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I used to work at a paintball field back in Michigan.
Every single one of us employees went on to either be in the military or emergency services.
For me it's knowing that you kept someone alive that wouldn't have lived 5 more minutes without you being there... or the wrestling match with someone who's just been tased 4 times. Either /or. -------------
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Posted By: ParielIsBack
Date Posted: 20 March 2010 at 6:20pm
The first part sounds good. The second part, not so much. ------------- BU Engineering 2012 |
Posted By: Linus
Date Posted: 20 March 2010 at 6:50pm
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Trust me, if you want adrenaline, it's a wrestling match with someone who just had a seizure, who hates cops and thinks you are a cop. -------------
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Posted By: ParielIsBack
Date Posted: 20 March 2010 at 7:39pm
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I can totally understand that, I just don't think I'd enjoy it. ------------- BU Engineering 2012 |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 20 March 2010 at 7:48pm
Been there. My very first structure fire after becoming certified. Wow. ------------- ? |
Posted By: mbro
Date Posted: 20 March 2010 at 10:33pm
Thankfully he was a smart guy, a good student, and dedicated. He is now a fire medic for Eau Claire County in Wisconsin. ------------- 
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos. |
Posted By: Linus
Date Posted: 20 March 2010 at 11:06pm
Sorry totally missed this question. Rofl-- EMT-basic is not that difficult to get, but there' still a pretty decent fail rate in most EMT programs I've seen. If you go in with the right mindset you'll be fine. Paramedic is different. There's generally a lower dropout rate because you actually know what you're getting in to, but the material IS harder, you WILL have more time commitments, and when it comes to clinicals and field internship, the decisions ARE yours, adding a bit more stress, and it's actually pretty common from someone to be dropped because of them failing the internship. Like Dave said, not impossible, but you have to go in with the right mindset. My class started with 23 and 9 of us are graduating on Thursday. 4 of us have taken the written certification so far, and I'm the only one to have passed. Nationally, of paramedic school graduates, there's only a 60-75% pass rate on certification, meaning even with you passing school, doesn't mean you'll be a paramedic. Go ahead and sign up for an EMT class at your community college. It's a single semester, and if at the end you pass and decide you don't like it, you didn't lose anything. If you have any more questions let me know. -------------
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Posted By: mod98commando
Date Posted: 21 March 2010 at 1:12am
I came extremely close to joining the NJ national guard (took the ASVAB and destroyed it) but ultimately decided not to. All through high school I wanted to join the Army but I couldn't stand the fact that some politician would basically have the power to decide where/when/why I may or may not be killed so I decided my future was worth more than whatever benefits the military offered. Especially since I wasn't guaranteed to get the MOS of my choice. ------------- oreomann33: Everybody invades Poland Rofl_Mao: And everyone eats turkey Me: But only if they're hungary Mack: Yeah but hungary people go russian through their food and end up with greece on everyth |