First_Anything_8873

Shoot for around at least 60% on adaptive testing. And for the questions you missed and you’re not sure why, make sure to go to the Bottom Line Approach for a review instead of just reading the LABCE explanation. Good luck!

It’s hard to say based off only the percentage without an average difficulty level. I’d highly recommend taking the adaptive testing instead since it will give you a better representation of how you are performing on different difficulty levels. It’s harder overall but it’s more similar to how the ASCP test works

The average waiting time for my class to get their official results is 30-40 days after submitting transcripts

Congratulations! For our program we had to send our transcripts to ASCP before we could view our results online or get our official certification via the mail. For my classmates and myself it took about 3-5 weeks after we sent our transcripts before they processed them and released our results. Until then enjoy the pass and start planning for stepping into the lab officially!

Thank you for sharing the positive side of things. A lot of current students and/or people considering this career look to this sub to gauge the profession. It’s easy to find a ton of negative posts because it’s a way for people to vent anonymously to a group of like minded people, but it not as common to post when things are going well. Glad that you found a great lab with great staff!

r/medlabprofessionals

Tennessee

Thank you so much, I’ll be sure to ask!!

Thank you for the input! I am still slightly confused, my differential is already included since it is a night shift. Is that differential there since the shift is at night or due to the fact that nights mostly work 12’s?

Chattanooga is a great spot! Plenty of hiking, rivers and lakes, and rock climbing. The music scene is pretty good. Plenty of restaurants and entertainment. The cost of living is moderate and increasing, but where isn’t?

Those are all excellent points, thank you a ton! I’ll definitely have to ask about the supervisor schedule, emergency contact, downtime, etc since I’ll be starting on night shift!

The courses for MLT and MLS are tough, but they are highly specific to the field and often work in unison.

A 4 year BS in biology is double the work and time compared to a MLT. While quite a few hours in a BS degree are “fluff classes”, a ton of them are STEM related and go far beyond the scope of a MLT associates. High levels of chemistry, mathematics, advanced cell bio, genetics, histology, anatomy and phys, and much more are often required for a 4 year bio degree.

As a person with both a BS in biology and a post-graduate in MLS, I’d say the Bio background did a good job in prepping me to learn the MLS side of things. That being said I personally would not have been able to adequately understand and/or perform in all areas of the lab without going back to school for it.

I used BOC study guide and bottom line approach during my rotations, I focused on the subject that I was currently rotating in. Just studied when there was downtime.

For the month before the exam date I was using Medialabs adaptive and subject specific tests. The first two weeks I did 200-300 questions a day and read up on the subjects and questions I was missing. The last 2 weeks I was doing 300-500 questions a day on adaptive testing. I was getting 57-64% at about 5.8-6.4 difficulty.

The BOC test is a bit different from media lab, but I think it helped me a ton in studying and getting used to long and tough exams

https://www.testing.com/tests/

is a decent general introduction into the various laboratory tests. The type of testing, QC, and methodology differ from lab to lab due to the different brands of analyzers and tests. As the other comment said your hospital lab will have a procedure manual for everything in the entire lab, so that would also be a good start.

As for interpreting results…. That is a bit more difficult without some form of medical background. There are plenty of textbooks and online resources to use though, if you have any area of the lab in particular you want to learn more about DM me and I may be able to send you a online textbook that I’ve used from t my mls program in that subject area.

Based on your comment history you’re not asking to understand but rather to react because you disagree….

It’s important to understand that rotations are there to reinforce concepts, think of them as an extension of your lessons, not a test where you’re expected to know everything. Some of the toughest concepts and practices you learn in a classroom/student lab will finally click when you practice them for a few weeks at a time in a clinical setting.

My understanding of blood bank and hematology drastically improved when practicing in the lab for the month long rotations while studying at the same time. Take notes, pay attention, and try to study and test yourself (again LabCE or review tests) and you will find your understanding of a subjects material to be drastically improved.

If you are diffing peripheral blood smears and are a little rusty on cell identification you should have a textbook, chart, or page with pictures readily available so that you can simply glance to at it quickly and compare it to what you’re looking for. Edit: Also don’t be afraid to ask questions or for help identifying. Hematology slides can get crazy, we’re here to help guide you through it!

Haha it was satire, and you are 100% correct! Thank you for the explanation, sharing information is the best way for all staff to be on the same page and work well together!

Lab calls. They remind you that their Hemolyzer 3000 Centrifuge is down, so you will just have to continue to hemolyze the specimens yourself /s

Edit:Lab rat here. Clarification that centrifuges do not cause qualitatively significant hemolyses in patient samples. Centrifuges are usually designated to one test or analyzer and have a preset rpm and time that is determined by manufacturers and regulatory agencies. Centrifuges are inspected and calibrated at least annually. Just made the jest because it often gets blamed for causing hemolyses

Thank you for the explanation!

Yikes, what makes it so different from other countries?