This article was previously published in our February 2014 Newsletter by David Smith, Customer Advocate

Q: How long is a student access card for EMSTesting good for?

A: This question comes up quite a bit actually, where some people think it’s for 1 year, and others are under the impression it’s useable for every class at that specific provider level. The real answer is that an access card is good for 1 class. That class could be a year long, or 2 years, or 2 months, but the card is one use only. So if a student were to drop the class, or fail it and need to retake it again, they would need to pay for the class again with a credit card or a new access card.

The reason access cards function this way, rather than for a set period of time like 1 year, is because the length of the class is entirely up to the instructor. Some classes can last for more than a year(ex. Paramedic), while others are usually much shorter(ex. First Responders). To avoid students having to pay multiple times to stay in the same class we felt that the one-time use limit on an access card was the best way to go.