ABSTRACTS
Make or Break: The First EMT ExamAuthor: Daniel Armstrong, DPT, EMT | | Associate Authors: Celia Sporer, PhD, EMT-P
Introduction This study was designed to see how significant an EMT student’s first unit exam score was in predicting course completion and certifying exam scores. EMS educators and program directors could benefit from this information to identify at-risk students earlier, develop remediation plans, or schedule the first exam before course drop dates. Students could benefit from the data to help predict how likely they are to be successful after their first exam. Objective To determine whether the first EMT unit exam is a significant predictor of course completion and certifying exam score. Methods A retrospective analysis of programmatic educational data was conducted. Five separate courses from a 3-year period were examined. The curriculum and instructors used for all courses were consistent. Only students who took the first exam were included in this study. Results A total of 107 EMT student records were included. According to an analysis of variance, a higher first exam score makes a student more likely to complete the course and score well on the certifying exam. When looking at a specific “passing” cut off score of 70 on the first exam, 66 students passed and 41 failed. Of the 66 who passed, 62 completed the course and all completers passed the certifying exam. Of the 41 that failed the first unit exam, only 9 finished the course. Of these 9 completers, 5 passed the certifying exam while 4 failed their first attempt. The correlation is .741 with a p-value of < .001. When examining students scoring between 71 and 80 against students scoring between 81 and 90 and 91 and 100, there is no significant difference between the groups in terms of course completion. Conclusion First exam scores are a significant predictor of course completion and certifying exam scores. Students scoring well on the first exam are much more likely to complete the course and pass the certifying exam.
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