Published Sep 6, 2014
Neversaydiemedic
23 Posts
Last night on the reccomendation of a forum member I took a look at education-portal.com. They appear to have just about every subject you could ever want to study, but I wasnt thrilled about 50$ a month.
I tried the free trial. After discovering the July 15th deadline to register for all the nursing exams before having to pay for a 16 week seminar I became very desperate to get Anatomy/physiology and Microbiology out of the way as soon as humanly possible.
While I have drive, good reading comprehension and consider myself intelligent I was a very poor student. My entire family dropped out of school and placed no value on education. I never learned great study habits. I did well in EMT and Paramedic school ( always in the top 10-20% ) but that was because of paying attention in class and not so much from studying.
Each class at education portal is broken down into chapters, and each chapter is broken down into easily digestable one page guides. Wach one of these has an associated video. Due to bandwith restictions out here on the oil rig I really cant play the videos well but like the parts I have watched so far. At the end of each mini lecture page/video is a 5 question quiz.
I covered the respiratory system today. It covered anatomy, ventilation, respiration, the chemical exchange and even some respiratory diseases. I have to say I wish I had this in paramedic school. I am going to of course use SG-101s PDF and audio, and take a practice exe exam to see where I am at. Education portal also has practice exams ( 200 questions )...
The chapters are kind of addictive... the little bite sized blocks of learning make you want to do another and another. It makes studying pretty easy... a chapter a day for 19 days, or 2 a day... whatever you feel you can retain. I think I will make a note card from every section of every chapter. Nice thing is some of the stuff is redundant. Hemoglobin carrying 4 molecules of oxygen, surficant, exchange in the Aveoli and capilaries.
Im going to use them for Micro and my last few gen eds. I honestly believe on some of the easy CLEP exams you could complete the course in a day or two, take a few notes and pass without issue.
If your not sure about 50$ a month, try the free trial. I have found it to be great so far. Ill let you know if it helps me pass.
Lunah, MSN, RN
14 Articles; 13,773 Posts
There are a lot of free offerings on YouTube and also podcasts from iTunes. Google Dr. Cizadlo and Marian Diamond. Might save you some bucks! :)
The internet out here is so slow that its hard to watch anything streaming. I will pre-game and have plenty of downloaded videos and audio befor my next rotation however.
I guess the layout is nice because if i get interupted with work ( Say it aint so! ) i just re-read that section and take the quiz. Its the bite sized blocks that I enjoy. I can bargain with myself, "just 2 more and you can go to the gym"... "Just one more before bed"...
I am just using it for anat/phys and micro then cancelling during the nursing exams. I may pick it up again for my last 3 clep exams later though.
I tried reading through the SG-101 guide, and will use that to fill in any weak areas and do all the quizzes. SG-101 is probably a lot more bang for the buck, just not quite as convienient for me.
Medic85907
108 Posts
The internet out here is so slow that its hard to watch anything streaming. I will pre-game and have plenty of downloaded videos and audio befor my next rotation however.I guess the layout is nice because if i get interupted with work ( Say it aint so! ) i just re-read that section and take the quiz. Its the bite sized blocks that I enjoy. I can bargain with myself, "just 2 more and you can go to the gym"... "Just one more before bed"...I am just using it for anat/phys and micro then cancelling during the nursing exams. I may pick it up again for my last 3 clep exams later though. I tried reading through the SG-101 guide, and will use that to fill in any weak areas and do all the quizzes. SG-101 is probably a lot more bang for the buck, just not quite as convienient for me.
Definitely the right idea about canceling while you do the nursing exams.