EMT Class, Week 4 - First exam down

Holy crap.
At first I wrote "week 3" above, but it's actually week #4 folks.  Hard to believe time has flown by so fast.
Our class meets twice a week, on Monday and Wednesday nights from 1800-2030.  We meet 15 minutes early (optional) to study the government protocol book.  Since I will be working for 2 services (government and village volunteer) I get to bone up on two sets of protocols.  Eventually.  Can't bring myself to even crack open the state protocol book yet.

At this point I'm studying for my life.  I feel woefully unprepared for class and never seem to have enough time to absorb one chapter before reading the next.  How the hell can I feel like this when we're only 9 chapters and 240 pages in?

The first test was bad.  Really bad.  After taking the EMR class last winter I thought I was prepared for the insane wording and trickiness of the exams.  Not so much.  In my defense, I set aside three hours on Monday to study before the test (took the day off).  Went to town in the morning, got my snow tires mounted, bought myself a new bike, and drove the almost 2 hours home.  (Yep, long drive to the big box stores from my house).  Grabbed a shower, got dressed, decided to spend an hour at the house doing the test questions on the web, then spend 2 hours in the classroom re-reading the chapters...

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

No way.

"Paging ALS, paging ALS.  Crew requested for ALS transfer of 64 year old male from the Clinic, complaining of chest pain."

Shit.
So much for my study plans.

Mr. Medic and Floyd call in.  I pull on socks, shove on shoes, and call en route to the clinic.  Van (EMT and our course director) grabs the ambulance and brings another EMR along (Sam from the village volunteer service).  Good thing we had the help.  Took 5 of us to raise the stretcher.

Uneventful call, really.  Mr. Medic and Floyd attended, I drove, and Van & Sam headed off for class.  The fastest I've ever turned around a call (clinic to community hospital and back) was three hours.  We hit that mark.  Mr. Medic drove on the return trip so Floyd and I could study.  (Not having any of my books, this was difficult.)  We hit the classroom 15 minutes late for the exam, which I'm sure didn't help my score.

50 questions and I missed 9.  Two of them were sheer stupidity on my part - not reading the questions carefully enough - and the rest I don't know.  Mixed up sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems for sure...we will be going through the test tonight.  I'm bummed, but I guess I'll just have to settle for 82% on this one.

Only 32 chapters and 1,000 pages to go...