EKG practice test

How the dysrhythmia practice test is built

35 questionsmarked like a hospital exam

A pass mark of 80, 85 or 90%, every lethal rhythm required, a score for each section, and every question explained afterwards.

Relias Basicoutline built in

One setting shares the questions out as Relias publishes for its Dysrhythmia (Basic) assessment: 31% sinus, 26% atrial, 17% lethal.

492,000different practice strips

12,000 of each of 41 rhythms. The rate, the intervals and the wave shapes change every time, so there is no picture to memorize.

552,000strips measured before release

A separate program that sees only the finished trace reads every strip back. It has to find the rhythm, the rate and the intervals we report.

A free sample every day

Ten strips, fifteen minutes, an 80% pass mark and the lethal-rhythm rule: a short paper sat and marked exactly like the full one, with the same report. New each day, and no account is needed.

Four choices, whole answers

Each strip comes with four interpretations and one is right. When a strip has two findings, the answer names both; the choices that name only one are there to catch a reader who stopped early.

The pass mark, and the lethal rhythms

Most hospitals ask for 80 or 85%. Many add a second rule: ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, torsades de pointes and asystole must every one be named right, or the paper fails whatever the score.

Set to the published Relias outline

One setting shares the questions out exactly as Relias publishes for its Dysrhythmia (Basic) assessment: 31% sinus, 26% atrial, 17% lethal arrhythmias, 9% heart blocks, 9% ventricular, 6% paced and 3% junctional, all on 6-second strips.

Measuring, not just looking

Some questions ask for a PR interval or a heart rate. The strip can be magnified to count small squares, the way the real exams let you.

A report that tells you what to do next

Your score by section, the lethal rhythms on their own, time per strip, and every question with the strip measured and explained. What you missed goes straight into your practice list.

A new paper every time

With a plan, no strip is ever repeated from one exam to the next, so a score cannot be memorized. Take it ten times before the one that counts.

Set the length, the pass mark and the lethal-rhythm rule to match what your educator or recruiter told you. If yours is a Relias dysrhythmia test, see how this paper matches it. To work on single rhythms first, use the practice page or the rhythm library; for a quick check, the 10-question EKG quiz is free. To sit a paper with a pencil, print the 20-strip practice test with answers. An independent practice exam on simulated strips, for education only.

Where this comes from

The criteria and rules on this page are taken from published sources, and every strip is drawn to them and then measured by a separate program before it is shown. How the strips are made and checked

• American Heart Association. CPR and Emergency Cardiovascular Care guidelines: adult cardiac arrest, bradycardia and tachycardia algorithms. Which rhythms are shockable, and the first actions for the arrest rhythms, slow rhythms and fast rhythms.
• American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology and Heart Rhythm Society. Recommendations for the standardization and interpretation of the electrocardiogram, part I (Circulation, 2007). The paper every strip is drawn on: 25 mm per second and 10 mm per millivolt.
• University of Arkansas. How to Interpret Rhythm Strips, in the open EKG Interpretation manual. The five-step read and the normal ranges for rate, PR interval and QRS.
• Relias. Dysrhythmia (Basic) Exam Content Outline (2021). The share of each rhythm category in the “Relias Basic outline” practice test and in the printable paper.