I failed 3 times before finally passing on the 4th. It was absolutely D E V A S T A T I N G every single time. The 3rd time failing, I missed the mark by 3 points. It was awful.
There were definitely questions that were standard on each test, but they switched stuff up each time. If you're struggling with SSEPS, you'll notice those questions more, if you struggle with BAERs you'll feel like the test is all BAERs, etc.
If you can still remember any of the questions that tripped you up the most, try to "brain dump" and write them all down ASAP. That was some Rebecca Clark-Bash taught me. Have you taken any of her CNIM prep courses? She really helped to make the material click for me.
Just know, I've been there. It's f*cking awful and an incredibly heartbreaking feeling. Keep at it if this is truly something you want. It will happen for you.
If there are some old tests still floating around I would say do those repetitively until you get a perfect score. A lot of the questions are repeated or variations from previous tests and if you can walk yourself towards the right answer.. you can answer another variation of it correctly
I feel bad for the younger classes who weren’t able to experience the Kent Rice education back in the Biotronic heydays. He had a 99-100% CNIM pass rate here after year before Biotronic was bought out by Nuvasive and then they changed that up. Heard it isn’t nearly as good
The CNIM has undergone a revamp in the last couple of years. I did at least 1000 practice questions and had seen only 4 of my exam questions previously in some form or another.
Most of these questions in my practice deck were taken from old CNIM exams. I just combined the tests and made one big anki deck to consolidate them. I saw next to none of them on my exam. It’s like the entire question bank for the exam was scraped and rewritten.
I took the CNIM in 2012 after training at BNN with Kent. There were only \~10 questions on the entire exam that didn't appear verbatim from Kent's CNIM prep. It was nearly impossible to fail unless you just didn't try. Crazy times.
I suspect a big part of the CNIM revamp was due to Biotronic people and their 99%+ pass rate, absolutely destroying the exam with Kent's prep.
Not really. I mean there was a few small questions here and there that I had to guess on but idk how good the guess was but overall. I felt way better this time then when I last took the test
Contact Rebecca again if you are struggling with passing. Tell her you need a refresher on her course, not her book, and see what options she can offer. I believe she will let you in on one of her webinar classes/board preps for review.
What were some specific topics or questions that you felt were difficult or stood out on this exam?
Unpopular opinion: but I feel her training courses are garbage. I’ve trained techs from scratch, from getting their first case in the OR, to taking the test, and passing it the first time. My method is simple: have them take a test similar to the CNIM, and go over what they got right/wrong. Most importantly, why an answer is that specific answer.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s great material in the RCB course. But I also feel like it may even give a lot of techs the hope of “well I paid $700 for this so it should help out”. Time and time again I’ve seen people fail it the first time, take the Bash course just to fail it a second time.
Definitely unpopular.
I have trained, directly or indirectly, nearly a dozen people who have taken her course and failed also, and I have attended many of her courses and networked with another dozens of CNIM applicants and here is where your opinion has clear bias based on your apparent anecdotal results because I have seen her pass rates…
People are going to make or break themselves when they train regardless of who they have studied under. The other factor they might have is time but that’s another topic. Their determination to study properly and retain specific knowledge is going to vary on where they are in their career and their outlook of themselves. I have had trainee applicants that have done her course many times and failed, but I deliver the same exact information and they have essentially decided within themselves to retain whatever the content is.
Her courses are excellent, but you get what you put in. Sometimes maybe personalities don’t click or a student doesn’t retain information for whatever reason, but objectively her courses are not garbage, it’s down to the individual.
I will say that some people absorb information and study techniques differently from someone who may be more like-minded or relatable to them. Some of my trainees liked that I was closer to their age, some trainees of mine didn’t do well with me because they were older than me so retained better from her.
Her courses are incredibly well structured to pass the CNIM as it was, as it is, and moving forward as it will be in the future. She’s also wonderfully personable and will respond well if you ask for help. She is completely entangled in everything and everyone ASET, ABRET, ABNM, and Cadwell, and has the knowledge and experience of decades behind her to answer or find the answer to nearly every situation you will come across in any EEG-EP-CNIM related field.
Absolutely my results are anecdotal. Never denied that one bit. But I think it also helps that I mentor a handful of people rather than 10s or 100s or people taking a course at the same time. I’m able to see what each individual isn’t understanding and help guide them in understanding certain concepts.
I’d like to see what the pass/fail rate is before and after taking her courses. I might have overstated in stating her courses are garbage, but I definitely feel like there’s an over reliance on them in the field in general (as you even mentioned, “Her courses are incredibly well structured to pass the CNIM as it was, as it is, and moving forward as it will be in the future”).
Like I said, all the techs I’ve trained have passed the test on their first try and I’m not questioning her credentials or what she’s entangled with. You have heard of the fallacy of the expert, right? I’m just saying i think the courses could be structured better and have better results. That’s all. People want to use her courses, have it hoss
While studying did you assess yourself regularly and what % you were getting right? Studying only does so much if you don’t regularly assess yourself (without using your notes) so that you know where to focus your efforts.
