Fail!

Ok well maybe not fail as in a F but yea...in my EMS class you have to get an overall of 80% in the class to take your ride-along and hospital clinical rotation. My teacher averaged it out to not missing more than 10 on 3 tests. Well guess what, I've miss more than 10 on my first 3 tests...my lowest score was a 72% and my highest 78%. Still a C...but not what I need to "pass". My teacher said he will work with the 78% one since I do well with the hands-on labs, but I had to pass the next test (which is tomorrow). Normally I'm not a bad test taker (unless it was math class). But you know how normal, multiple-choice tests are...you look at your answer options and if you know it, you know it right away and if you have to think about it, usually you don't know it. Now with these tests, there are so many "trick" questions. Ugh I guess trick questions really aren't the right thing to call them...there are so many steps in EMS and they vary depending on the patient and the nature of the call. So for these tests you do have to think about the answers. But if you think too much, you'll most likely get it wrong. So where do you draw the line?

It also doesn't help that I go once a week. Sundays from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. It's a long class, it doesn't feel that long and it was a good deal with the assumption I would have a job by now...buuuuuuut my teacher teaches the chapters on power point...and doesn't do a lot of class interaction. Most teachers will do things like "why do you think this...?" before elaborating. He doesn't. He'll answer our questions and he's really cool and really nice, I just don't think he's a good teacher. This isn't just me, a few of his classes have only had like 10 students out of 30 pass....

So here is what my plan is. I hate saying it,but for this term I give up. I'm going to keep going of course (the class is already paid for!), keep attempting to learn, but I'm not going to fret over the tests. I am going to take the class next term, more days a week with a different instructor. I don't learn by reading a text book, and I don't learn by the teacher zooming through a power point. Seriously, we do like 5 chapters a day and then test on it the following Sunday. I'm just going to look at it as extra practice. It's not that I can't do these things, this guy's tests aren't easy. PLUS I have to switch from the nursing side of health care to the EMS side, and trust me, they are so different! And I'm trying to not get too discouraged. It's hard though when financially I need to be working (which I kinda sorta am. I have agreed to babysit a friend's 5 year old son, but his mom works odd hours so it's not every day...they agreed to pay me $100 a week and they bring him here and bring some food with him...so I'm not wasting gas and food. I've only done it one day so far so we'll see how it goes.)

EMS is something I really want to do! I already love this career and I haven't even gone out there and done it yet. I can already see the rewards and I enjoy the chaos in my work day that I will be. Just pretending with manikins is a slight rush. I just can't retain the information for tests when a ton is being crammed into my head one day a week. AND I've always been horrible at studying. :(