Birgit Macintosh CRCST Test Testimonial

Speaker: Birgit Macintosh

Birgit Macintosh: Hi, my name is Mac and I took the CRCST to be a Sterile Technician, Sterile Processing Technician. I took that exam and I wanted a tutor but I couldn't afford a tutor. I couldn't find one. So I went online and I found, iPREP, I found a bunch of them, but that one seemed like the best deal. And when I finally figured out how to correctly use it, it was, it was, it was great. It was like, it just went through the, you know, it was very reassuring like they kept just, you know, and, it went through every single chapter. The flash cards were great. The practice tests helped me, like, 100% and there was a lot of them and I just, I did them and as a result I literally went in and took the test two days ago. It was supposed to be four hours long and I finished in an hour, which I didn't expect that and I thought something was wrong or I was doing something wrong. But, and I passed and I couldn't believe that I passed and there's no way that I would have passed on my own. It's like, so there's a, and they are changing this test in the state of Minnesota, they're changing it, June 1st. So all those youtube videos that, people are, you know, to helping you, like telling you what they did on the test or whatever, they're, they're, I mean, maybe some of it will help but it, it's gonna be a totally different test. So, this is a good way to do it, you know, is to, to study the book because it's going by the book and that's how the test is supposed to go. So, I don't know how it's gonna change. But if you, but if you did the iPREP, I think it, it would be excellent if I had to take another test, which hopefully I will not ever have to do. I would definitely do this again.

Birgit Macintosh: The part of the test or learning for me, that was the most challenging was the exact temperatures of everything. It was, and the questions on the test were very close. So, if I had one temperature memorized and I didn't see the other one in the book or I didn't pay attention, that was very challenging, but it was also multiple choice. So, but they were very similar, they only varied by like five degrees. So, that was the most challenging for me. And so it's tricky but I don't know.

Birgit Macintosh: Overall, my test experience was, better than I expected, but maybe because I was so dreading it. And so, just dreading it that it, it went way better than I thought. It's a very intense, screening process. They actually, you know, you are actually putting up, rolling up your sleeves and that you don't have anything in them and pulling up your pants to show that you don't have, I don't have no idea. They examine your eyeglasses very intensely. But it's, was the computer, was it And there's a little trick to the computer where you can flag a question and come back to it and I did flag questions and then I couldn't figure out how to get them un flagged, but I figured it out. And, so they have a tutorial in the beginning of it, which is totally helpful. And, so it was pretty straightforward that way. So overall I thought it went ok. It wasn't like a bright sterile, you know, walking environment. It was just, you know, it was like a, like an office space and everybody was in a cubicle. So for me it was way better than I thought.

Birgit Macintosh: I think that I would recommend if you're going to take the test. Well, first I would, you know, have the latest book and then I would get the iPREP course. And then I would just go through that and they have practice tests for every section that's actually on the test. And that's helpful is that you, that they are very laid out, not only in, in, in the iPREP course, but they're, they must go right by how they're doing the test because those are the sections and the sections that are the most important obviously are sterilization, decontamination and cleaning. But the sterile storage part was actually pretty important. And I did, I think I took that a little too lightly and there was more questions on that. So I didn't do so good in the practice exams. So if I had to do it over, I would probably pay more attention to that because it's very particular. Otherwise I would say concentrate on a lot of it is common sense, which is helpful, which is good and multiple choices always good. A lot of it is common sense. But if you were to try to memorize or things in particular, I think it would be the temperatures, the temperatures for each area and for the cleaning and sterilization and decontamination processes. What temperatures make it sterile and what doesn't? That's what I think I would concentrate on. And the thing about the, the course, the iPREP course is that it says you can go, obviously, it's gonna tell you on your practice exam, how you did on each section. And so I did like 50% on sterile storage. So it says you'll see your weaknesses and your strengths and then obviously concentrate on your weaknesses and just go back and study that do that a couple times, maybe the flash cards or things like that. So I thought that was very helpful. And, yeah, it was just very well explained on how to, and then it also had tips for the day of the test, you know, and just how to be just calm. And I didn't, I studied the night before, but I wasn't, you know, I didn't do anything. I just went through every single thing, just read it one more time, hopefully that it, you know. And so I walked in there with like nothing. And, yeah, I, I felt, I felt, I didn't, I didn't, I wasn't dreading. I was just like, let's just get this over and done with because I can't learn any more. Than I've learned. You know, my problem is retaining so everybody's different. But, I think that that was, I was as well prepared as I could have been. I think, not knowing what they were gonna ask. I'm glad that, that they asked what they did because I had studied that, studied those things and the, iPREP course, had kind of like, hit that a little bit home. So, and yeah, I passed, I'd like to know by what percentage, but I don't know. So, yeah, good luck.