I’m going in for the ASCP Board of Registry MT exam next week (it was supposed to be 2 weeks ago but I postponed it after a week of night shifts left me a zombie), and I’m deep into my study preparations. I did Canada’s version of the exam (CSMLS) in June and had no problems, but I’m very worried about the American exam because of the different units of measurement.
I can’t seem to keep all the conversion factors in my head, which means that I can’t always quite tell whether a value given in a question is normal or not. I guess maybe my brain is full. But do I even need the conversions? Do the questions give the concentrations in both mg/dL and mmol/L, or give the normal ranges? Has anyone taken the exam fairly recently and can tell me whether I even need to be freaking out about this? And if I really do need to get these things into my head, do you have any tricks for remembering conversions or normal ranges?
Also, I am considering paying for the online practice exams here but I’m not sure if they’re any more useful than the book of review questions I already have. Because the exam next week is computer-based, I was thinking it might be helpful to practice on a computer, but I don’t know how these practice tests are set up. Has anyone tried?
I do work in a medical lab, but not one in the US, so I don’t know anything about those specific exams. However, I think my instinct would be to try to familiarise yourself with the ranges themselves rather than converting them in your head. IIRC you’re planning to get a job in the US, so you’ll need to know the US ranges anyway at some point. I don’t really have any tricks for remembering ranges, what I try to do is look at lots and lots of sets of patient results so I get a feel in my head for things like “a bit high but not a big deal” “yes, definitely high” and “good god, how is he/she still alive?!!” YYMV, though…
Its been awhile for me, but I think formulas are more important than conversions. the questions usually did. And understanding what the values mean is more important than knowing the normal values vs. critical values.
I’m trying to think of a “for instance”…
Don’t worry about converting an anion gap of 4 from mmol/L to mg/dL, just know if it goes higher or lower if it’s suggestive of metabolic acidosis. The values are usually given pretty straight forward.
And I remember a lot of health and safety questions. In a 100 questions test I had three having to do with identifying the correct fire extinguisher. I took my test through NCA though, not ASCP. They are different credentialing agencys.