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First time Registry test taker

While I have been in EMS for 21+ years I have never taken the National Registry of EMT's Paramedic exam, until this past Thursday. I have to say that I have always been leery to try, what if I can't even pass the exam I have been teaching new medic students to pass just to enter the profession? Since our medic students must take and pass this exam, I was convinced by one of our other instructors to take it so we could give reassurance to our students that this is a decent and fair exam. I made the conscience decision not to study for the exam, wanted to see if I could pass with just the knowledge I have gained over the past 21 years, plus I realized that I was already a medic and they could not take that a way if I failed this one. So I go and take the adaptive learning exam knowing that I would have a minimum number of questions and it would shut down when the exam realized that I either knew the material or did not. 78 questions in it shuts down and less than an hour it was all over, not too hard... not too easy..... just about right. Later that day I logged on to the NREMT web site and found that I passed; today I got the big envelope with the letter, patch and certificate suitable for framing. All in all it was a good experience. Well done no anxiety what so ever.

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Comment by Michael D. Smith on April 29, 2008 at 9:35am: Mark, I know how you feel. I did not see the need to ever take it, however one of our instructors pointed out that we should have some level of knowledge about the exam. At the very least so we would know what our students were going through and to have something in common with them. The more I reflect on the test I think that I allowed myself to think that the test was much tougher than it was. I don’t want to say that it was easy; it was not, but not as hard as I allowed myself to believe it was.
Take it I think that you will be pleased, I was excited, and heck they can’t take your current medic card away from you if are not successful.
Mike

Comment by Mark Lee on April 27, 2008 at 7:54pm: Congrats Mike. I too have not ever taken the exam after 25 years of being a paramedic. I may have to give it a try as well so I can be more empathetic with the folks that we are sending to take that test.
If I get the nerve I'll let you know how it went...

Comment by Michael D. Smith on April 21, 2008 at 9:58pm: Bobby, The adaptive learning/testing is the new registry testing procedure where the test questions get tougher as you answer them correctly. If you miss some of the tougher questions the test will give you slightly easier questions until the testing protocol realizes that you know the material. There is a minimum set of questions and a maximum; if you are having difficulty you will see more questions. I have been resistant to take it for years; however since the students I am teaching will have to take the exam, it just made good sense to take it to understand the process.
Mike

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