I was horrible at studying for exams in college.

So bad that I failed basic chemistry 4 times before I managed to pass. And I wish I could say it was because I was having a blast partying it up all the time because I really wasn’t. So I was failing and not having fun at the same time. I’m a good multi-tasker.

What really happened was I had no idea how to actually study for a hard class.

The NREMT is a big scary exam (and it just had some major changes.). If I hadn’t learned how to study well in college, I probably never would have passed. But thankfully all those skills I picked up helped me ace the national registry exam on the first try.

Here’s exactly what I did.

• Read the textbook (the right way)
• The Pomodoro Technique
• Teach you dog
• Schedule your study times
• Use the FIG technique (An easy way to memorize anything)

How To Study From A Textbook

You have been studying from you textbooks wrong your whole life.

Actually, chances are you barely ever read your text book in school. Despite being told over and over again “you need to read the book before class,” it never seemed important. At least I didn’t think so.

Why would you have ever read those things anyway?

Hundreds of pages of dry information. Way too much too actually absorb while you’re reading. Plus there aren’t enough pictures and I’m a slow reader.

No, textbooks are supposed to be for reference.

What I did before every class was study the glossary at the back of that day’s chapter. I would read through every definition, key term, and disease it listed. I spent majority of my time focused on this section.

Then I would skim through the chapter, looking for those vocab words.

Sure, my eyes glanced over everything in the chapter, but I wasn’t really reading. I was looking for glossary terms. I would highlight every vocab word I found in yellow.

Then I would go to class with a good grasp of the basics of that section.

Think about it this way; you would never start learning French by diving into some obscure philosophy book. You’d actually start by learning a bunch of vocab. Then you’d make some basic sentences and phrases. Then you can move into more difficult stuff.

But first, you have to be able to speak the basics of the language.

If you don’t know what a QRS complex, contractile tissue, or Purkinje Fibers are, you’re going to have a really hard time with your cardiology chapter. You instructor is going to start rattling off information and all of it is going over your head because you’re still trying to remember definitions.

Memorize the definitions for each chapter before class and you’ll 10x how much you learn during lecture.

The Pomodoro Technique

This study trick saved my ass during medic class.

Most people can’t sit down and stare at study material for more than a few minutes before their eyes glaze over and their brain goes numb. I’m the exact same way. The information is too dense and too dry for anyone to sit with for too long.

The Pomodoro technique says you only need to focus for 25 minutes at a time, then you get a break.

The idea is that if you can sit and pay full attention to what you’re doing for 25 minutes, your brain will be at it’s max capacity anyway. Once that time is up you walk away from your studying and do anything else. Ideally, you are just taking a 5 minute break so a whole study session lasts 30 minutes, but I usually did 10.

And you can do anything you want during that time.

I tried to do something fun that had nothing to do with reading or paramedic stuff.

I would play a quick round of a fighting game because I could hop in and out of the game quickly. I’d go for a walk or make myself a snack. Sometimes I would take really long breaks and use the time to go to the gym.

Your brain isn’t a computer.

It needs time to soak up all that learning juice you created during your study sessions. The Pomodoro technique is a great way to do that and it doesn’t feel so tedious trying to read through a whole chapter on the skeletal system.

Teach Your Dog

Everybody gets better at things when they have to teach them. Paramedicine is no exception.

When you teach something to someone else, you’re forced to organize the information in a way that makes sense to you. This logical flow from one idea to the next makes it easier to remember the next time you need to dig it out of your brain. Memorizing a sentence like “the cat ran,” is easier than memorizing “aat nhr tec.”

Those are all the same letters, the cat ran just makes a lot more sense to your brain.

Teaching also reveals gaps in our knowledge.

Until you’ve tried to explain the action potential in a cardiac cell, you might think you know it pretty well. Go to do a presentation on it for the first time and you probably realized pretty quick you don’t know it as well as you thought. And that’s a good thing!

Knowing what we don’t know means we can focus on it before testing day. Don’t find out you don’t know something while sitting at the NREMT.

Use Your Calendar

Have you ever told yourself you’d start working out tomorrow and then immediately skipped that workout?

Neither have I. But if that sounds familiar, I bet you didn’t schedule exactly when you were going to workout. People don’t stick to schedules when they don’t have one.

Same thing goes for setting up a study schedule.

Saying “I’m gonna study tomorrow for an hour” is the same thing as saying you’re definitely not going to study. You can’t find random bits of time for studying, you need a solid chunk of time to work. No one accidentally studies pharmacology.

Instead, say exactly when you’re going to study and add it to your calendar.

For me, right after lunch was best.

As soon as I washed my dishes I’d whip out my books and get to work. Everyone else at the station was usually taking a nap so I was pretty undisturbed. Oh, and I had a reminder go off 30 min before to make sure I didn’t miss my study date.

Pick a time, set the reminder, and get to work.

Remember Anything And Everything With The F.I.G Technique.

My 8th grade biology teacher taught me this one and I’ve been using it ever since.

FIG stands for

• File
• Image
• Glue

I know it sounds kinda silly but bear with me. This is something people that compete in memory competitions use to memorize tons of information super quickly. And yes, there are national memory competitions.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to become some memory nerd for this one.

Here’s how the system works.

Choose your filing cabinet. Really, it’s just any location, preferably one you know well. It could be your house, the station, ambulance, literally any place you want to “store” your information.

Ok, filing cabinet is good, now we have to put something in it.

Choose your image. This has to be something kinda ridiculous so that it stands out in your brain. It’s like meeting someone new. If their name is Bob you’ll forget it immediately. If it’s Scarlett Johansson, you’ll probably remember.

It’s all about context.

For us, let’s throw a horse on the gurney of our ambulance wearing a sombrero, a poncho, and some Banda music in the background.

Finally, we have to get some glue and stick it all together. The glue is essentially the story we are telling about our memory. Again, the context of our memories matter and stories are easier to remember than random facts.

So let’s flesh out our horse ambulance.

Imagine this horse has a HUGE head (and even bigger sombrero). He’s trying to swat at the million mosquitos that have somehow gotten into the ambulance. Oh, and he’s coughing and sneezing all over the place.

He’s not even covering his cough with his hoof.

Congrats! You memorized everything about Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis (VEE)!

VEE of Venezuelan Equine Flu is, for whatever reason, in the paramedic textbook. It’s passed on by mosquitos, causes brain swelling in horses, and flu-like symptoms in humans.

Is it stupid? Yes, but that’s the point. Come see me in ten years when you still have this stupid memory in your head.

And you can keep adding more information by adding pieces to your story.

Maybe you need to remember there’s a vaccine for the virus and you imagine the horse reaching into one of the ambulance cabinets to pull out a syringe with the vaccine in it. Anything you need to remember can be added to your story. You just need to be a little creative.

And the more ridiculous the image in your head is, the easier it will be to remember.

Putting It All Together

I know these are a little different than your normal pieces of study advice.

But they helped get me through medic class and some hard classes in college. I bet you’ll be able to put them to good use.

Good luck!

And if you want to add a study app to your collection and give yourself a little push before test day, try Pocket Prep. They are my favorite study app on the market. We actually provide it to all our students when we put them through EMT or Paramedic classes and we always get great feedback.