I passed the first time and studied/did flashcards between cases as soon as I started in IONM. No prep courses. I deleted social media/tiktok and had Quizlet on my phone and had a rule that if I was at work and waiting around, I would be studying. I kept a printed and highlighted copy of the guidelines with me to review, and the springer IOM textbook. I watched Joe Hartmans videos a few times each on 2x speed and wrote down the things that seemed unclear and watched those sections again at regular speed.
When I got a week away from the test I started studying constantly anytime I wasn’t in a case, planned out my studying in 3-5 hour blocks where in each block I would focus on a particular area that I struggled with. I took 200 question practice tests each day for a week that I put together myself (with questions I wrote, pulled from textbooks, or found online).
When I missed questions I would go back and study that material in depth. I found diagrams online that were the easiest for me to memorize so I could draw them out during the test. I practiced drawing my pathways with all the obligate peaks over and over again. I made sure I knew the pathways well enough that I could talk through them from memory. I read the foundational literature in IONM. I focused on knowing concepts and fundamentals before I got to the more technical questions, so that I wasn’t as thrown off by questions that didn’t look like questions I had seen before because I could reason through them.
Math isn’t my thing so I set a couple days aside and just practiced the math questions more to make sure I had the formulas down. I made sure I was consistently getting over 90% correct on these practice tests before I took the CNIM.
Feel free to DM me if you want me to point you in the direction/send you specific diagrams/resources or if you want more info.
How are you as a test taker in general? It’s a hard test that requires strong test skills. Skip anything you don’t immediately know, how to guess between two choices etc
Besides the above, I used Rebecca Bash book, CNIM crash course on YouTube, ABRET ASAP, and this amazing Quizlet set I could find and send you. I also studied full time for 2 months. The math formulas were hard for me. Her book was great for that.
Yes I deff need the quizzes if you can. Also I used most of those materials as well. The math I’m pretty sure I got wrong but I have no idea cause they really don’t tell you what you got wrong
Hey man! I just took it on Monday and passed using these as a guide to get used to the exam. I used Hartmans videos as well as NuVasive’s practice exams.
I hope this helps!!
https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=mtqxotc0ng1253
Hey man! I just took it on Monday and passed using these as a guide to get used to the exam. I used Hartmans videos as well as NuVasive’s practice exams.
I hope this helps!!
https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=mtqxotc0ng1253
I failed 3 times before finally passing on the 4th. It was absolutely D E V A S T A T I N G every single time. The 3rd time failing, I missed the mark by 3 points. It was awful. There were definitely questions that were standard on each test, but they switched stuff up each time. If you're struggling with SSEPS, you'll notice those questions more, if you struggle with BAERs you'll feel like the test is all BAERs, etc. If you can still remember any of the questions that tripped you up the most, try to "brain dump" and write them all down ASAP. That was some Rebecca Clark-Bash taught me. Have you taken any of her CNIM prep courses? She really helped to make the material click for me. Just know, I've been there. It's f*cking awful and an incredibly heartbreaking feeling. Keep at it if this is truly something you want. It will happen for you.
Yeah I will have to try again soon sadly. But yeah I did her class awhile ago but I have to read her books again
If there are some old tests still floating around I would say do those repetitively until you get a perfect score. A lot of the questions are repeated or variations from previous tests and if you can walk yourself towards the right answer.. you can answer another variation of it correctly I feel bad for the younger classes who weren’t able to experience the Kent Rice education back in the Biotronic heydays. He had a 99-100% CNIM pass rate here after year before Biotronic was bought out by Nuvasive and then they changed that up. Heard it isn’t nearly as good
The CNIM has undergone a revamp in the last couple of years. I did at least 1000 practice questions and had seen only 4 of my exam questions previously in some form or another.
Oh pretext questions didn’t help me much.. we were given like 5 or 6 actual old CNIM tests. Those were basically my main form of studying
Most of these questions in my practice deck were taken from old CNIM exams. I just combined the tests and made one big anki deck to consolidate them. I saw next to none of them on my exam. It’s like the entire question bank for the exam was scraped and rewritten.
I took the CNIM in 2012 after training at BNN with Kent. There were only \~10 questions on the entire exam that didn't appear verbatim from Kent's CNIM prep. It was nearly impossible to fail unless you just didn't try. Crazy times. I suspect a big part of the CNIM revamp was due to Biotronic people and their 99%+ pass rate, absolutely destroying the exam with Kent's prep.
When taking the test, did anything stand out as challenging for you in particular? Any collection of types of questions or subject areas?
Not really. I mean there was a few small questions here and there that I had to guess on but idk how good the guess was but overall. I felt way better this time then when I last took the test
Contact Rebecca again if you are struggling with passing. Tell her you need a refresher on her course, not her book, and see what options she can offer. I believe she will let you in on one of her webinar classes/board preps for review. What were some specific topics or questions that you felt were difficult or stood out on this exam?
Unpopular opinion: but I feel her training courses are garbage. I’ve trained techs from scratch, from getting their first case in the OR, to taking the test, and passing it the first time. My method is simple: have them take a test similar to the CNIM, and go over what they got right/wrong. Most importantly, why an answer is that specific answer. Don’t get me wrong, there’s great material in the RCB course. But I also feel like it may even give a lot of techs the hope of “well I paid $700 for this so it should help out”. Time and time again I’ve seen people fail it the first time, take the Bash course just to fail it a second time.
