Get to know your enemy.

Expected Time to Complete: 10 minutes 

There is an old cliche that someone famous said, "keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer."  This exam is your enemy.  You want to defeat it.  You need to defeat it.  Heck, you are paying money to defeat it.  So let's learn about our enemy, shall we?  Expose its weaknesses?  Reviewing content is a major part of preparing for an exam like this, but understanding the exam itself is equally important.  

Take the NBRC's Free 140-Question (full-length) Practice Test

Expected Time to Complete: 3-hours 

The NBRC has graciously given you the opportunity to take a free practice test (Free! Even I can afford that!) that will give you a general sense of what the real exam will be like.  It is not timed so go ahead and take your time with it, but you do have to take it one sitting.  Here's the deal ... your score isn't important at this point.  As a matter of fact, scores on the practice test really don't match up with the real test very well.  The whole goal is to get to know how the exam works, how questions are asked, how intimidated/anxious you feel going through it. 

Welcome to Lesson 2  

Review This Lesson's Drug Categories:

• Beta Agonists
• Anticholinergics
• Combined
• Methylxanthines

Expected Time to Complete: 1 hour 

If you are anything like us, learning all the drugs at once is kind of like sitting in a dental chair all day ... with your mouth wide open ... and that awful drilling sound ... okay, no more, no more.  Seriously, we've found that it can be better (umm, less painful) to focus on groups of drugs at a time. So for each lesson look at the categories listed, find them on the linked drug table, and study the poop out of them.  

Review Patient Assessment 

Expected Time to Complete: 2 hours  

Building blocks, most of us played with them as children.  Patient assessment forms the majority of the building blocks you'll pull from for any question that involves a scenario.  That's quite a few.  Without the building blocks, you will struggle with how everything connects.  Without connections, you'll have a hard time building the right answer.  Without the right answers, you won't have a figurative house to hang up your fancy CRT or RRT certificate.  Hmm, did we take the illustration a bit far?  Let's just get on with it already, shall we? 

Review Respiratory Procedures 

Expected Time to Complete: 2 hours  

There are quite a few categories through here.  This section covers all the procedures that are testable, everything from pulse oximetry to hemodynamic monitor to even some ... Math ... there, we said it.  By now you should have a good sense for how you study, what you know well and can read through briefly, and on the flip side what you need to spend some time studying, take notes, sleep with the notes taped to your forehead with the hopes that osmosis will help.  

Take the Week 2 Content Quiz

Do not take quiz until you are instructed to do so by your instructor.

Welcome to Lesson 3

Expected Time to Complete: 1 hour 

This lesson's drugs finish up our direct respiratory drugs.  We recommend not just reading through the list each lesson but spending about an hour reviewing the drugs in whatever way you learn best (make flashcards, read the drugs and information out loud, quiz yourself by covering half the screen).  You will need to be very comfortable with when to recommend (and when not to recommend) these drugs.  

Review Respiratory Equipment

Expected Time to Complete: 3 hours 

This section is big - and represents a bunch of questions on the exam.  Study one at a time (unless you have mad skillz) and focus on what we have written here.  This section is NOT meant to be an equipment textbook.  Remember, the focus is on the exam, so we stick to the themes you need to know.  The basics of setup, management, definitely troubleshooting, and then some clinical application.   Keep that focus and you'll keep your mind sane.

Take the Lesson 3 Content Quiz

20 minute timed quiz

Take Quiz

Welcome to Lesson 4

Review Pain and Sedation Drugs 

Expected Time to Complete: 1 hour 

If it is a pain drug you should be able to immediately identify it as causing respiratory depression or not (a VERY common type of question) and know what the reversal is (naloxone, anyone?).

Review Quality Control 

Expected Time to Complete: 1 hour 

Most of us don't get too excited about quality control measures of equipment.  It's boring, often tedious, but it sure is necessary.  The equipment we use is only as reliable as the quality controls we perform, makes sense, no?  Again, focus on what we have listed as important for the test as you will come face-to-face with several questions on this important topic.  

Review Infection Control 

Expected Time to Complete: 1 hour 

Wash your hands, put on gloves, change gloves as often as you need to, use other PPE as indicated.  It goes beyond that as you'll discover, but it sure is a good start ... and you WILL find questions as simple as remembering that handwashing is a key (THE key, perhaps?) to infection control.  

Put my PPE on Now

Take the Lesson 4 Content Quiz

20 minute timed quiz

Welcome to Lesson 5

Review Cardiac Drugs 

Expected Time to Complete: 1 hour 

Please sit down: it is about time that we had a little heart-to-heart.  Ha, heart-to-heart, see what we did there?  In seriousness, though, the cardiac drugs are important.  You actually might be surprised at how many cardiac drugs are testable so be sure to spend a bit of time on this, especially the ACLS drugs ... major cardiac dysrhythmias go closely with this as well.   

Go Review the Drugs

Review Airway Management

Expected Time to Complete: 3 hours 

Any area on the exam is important by nature of being chosen to be on the test, but airway management? It's a special kind of important.  Oh, and it's only growing.  With the latest changes on the exam content it has become even more important to understand how to assess difficult airways, then strategize to handle them, on top of everything else we need to understand.  Spend TIME with this section. 

