Finally heard....

On Friday, June 28th, I took the national boards administered by the BRPT for sleep medicine to become a RPSGT, Registered Polysomnographic Technologist.

It is a four hour test that is taken within a a facility that could easily be compared to a top secret government installation; you know, like the ones that don't exist.... I had to give everything other than a DNA sample to get in and out the of the test, including a biometric fingerprint scan, and two forms of government issued ID. They won't even allow you to chew gum once you are beyond the front desk. Once in the facility, you are recorded from a digital audio/video feed making the most simple typically private tasks unnerving. You can't shake that feeling that you are always being watched, so blowing your nose seems really awkward. Feeling foolish you look around to see where the camera and mic or located, but deep down you know everyone else does it too. Then a slight smile emerges, which quickly disappears so you don't draw any extra attention to yourself. Besides, who that is starting a 4 hour test smiles?

Placed in front of you is a monitor, keyboard, calculator, and a dry erase board/marker. Which is nice, but more complicated then it needs to be. If you fill up the dry erase "board" (a laminated sheet of paper), you can't simply erase it, you have to raise your hand and request a new one. So of course, the first thing you do is to throw out everything on paper you can recall. Diagrams of EKG rhythms, the 10/20 EEG placement system, formulas to calculate percentages of sleep, etc. Then you are ready to begin the test. The test consists of 200 weighted questions, meaning some have a higher point value then others. As you begin to answer the first ten questions, skipping 8 of them you feel your confidence slip away. Later on in a review of the test, you realize your nerves were clouding your reading skills and those skipped questions aren't near as bad as you originally thought.

The worst part about the test, is that it is offered four times per year; March, June, September, and December. The testing window is two weeks. They don't give you immediate results. Once the window has closed, they score all the tests and determine the number of who passed. So if you take the test in the first of the window, it could be upwards of six stressful weeks waiting to hear if you passed or not. Well, as luck would have it, June produced the highest number of applicants in BRPT history. Not to mention they moved their offices to a new building. Together this resulted in a longer than usual wait for the posting of the results.

A few weeks ago, they posted a comment on their website that said results would be released the week of July 28th. On Friday, July 25th, they changed it to email "Pass/Fail" notification would be sent out that day, and the listing of passing test takers names would be posted on their website Monday, July 28th. They are in the Eastern time zone, so I kept checking my email, to no avail. No word. Not all weekened. I didn't know if I should take that as good or bad news.

Finally this around 11:00 am they posted the list and I finally heard....

I PASSED!

This is an example of the 10/20 EEG system. (The triangle is supposed to be a nose.) This is the complete layout of an EEG. Each circle and Alphanumeric number pinpoint an EEG electrode. They are missing two, the ears; A1, A2. In sleep we only use 9 of them, but you are required to know many more. 10/20 refers to the measurement of the head. Each electrode is 10 or 20% distance from another electrode based on how and what you are measuring for.

Everyone recognizes this as the EKG wave form. Any variation from this example, and you can have any variety of issues. In the test you are given examples and you have to determine what the problem with the heart is, and what is the most common cause for that given dysrrhythmia.