Your unfair advantage in allied health certification
Technologist, lab and coding exams are dense with precise, rule-bound facts: exposure factors and radiation safety limits, analyzer principles and reference ranges, and the guidelines that decide which code applies.
The advantage isn't a shortcut. It's a study method: pulling answers from memory and reviewing them just before they fade, instead of rereading, highlighting and cramming.
3 programs · 3,185 cards · organised by public exam outlines
What your memory has to carry for allied health certification
Different exams, the same problem: a lot to hold, for a long time, recalled on demand.
Precise technical facts
Physics, instrumentation and procedure details, where a near-miss is a wrong answer.
Rules with exceptions
Coding guidelines, safety rules and quality-control criteria that each have their own edge cases.
Breadth across departments
Blood bank, chemistry, hematology and micro, or positioning across every body part.
Why the old way fails for allied health certification
Rereading, highlighting and cramming are the most common ways to study, and they feel productive. The research says they're the weakest.
Rereading
Rereading a guideline until it reads smoothly does not tell you whether you can produce it when a case needs it.
Retrieve it
Tested students recalled 61% of a passage a week later; students who reread it four times recalled 40%.
Roediger & Karpicke (2006), Psychological Science
Highlighting
Technical manuals are already dense with bold type. Adding colour does not add recall.
Test yourself
A review of ten techniques rated highlighting and rereading low utility, and practice testing high.
Dunlosky et al. (2013), Psychological Science in the Public Interest
Cramming
Cramming one department before the exam leaves the others to fade. Spaced review keeps every area in rotation.
Space it
Word pairs reviewed across four days were recalled 54% of the time; the stack crammed the day before the test, 34%.
Kornell (2009), Applied Cognitive Psychology
The numbers behind the method
Published finding about the method, not NoReread results. Each one is shown with the conditions it was measured under.
recalled a week later: kept testing vs only restudied
Precise facts are the ones that slip first. Continuing to retrieve them is what held up a week later.
College students learned 40 Swahili–English word pairs. Pairs that kept being tested after first recall were recalled about 80% of the time a week later; pairs dropped from testing but restudied, 36%.
Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger, H. L. (2008). The critical importance of retrieval for learning. Science, 319(5865), 966–968.
Published finding about the method, not NoReread results.
recalled on day 5: one stack reviewed daily vs stacks crammed
Rotating every content area daily beat cramming each one on its own day.
25 students learned GRE-type word pairs over four daily sessions with the same number of study trials. One large stack reviewed every day: 54% recalled on day 5. Small stacks each crammed on a single day: 21%. The stack crammed the day before the test: 34%. Experiment 2.
Kornell, N. (2009). Optimising learning using flashcards: Spacing is more effective than cramming. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23(9), 1297–1317.
Published finding about the method, not NoReread results.
utility: practice testing and spacing vs rereading and highlighting
Practice testing and spacing were rated high utility; highlighting and rereading were rated low.
A review of ten learning techniques rated practice testing and distributed practice high utility; rereading, highlighting and summarization were rated low utility.
Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58.
Published finding about the method, not NoReread results.
See the research
Three short loops. Two chart published results exactly as reported; the forgetting curve is an illustrative model and is labelled as one.
Testing yourself beats rereading, a week later
Bar charts from Roediger & Karpicke (2006), Experiment 2. Five minutes after studying, students who read a passage four times recalled 83%, read three times and tested once 78%, read once and tested three times 71%. One week later the order reversed: 40%, 56% and 61%.
Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255.
Published finding about the method, not NoReread results.
The forgetting curve, with and without reviews
An illustrative model, not measured data: after one exposure, memory decays quickly toward zero over 30 days. With reviews on days 1, 3, 7 and 14, each review restores it and it decays more slowly each time, staying high at day 30.
Ebbinghaus, H. (1885). Über das Gedächtnis. Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig.
Illustrative model, not measured data.
Spacing beats cramming
From Kornell (2009), Experiment 2: over four days, one stack of 20 word pairs reviewed every day versus four stacks of five each crammed on one day. On day 5, spaced pairs were recalled 54% of the time, massed 21%, and the stack crammed the day before 34%. Across three experiments spacing beat massing for 90% of participants, yet after the first session 72% believed massing worked better.
Kornell, N. (2009). Optimising learning using flashcards: Spacing is more effective than cramming. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23(9), 1297–1317.
Published finding about the method, not NoReread results.
Allied health programs
Ready-made decks, organised by each exam's public outline. Open any program to try its free sample cards.
ARRT Radiography — Radiologic Technologist
4 decks · 968 cards
ASCP MLS — Medical Laboratory Scientist
7 decks · 914 cards
CPC — Certified Professional Coder
9 decks · 1,303 cards
| Exam | Questions | Time |
|---|---|---|
| ARRT Radiography230 items (200 scored plus 30 unscored pilot items) · 230 minutes of test time (4 hour 10 minute appointment including tutorial and survey) | 230 items (200 scored plus 30 unscored pilot items) | 230 minutes of test time (4 hour 10 minute appointment including tutorial and survey) |
| ASCP MLS100 questions · 2.5 hours | 100 questions | 2.5 hours |
| CPC100 multiple-choice questions · 4 hours | 100 multiple-choice questions | 4 hours |
How NoReread puts it to work
1. Cards from public exam outlines
Each program is organised by its exam's publicly available outline, so the decks follow the structure you will be tested on.
2. Recall first, then flip
Every card asks before it tells. That moment of pulling the answer from memory is the retrieval practice the research measures.
3. Reviews scheduled before you forget
An SM-2 schedule brings each card back just as it starts to fade: sooner if you missed it, later if you knew it.
Cards follow each exam's public content areas. You try to recall a reference range or a coding rule before you flip, and the schedule brings back the ones you miss before they fade.
Which prime factor is the primary controller of radiographic contrast?
kVp is the primary controller of radiographic contrast; higher kVp lowers contrast (long scale), lower kVp raises contrast (short scale).
Learn first, then retain.
Flashcards are a memory tool. Learn the material first, then use NoReread to retain it and refresh what you already know. It doesn't replace studying the subject.
Cards are created from publicly available sources and may contain errors. Check anything you rely on against your official materials.
Straight answers
Is NoReread enough to prepare for allied health certification?
No, and we won't pretend otherwise. Flashcards are a memory tool. Learn the material first, then use NoReread to retain it and refresh what you already know. It doesn't replace studying the subject.
What does “unfair advantage” mean here?
The advantage is the study method: retrieval practice and spaced review, instead of rereading, highlighting and cramming. It is not a promise of a pass or a score. The numbers on this page are published findings about the method from the studies cited, not NoReread results.
Do the cards include current code sets?
The cards are created from publicly available sources and may lag behind the latest code-set or guideline update. Always check against the current official manuals for your exam date.
Can I study only the areas I'm weakest in?
Yes. Each program is split into decks by content area, and the review schedule already weights toward cards you miss.
Can I rely on the cards being accurate?
Cards are created from publicly available sources and may contain errors. Check anything you rely on against your official materials. We're not experts in every field we cover, and NoReread does not guarantee exam results.
Is NoReread affiliated with the organizations behind these exams?
No. NoReread is not affiliated with or endorsed by the organizations whose exams and outlines it references, and exam names are trademarks of their respective owners.
How can I try it?
Every program page shows 6 free sample cards per deck. The All-Access annual plan starts with 7 days free, then $119.99/year, or you can buy a single program for life from $7.99.
Exam names are trademarks of their respective owners. Content disclaimer · All the research
Study allied health certification the way memory works
7 days free, then $119.99/yr for every program · cancel anytime · or one program for life from $7.99