Take the Lesson 5 Content Quiz
20 min timed quiz

Welcome to Lesson 6

Review Diuretics and Anti-Infective Drugs 

Expected Time to Complete: 30 minutes 

This lesson isn't quite as intense with drugs (there's only around 10) as some of the other weeks have been, but you should definitely take a little time and connect the basics of these drugs to when to recommend them.  

Review Airway Clearance and Lung Expansion

Expected Time to Complete: 3 hours 

So there are a couple of things to remember as you study these sections.  First, you need to understand the "tools" you have available, of course.  Understand when the insufflator-exsufflator is indicated, for example (neuromuscular disorders is one), and when not indicated (high oxygen needs).  THEN, and this is important, be able to choose between several options as you will often be asked to make recommendations.  

Take the Oakes Midterm Review

Welcome to Lesson 7

Review some Miscellaneous Drugs 

Have you ever had a junk drawer in your kitchen (or bedroom, perhaps)?  This drawer becomes a magnet for things that don't have a home elsewhere.  Ahh, you see where we are going with this, don't you? These drugs are those drugs that live in the junk drawer of our drug table.  Enjoy. 

Review Oxygenation and Ventilation

Noninvasive and invasive ventilation, no big deal, right? Okay, it is a big freakin' deal ... so set some time aside.  There probably is no greater anxiety-producing exam question than this (maybe hemodynamics).  The best way to beat that anxiety is to go through this section until you're comfortable with it ... and take tons of practice questions.  

Take the Lesson 7 Content Quiz

30 minute timed exam

 Welcome to Lesson 8

Review Medications and Specialty Gases

This is it, the official week we review drugs.  Yes, you have been reviewing drugs since you started this course.  We understand there's some repetition.  It is all part of our plan ... to take over the world.  This week is a bit more formal of a review of everything you've been studying up until now.  

Review Respiratory Care Plan Modifications

!!! (This section is so important that we are literally speechless). !!! (We can't think of the words necessary to emphasize how many questions require you to make key decisions about changing a plan).  !!! (Study hard, Practice questions, Gain confidence.) !!! 

Go !!!
Now

Take the Lesson 8 Content Quiz
20 minute timed exam

 Welcome to Lesson 9

Review Evidence-Based Medicine Principles

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is all about looking at what research says works or doesn't work.  The best example of this is ARDS ... a huge "multicenter" (done at more than one site) study showed that keeping plateau pressure under 30 cm H2O (amongst other things) was saving lives.  This is the essence of EBM ... 

Review High-Risk Situations  

If we were your tour guide driving through these topics (I guess we kind of are, right?), we would point out disaster management and transport but would spend most of our time talking about cardiopulmonary emergencies (important!) and medical emergency teams (important!).  Still review the others but our feeling is that much of that material is common sense.    

Review Assisting the Physician in Performing Procedures 

The skills covered in this area are ones we don't (usually) perform independently (moderate sedation, thoracentesis, cardioversion) so the focus will be on what you do as you are assisting.  VERY often this will involve assessment of the patient's respiratory status (hello, you adorable capnographer), maintaining a patent airway (open wide so I keep see those terrific tonsils), and management of the ventilator. 

Take the Lesson 9 Content Quiz

20 minute timed exam

 Welcome to Lesson 10

Review Patient and Family Education

Expected Time to Complete: 1 hour 

A respiratory educator educates future educators about the importance of education.  Something like that, anyhow.  This section is fairly brief so get in, review the highlights of what you should know, then get out.  We've got big things to do this lesson (see below) 

Expected Time to Complete: 3 hours 

This is a strange section ... it is the intersection between all of the other things you've been reviewing, from patient assessment to various diagnostics, to every sort of therapeutic we can imagine up.  If we were to give 3 Big Keys for doing well on the exam (hmm, that's a good idea!), one would be to spend lots of time understanding this section, how it all goes together.  As a bonus, this is a solid way of preparing for the next phase ... the Clinical Simulation Exam.  

Take the Lesson 10 Content Quiz

 Welcome to Lesson 11

Just to be clear about a few things:  1, this is not a Neo/Ped exam and there is no separate section of the exam that covers just Neo/Peds (good news); 2, there are always a few neo/ped questions on the exam which is part of the formula the test-makers apply, but very few questions overall (also good news).  

Begin to Study for the "Final Exam" next week if you have time.  Do this by scanning back through all the lessons, pay close attention to both the "Oakes Tips" that you'll find throughout as well as any areas you might feel less confident in.  

Take the Lesson 11 Content Quiz

 Welcome to Lesson 12

Get ready for your final exam ... the Dress Rehearsal

This lesson, sometime this week, you will sit for your final exam.  We recommend treating it like the real deal.  Find a quiet space, avoid any distractions.  Take the timed version and do not (we repeat: DO NOT!) look up anything.  Use only a piece of plain paper to make notes on during the test.  Use a calculator with no fancy functions.  Don't respond to texts.  If you plan on taking a break during your real test (we recommend it), do so during the Dress Rehearsal, but don't look at your phone.  

This should feel like the real deal ... it is a great way to see how ready you really are for the actual exam.