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

A: Actually, our questions are not based off of any particular textbook. This is primarily due to the fact that publishers tend not to agree on where questions belong across the board(ex. Is this a Cardiology or a Pediatrics question?, Is it in Chapter 4 or Chapter 23?, etc.).

Instead, we reference our questions to some of the more common reference points: The National Registry objectives, the Educational Standard objectives, and Module/Topic/Objective(which is based off of the old Department of Transportation National Standard Curriculum).

When creating a test, most questions can be found in all 3 categories (Shock is a common objective found in all 3 categories, and so a shock question will probably be tied to a shock related objective in all 3 categories), however, sometimes it’s easier to find a question in one area than another.

For example, if you were creating a quiz on the topic of “Burns”, you could easily look in the National Registry objectives to find the burns objective(“TR7 – Assess and Manage an Adult with Burns”), and the Module/Topic/Objective area has multiple objectives related to burns(even going more specifically into objectives on burn type, as well as the degree/thickness of burns).

However, the Educational Standards rolled the “Burns” objectives into the broader category of “ST7 – Soft Tissue Trauma”. So to get burns related questions by looking in the Educational Standards, you’d have to choose the broader category of “Soft Tissue Trauma” and then eliminate individual questions unrelated to burns.