Need advice on E-4 Exam march 2009

[HN AVILA]

I'll be taking the E-4 exam in march 2009. And I start Surg tech c school in Jan. so I need to maximize my time.. I printed all the Bib references for the exam and there are alot of pages and topics.. I;m going to order the Northstar study guide for the HM exam e-4 and the PMK portion also.. My question is this: Do I need to read all the bib info which includes the HM book,. Dental tech 1 and 2,.. etc.. or will the Northstar study guides 100% replace all the material listed on the bibliography.?? For example. the physical readiness program is 167 pages. Should I be studying all of this?? Also, I got an EP in A school and want to know if this will automatically show up on my worksheet when i take the e-4 advancement exam?? Can I check somewhere to see if it is in my records and will show up?? I sure can use any help anyone can offer. thanks HN Avila

[pegasusHM]

Well, first off, Northstar is not mentioned in the bibs, so I would not rely on them exclusively. As far as the Bibs, most break down the area that you need to study, ie. chapter 23, chapter3, etc. Otherwise, you should study the whole thing.Also, please tell me how you got an EP in A school? I would love to know. When you sign your worksheet, that is when you can address any discrepancies that you notice.

[HN AVILA]

Not true.. many of the items in the bib donnot list chapters and are many many pages..

[8404]

HN:

The above response is from an active duty Chief Petty Officer and knows from what he speaks.

Otherwise, you should study the whole thing.

When the 'bib' doesn't list a specific chapter, then it is implied that you need to study the entire item listed!
Regardless if it's "many many pages"!

Also, I got an EP in A school... How did you get an EP while at 'A' school?

[HN AVILA]

My bad.. My EP was from my ship and is the last eval that I have so it should count for this exam.. Would you suggest Northstar and can I exclusively study from Northstar 100% of the time?? thanks

[8404]

The Chief recommended above to 'not' rely on Northstar exclusively. I would study only the material specified by the bibs. You'll need to organize the material into groups (indexing).

Perhaps we can enlist some responses from other Petty Officers online here as to how they approached studying for the exam.

Personal Observation: Seeing that Northstar is a civilian company, I would question as to 'how', they keep their manuals updated with current Navy policy/information.

[KentuckyBoy]

Avila, study the bib. Read all the short "extras" as they are the easiest. Read the whole corpsman book. I didn't ever even see the dental books, not that I would recommend that though. There were a couple of dental questions on there, not too many. Knowing the basic anatomy of a tooth and the types of infections that accompany them will help you the most. Just dedicate a set amount of time every day to studying and stick to it. I studied for about 1.5 hours a day off and on for about a month and a half. First time taking the test this last exam and picked up by 11 with an MP, no award points. Just sit down, study the books and really try and take in the information. If you have questions on the test, ASK!!!! Most proctors will really try and help you out. Good luck, remember, it's your future and making rank depends solely on YOU.

[Da-Chief]

Avila,
I promise you.. "ABSOLUTELY WOULD PUT MONEY ON IT" if you follow Kentucky Boy's advice, you will advance like he did.

How do I know??

I did the same thing and some how got promoted to HMC by following the exact way he wrote..

;-)

The Bibs tell you "EXACTLY what to study for on the exam.. They give you the answers..

NORTHSTAR is to expansive a tome to study as it goes all over the place.. Use the Bibs!

Good Luck!
D/C

[HN AVILA]

Thanks for your help.What is meant by " read all the short 'extras' as they are the easiest. " Thanks

[HN AVILA]

For this exam, a friend suggested tht she thought that 95% of the questions on the occupational references come from the Navedtra books. ( Hospital Corpsman, Dental Tech1 and Dental TEch 2. Can anyone comment on this?? thanks

[KentuckyBoy]

Hmmm 95% is a little strong. But yes, the majority will come from those 3 books. By "little extras" I'm talking about things like "Malaria Chemoprophalaxis" and other additional parts of the bib. So the bib will consist of Hospital Corpsman, Dental 1 & 2, and then some other smaller areas. Read over all of the smaller areas because they are easy to read and you will see a couple of questions here and there from them. You can look elsewhere on the web for other study guides like Navy Storekeeper and Master Chief Frakers study guide but nothing will help you like just sitting down and reading the books.

[8404]

Using alternative study materials, you are placing your success in the hands of the author and it's accuracy. I would highly suggest using only the materials referenced in the bibs.

But it is your advancement!

[pegasusHM]

The Bibs are the test!! There is no short-cut around it. If you want to do well on the test, STUDY THE BIBS!!! There is no substitute for good old fashioned studying and flashcards!!! Yes, there are resources out there to REINFORCE what the references are, but you would be foolish to rely solely on something that hasn't been updated for years when the bibs change every 6 months. I get the feeling that you are looking for the answer that you want to hear, but I don't think you will find it. Your advancement is in your hands, and only your hands. There are plenty of resources to reinforce the Bibs, but the test questions come from the bib references!!! Study the bibs, and you can't go wrong!!

[dvldocjoe]

All of the people above have given good advice but have forgotten one minor detail. One part of all advancement exams is military bearing and courtesies as well as rank material plus seamanship.

Study your NHCs material plus the HM3 + 2 plus the bibs. Any question with regards to courtesies plus rank and seamanship can be found in your bluejacket's manual.

[8404]

Good Point:

This following is an illustration for our DEPpers:

When walking and you are approaching an officer, walking along the same path directly in front of you, and you want to pass them, what do you do?

1.) Cross the street and ignore the officer
2.) Walk briskly by him/her so as not to bother or hinder them
3.) Say Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening and stay walking behind them
4.) Salute them and stay walking behind them
5.) Salute them while passing, saying, "By Your Leave Sir/Ma'am
6.) All of the above

[supercharged05]

Hey bud, my advice would be to use the bib, and study from the books and straight from the instructions listed on the bib.
What has worked for me.. I print off all the instructions, read through everything completely one time. I then go back and highlight everything that seemed important (i even do this in the HM/DT/BMR books)> I then spend the following month or so just reading over all the highlighted material. The last couple of weeks before the exam I re-read everything again. The good thing about highlighting is that you are already set for a lot of the material when you are up for the next rank
Northstar is okay, a lot of people use it, but it honestly was more confusing for me than it was worth... most of the questions come straight from the books, so northstar may not be your best bet, but it never hurts to check it out.
Good luck to you, I hope it all works out. Each person has their own way of studying, but mine has proven very effective. I have been in 3 1/2 years, just made E5 my first time up. I scored an 80 on my E4 exam and a 79.5 on the E5 exam, so I am doing something right.
Hope to see you advance come march!

[8404]

Excellent Supercharged, keep up the great work!

[Doc_Stevens]

Forgive my ignorance, but the terms MP and EP are?????? It's been a while since I've been in.

[8404]

MP = Must Promote
EP = Early Promote

The above are performance evaluation rating categories.

I'm not too clear on how they work, but those are the definitions.

[Da-Chief]

Don,

I know you were under the "OLD" system like I was way back when.. Just looked I have a eval where you graded me as a HN.. To Fricken Funny..

Anyways.. here..

This table shows Promotion Recommendation point values.

Promotion Recommendation Point Values
Early Promote 4.00
Must Promote 3.80
Promotable 3.60
Progressing 3.40
Significant Problems 2.00


Darrell

[8404]

Aw....we wanted to see that eval chief!

[Da-Chief]

Not a chance.. I wasn't err.. the most receptive to good leadership during those days....
;-)

But I turned it around!

D/C