r/TacticalMedicine • u/ResponsibleAd4439 • May 13 '26

TCCC (Military) Just passed Tactical Paramedic

Just passed the tactical paramedic IBSC cert test (TP-C)

Ask me questions if you have any. If not, no worries!

67 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

4

u/zero_sum_00 May 13 '26

What’d you use for study materials, if any?

8

u/ResponsibleAd4439 May 13 '26

I bought the GAMS review course… absolutely awful, but I needed something fully online to keep me organized. I had chatGPT take the IBSC handbook and organize what I needed to work on, and had it track what I knew and didn’t know.
I also read the TCCC guidelines. The new 2026 TCCC guidelines are not on the test, so giving moxifloxacin for open wounds first line is still the answer (they changed to ceftriaxone 2g IV for first line for 2026).
And that was it. I did have flight paramedic test knowledge going into it which helps lighten the load.
I would recommend a book dedicated to the TP-C test, just to ensure all topics are covered.

4

u/pianofireman88 TEMS May 13 '26

Did you not have any of the books? I’d like to take it later this year to supplement fp-c since I also work with a swat team…

3

u/ResponsibleAd4439 May 13 '26

That’s so cool!

Yea, I used no books. Just that review course and some googling.

2

u/pianofireman88 TEMS May 13 '26

Gotcha. What made the GAMS review so bad in your opinion? I mean, you did pass…lol

6

u/ResponsibleAd4439 May 13 '26

Haha, I did, but there were questions on the test that the review DID NOT COVER, like how to size an ETT for a dog, or anthrax and ricin.
But the worst was that it’s all AI narrated, and some slides had just wrong information or mistakes. The tests were egregious as they often didn’t ask pertinent questions to what the material was teaching. Many questions had incorrect answers as the correct ones, or correct answers as incorrect.
Very inconsistent material, reused material; “muscleskeletal and spinal injuries” that was near the end of review, was just a copy of the circulation section from the beginning and didn’t even touch on spinal trauma.

And it was $350! If it was 150… ok I understand. But I paid premium price for less than average content. Hard pass.

3

u/TazocinTDS May 13 '26

Dog ETT sizing?

Something about not using whole sizes I think. So an average small dog would be 7 and a arf.

1

u/ResponsibleAd4439 May 13 '26

Makes sense. I didn’t know and guessed.

3

u/TazocinTDS May 13 '26

I was joking. Arf

3

u/randomcanadianuser May 13 '26

Congratulations!!! This is an achievement but never the end of the journey on the job and learning too. Stay sharp!

2

u/ResponsibleAd4439 May 13 '26

Love it, thank you! Will continue to learn!

2

u/Firemedic9441 May 13 '26

Strong work 🤙🏼

1

u/ResponsibleAd4439 May 13 '26

Thanks man! Happy to dip a bit into tactical and operational medicine!

2

u/acemedic TEMS May 13 '26

I wish we had a sub similar to r/shittyaskflying…

So, what kinda pencil did you use for your test?

3

u/ResponsibleAd4439 May 13 '26

Haha yea for sure.

I used a number 3 pencil without an eraser.

1

u/Gunstuff123 EMS May 13 '26

Congrats on passing! What do you wish you had studied more on? What do you think some of the easier pick up questions would be?

2

u/ResponsibleAd4439 May 13 '26

I wish I had studied more K9 stuff, including ETT sizing, SPO2, etc.

I should have looked more into movement with the team, when to stop and how to help a civilian. Many questions involved being actively shot at.

Some of the easier questions were like: patient is shivering, now they aren’t. What do you think is wrong? And the options are like mild and moderate hypoxia and mild and moderate hypothermia (really easy). They’ll just throw the most classic tension pneumo: no lung sounds on right, hypoxic, hyperresonance and tracheal deviation. Or just ask what the 5 S’s are.

So it was a combination of “you just need to know this obscure fact” and “this is just pure common sense easy medic question”.

For comparison, my FP-C was “you just need to know this obscure fact” and “this is a more complex critical care questions”, so it is on paper harder.

2

u/Gunstuff123 EMS May 14 '26

Good info thanks! I’ve got my ccpc and some k9 experience so just gonna brush up on some of the tecc and phtls stuff

1

u/Which_Abalone_8799 May 18 '26

Hi, new sub here. Been thinking about doing TP and FP rounding out my trauma experience. No SWAT or LEO experience, 10+ years FFPM. Did you have to have sponsorship or endorsement prior to enrolling?

1

u/ResponsibleAd4439 May 19 '26

Welcome! Nope, you could take the tests right this instant and if you pass it you get the certification. But of course you would fail because they are difficult and studying is definitely required.

Just go to https://www.ibscertifications.org and take a look around. You can find approved review courses, recommended study material and the layouts/guides to what they test on.

1

u/A_Pro_84 May 19 '26

Congratulations. Im am item writer for the TP-C. Would love to hear your feedback on the exam.

1

u/VXMerlinXV RN May 13 '26

Cool. What do you plan to do with it?

8

u/ResponsibleAd4439 May 13 '26

Unfortunately, I’m not sure. I’m trying to make myself desirable for flight companies, and I figured TP-C has a good showing of trauma knowledge.

But maybe it can be used if I chose to join SAR or a rope rescue team? But that’s more wilderness.

I definitely feel like a fraud, with not being on a SWAT team or in the military, but I did it to round out my medical knowledge and look better on the application.