Paramedic!

I passed the New York State written exam Thursday night, which means I am now a certified paramedic!

Things started off with an early dinner at Dinosaur BBQ in downtown Rochester. The entire day class and most of the night class, along with the instructors and the clinical coordinator, caravaned down for the pre-test repast. I'd never been to Dinosaur before, but I'd heard great things. Its reputation, I can now say with confidence, is well deserved. The barbecued brisket sandwich, cole slaw and fruit salad left nothing to be desired.

After dinner, we made the ten-minute drive to the Public Safety Training Facility at Monroe Community College, which served as the testing site. There are numerous testing locations around New York State, but only four offer on-site scoring (Albany, Syracuse and New York City are the others). The advantage to on-site scoring is that your test is graded as soon as you turn it in and, if you pass, you receive your certification card on the spot. If you are not participating in on-site scoring, your exam is mailed to Albany, where it is hand-graded and the results returned to you within six to eight weeks. Forget that.

The exam itself consisted of 235 multiple-choice questions, of which ten are ungraded "pilot" questions. These are questions the state is considering using on future exams, but which it first gives to us to gauge their difficulty. You never find out which ones were the pilot questions, but they don't figure into your final score anyway. Of the 225 graded questions, the first seventy five are Basic Life Support level. A score of 70% is required to pass this section; if you fail the BLS section, you fail the entire exam. Assuming you pass the BLS section, you then must score 70% or better on the paramedic section to successfully pass the exam (if you pass the basic section but fail the advanced, it would count as your recert and your current certification would be extended for three years).

I won't receive a more detailed score breakdown for a little while, but I do know that I scored 89% on the BLS section and 91% on the paramedic section. Needless to say, I was ecstatic to receive my scores. As it turned out, everybody in both classes passed comfortably, with no one coming within even ten points of the minimum. The results are a testament not only to how hard we worked and studied all year long, but also to how well our instructors prepared us.

We waited for all of our classmates to finish--it was a four hour test, although our times ranged from just over two hours to three and a quarter--and then voyaged back to Buffalo, where Cole's Bar had been selected for the "after party." I didn't stay deep into the night, but it was fun celebrating with my classmates and (now former!) instructors. And since I had to drive home, I limited my exuberance to two large glasses of ginger ale. Best ginger ale I've ever tasted.