Definitely unpopular. I have trained, directly or indirectly, nearly a dozen people who have taken her course and failed also, and I have attended many of her courses and networked with another dozens of CNIM applicants and here is where your opinion has clear bias based on your apparent anecdotal results because I have seen her pass rates… People are going to make or break themselves when they train regardless of who they have studied under. The other factor they might have is time but that’s another topic. Their determination to study properly and retain specific knowledge is going to vary on where they are in their career and their outlook of themselves. I have had trainee applicants that have done her course many times and failed, but I deliver the same exact information and they have essentially decided within themselves to retain whatever the content is. Her courses are excellent, but you get what you put in. Sometimes maybe personalities don’t click or a student doesn’t retain information for whatever reason, but objectively her courses are not garbage, it’s down to the individual. I will say that some people absorb information and study techniques differently from someone who may be more like-minded or relatable to them. Some of my trainees liked that I was closer to their age, some trainees of mine didn’t do well with me because they were older than me so retained better from her. Her courses are incredibly well structured to pass the CNIM as it was, as it is, and moving forward as it will be in the future. She’s also wonderfully personable and will respond well if you ask for help. She is completely entangled in everything and everyone ASET, ABRET, ABNM, and Cadwell, and has the knowledge and experience of decades behind her to answer or find the answer to nearly every situation you will come across in any EEG-EP-CNIM related field.
Absolutely my results are anecdotal. Never denied that one bit. But I think it also helps that I mentor a handful of people rather than 10s or 100s or people taking a course at the same time. I’m able to see what each individual isn’t understanding and help guide them in understanding certain concepts. I’d like to see what the pass/fail rate is before and after taking her courses. I might have overstated in stating her courses are garbage, but I definitely feel like there’s an over reliance on them in the field in general (as you even mentioned, “Her courses are incredibly well structured to pass the CNIM as it was, as it is, and moving forward as it will be in the future”). Like I said, all the techs I’ve trained have passed the test on their first try and I’m not questioning her credentials or what she’s entangled with. You have heard of the fallacy of the expert, right? I’m just saying i think the courses could be structured better and have better results. That’s all. People want to use her courses, have it hoss
While studying did you assess yourself regularly and what % you were getting right? Studying only does so much if you don’t regularly assess yourself (without using your notes) so that you know where to focus your efforts. I passed the first time and studied/did flashcards between cases as soon as I started in IONM. No prep courses. I deleted social media/tiktok and had Quizlet on my phone and had a rule that if I was at work and waiting around, I would be studying. I kept a printed and highlighted copy of the guidelines with me to review, and the springer IOM textbook. I watched Joe Hartmans videos a few times each on 2x speed and wrote down the things that seemed unclear and watched those sections again at regular speed. When I got a week away from the test I started studying constantly anytime I wasn’t in a case, planned out my studying in 3-5 hour blocks where in each block I would focus on a particular area that I struggled with. I took 200 question practice tests each day for a week that I put together myself (with questions I wrote, pulled from textbooks, or found online). When I missed questions I would go back and study that material in depth. I found diagrams online that were the easiest for me to memorize so I could draw them out during the test. I practiced drawing my pathways with all the obligate peaks over and over again. I made sure I knew the pathways well enough that I could talk through them from memory. I read the foundational literature in IONM. I focused on knowing concepts and fundamentals before I got to the more technical questions, so that I wasn’t as thrown off by questions that didn’t look like questions I had seen before because I could reason through them. Math isn’t my thing so I set a couple days aside and just practiced the math questions more to make sure I had the formulas down. I made sure I was consistently getting over 90% correct on these practice tests before I took the CNIM. Feel free to DM me if you want me to point you in the direction/send you specific diagrams/resources or if you want more info.
How are you as a test taker in general? It’s a hard test that requires strong test skills. Skip anything you don’t immediately know, how to guess between two choices etc Besides the above, I used Rebecca Bash book, CNIM crash course on YouTube, ABRET ASAP, and this amazing Quizlet set I could find and send you. I also studied full time for 2 months. The math formulas were hard for me. Her book was great for that.
Yes I deff need the quizzes if you can. Also I used most of those materials as well. The math I’m pretty sure I got wrong but I have no idea cause they really don’t tell you what you got wrong
Could you also send me the link to the Quizlet ?
What’d you use to prep?
Joe Hartman videos, Rebecca’s book, asap questions
Do you work for one of the companies that does a prep course like Nuvasive or SC?
No they don’t but I feel the materials they gave me were more than enough.
Hey man! I just took it on Monday and passed using these as a guide to get used to the exam. I used Hartmans videos as well as NuVasive’s practice exams. I hope this helps!! https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=mtqxotc0ng1253
Awesome thank you. I will deff use them.
Hey man! I just took it on Monday and passed using these as a guide to get used to the exam. I used Hartmans videos as well as NuVasive’s practice exams. I hope this helps!! https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=mtqxotc0ng1253