Welcome to Pocket Prep! To ensure a smooth and successful start, we’ve gathered key action steps, resources, and best practices to help you introduce Pocket Prep, issue licenses, and effectively implement the platform. Reviewing and applying these resources will set you—and your students—up for success.
Kickoff Announcement
Start with a strong introduction to Pocket Prep in class or via email. Include:
What is Pocket Prep? A mobile and web app for exam preparation using practice questions, explanation details, book references, and performance tracking to help students prepare for their certification exam.
Pocket Prep focuses on quiz-based studying with custom content built directly from the exam outline. Our questions are similar in style to those that are on the actual exam. This helps people become familiar with how to read, interpret and then answer questions successful on the exam. This familiarity can help reduce test day anxiety.
Our questions reside behind the following quiz modes:
Quick 10 - A mix of 10 questions from all subjects and complexity levels
Timed Quiz - Answer as many questions as you can in a set time.
Level Up - Questions are divided into levels based on their difficulty, challenging students to conquer each level. Answer 85% of the levels questions correctly to unlock the next level.
Weakest Subject - Questions from the subject with the lowest score.
Missed Questions - A quiz of only previously missed questions.
Build Your Own - Select specific subjects and the number of questions
Mock Exams (for most exams) - A separate new set of questions aligned to the exam's number of questions, and time allowed to take the exam.
The Learning Science Behind Pocket Prep - We uses science-backed study techniques to help students learn and retain the information they need.
Live Walkthrough and Teaching Tool
Dedicate 5-10 minutes in class during the first week to send licenses to students, ensure they have activated their accounts, and walk them through the Pocket Prep interface.
Admins and Instructors have access to a Pocket Prep Exam Prep account to use as a teaching tool in your classroom, or to review content as a student. To access click on your organization name and Go to Exam Prep. Follow the same path in Exam Prep to get back to Instructor Dashboard.
You can also log into your Exam Prep account directly.
Review Quiz Modes, Stats and Review tabs
Do the Question of the Day in class and review explanation details
Review Quiz Settings
Advise student to go to Setting (from name in upper right corner drop down menu) to set study reminders.
Tip: Use a projector or screen share, or record a quick screencast for asynchronous access.
Set Clear Expectations
Provide students structure for usage:
Required vs. recommended usage (e.g., Complete 100 questions per week)
Explain how Pocket Prep fits into your grading or extra credit plan.
Explain how often you'll review class usage data.
Assignments - Consider assigning Pocket Prep to provide students formative. assessments on the subjects they are studying in class.
Frame as a Study Tool
Position Pocket Prep as:
A learning companion that helps identify what they know and don’t know
A tool for targeted practice before exams or class reviews
Encourage Goal-Setting
Encourage students to:
Set Goals: Assign weekly quiz or question targets to keep students on track. Share this article to help students create a study plan and understand how to use Pocket Prep effectively.
Stay Consistent: Encourage weekly use of Quick 10s, Level Up, Build Your Own, or Timed Quizzes. Even short sessions add up.
Target Weak Areas: At the end of each week, have students focus on Missed Questions or their Weakest Subjects using performance data.
Aim for 80%+ Accuracy: Students should strive to score 80% or higher on all questions for the best exam prep results.
Use Explanation Details and References: Remind students to tap “Show Explanation” after each question. Explanations and references help deepen understanding and reinforce learning.
Mock Exams: If we have a Mock Exam for your exam encourage students to utilized it as they get close to their exam date.
Celebrate Engagement and Review Usage in Class
Let students know you will regularly highlight:
Students who improve or stay consistent
Review class stats on specific questions ("Everyone struggled on XYZ – let’s review it together!")
Review our article on the best ways to use Pocket Prep in your program
Assignments - As you get into your program consider using our new Assignments feature to provide students formative assessments on the subjects they are studying in class.
Adding Colleagues as Admin or Instructors to the Dashboard
Inviting Colleagues to the Instructor Dashboard - This article will show you how to add your colleague to the Dashboard prior to inviting students, so you can connect Instructors or Admin to the students in your roster.
Purchasing Licenses
Purchasing Licenses through the Instructor Dashboard - Use these instructions to purchase licenses through the Dashboard.
How to Send Pocket Prep Licenses to Students
Getting Started with the Instructor Dashboard and Sending Licenses - When you are ready to issue licenses to students review this short video on how to successfully set up groups and send licenses.
Resending or Canceling Licenses Invites - We send 5 reminder emails over 2 weeks. Unactivated students appear as Pending in the roster. Use these steps to resend invites or have them search for the Pocket Prep email and Activate License Code. You can also cancel invites to reclaim the license.
IMPORTANT: For Students Who Have a Personal Pocket Prep Account Already
Students may already have a personal Pocket Prep account using a different email than the email you’re sending the invite to through the Instructor Dashboard. To connect the license code to their personal email address account please share the following steps to activate it.
After receiving their email invite (see email example below)
Direct them to sign into their personal account
Copy the license code from the email they receive (located below the Activate License Code button):
In the Pocket Prep app: Go to Settings > Exams > Activate Code (I assume anyone with a personal account already has the app)
Or On the Web: Go to Settings > Exams > + Activate License Code
Paste the code and select Activate.
They may need to select Switch Exams in Settings and select the exam, if their account is not already set to your exam.
Below is a sample of the email students receive to activate their license. It will include your name and Dashboard account name. To activate, students just click the Activate License Code button and follow the steps.
Download the Pocket Prep App: After activating the license, get the best mobile experience by downloading our app. Search “Pocket Prep” and your exam name in the in either the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Look for the logo below to find the correct app.
Using the above resources, combined with consistent student engagement on Pocket Prep, can greatly improve the chances of success. Happy studying!
Additional Instructor Dashboard Resources for Admins
Customer Quotes
TJ Dronet, EMS Program Manager, National EMS Academy - Customer Since 2021
“It is a wonderful program that reinforces the material that was learned throughout the program and prepares them for success with the NREMT cognitive exam.”
Sheryn Shofner, NREMT-P. Training Director, Bullitt County EMS - Customer Since 2022
"I have had tremendous success both personally, and as an instructor, with Pocket Prep. It has been a very accurate measure of where folks are, and how well they are going to perform on the NREMT, right down to identifying specific subject matter struggles."
Mary Johnson Cadet/Outreach Supervisor - Bell Ambulance - Customer Since 2022
"It prepares my students well for the NREMT. Students who do at least 50% of the questions have a high pass rate on their first exam."
Weena Doyle - EMT Trainer - Bensalem EMS Rescue
“I told my students in the past they have to download and use Pocket Prep. If you don't, you're not going pass. She told her students maybe the very rare one percenters of the world, who never use question banks, maybe they'll do well, but statistically you won't. At least that's what I've found.
In our first class earlier in the spring, I told all of them, download this app, use it because I had free questions that I tried. These questions are pretty on point. It's been years since I've last taken an EMT national registry exam, but these questions definitely are more challenging and it's better to be overly challenged than under challenged.
I forget exactly how many students thus far have passed national registry, but every single one of the spring cohort students who did pass, I asked them, did you use Pocket Prep and they said yes. Every day they spent at least 30 minutes if not two hours a day just doing question problems question problems and they passed. Then the ones who did not pass I asked them did you do what I told you to do and they said no, we just reread the textbook, reviewed our notes, and I'm like okay I can't force you to use Pocket Prep, but . . . I told you. “