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Specimen management is vital to the flow of lab work. Your role in keeping turn around times down is essential and getting those results out to providers can be life or death.

Never be afraid to ask questions, and ask anyone - just because someone doesn’t share your job title doesnt mean you can’t ask them a question.

If you screw up, and you probably will sooner or later, own it as soon as possible. Covering up a mistake will likely delay lab results for a long, LONG time which could be fatal for a patient and it could also cost you a job. Owning a mistake can be difficult but believe me it’s better, the medical field requires the upmost integrity from everyone involved.

I keep a small notebook:

https://www.amazon.com/Moleskine-Cahier-Cover-Journal-Pocket/dp/8883704894/ref=sr_1_15?crid=217HT4YJMIF4E&keywords=pocket+notebook+3x5&qid=1555715676&s=gateway&sprefix=Pocket+notebook%2Caps%2C363&sr=8-15

To be exact. But there are many styles/brands and vendors so shop around for what you like - or they’ll likely have scratch paper in the lab you can take to keep notes as well. Utilize those cheat sheets until you feel comfortable and continue to reference them even when your sure you have it down just to be sure.

Best of luck! Have fun!

Not digital, unless you buy the kindle version, but I've found an earlier version of the Clinical Hematology Atlas helpful in school.

Usually I just look for a few simple rules:

• Seg: Filamented nucleus
  
• Band: No filaments or folds in nucleus, but is indented >50% of width (C or S shape)
  
• Meta: Nucleus indented <50% of width (Kidney bean shape)
  
• Myelo: Round/Oval nucleus, few/no primary granules
  
• Promy: Many primary granules
  
• Blast: Larger, scant basophilic cytoplasm and multiple nucleoli
  
  Just remember to look at both the nucleus and cytoplasm. If you're off by a stage, it's generally not going to matter very much. If you're unsure, go with the more mature stage. Keep in mind that it's a gradual process. The cell doesn't instantly change from one stage to the next.
  
  The LabCE White Blood Cell Differential Simulator came out a little later than would have been useful to me, but it looks like one of the best resources out there, and my experience with their exam simulator gives me great confidence in it.

I had to take a course for my program. The information was given just as fast as all the rest, and I feel like I did more relevant math work as part of my general statistics class; the laboratory billing aspect was maybe two lectures, LIS another one to two. A bigger focus was quality management and generating/interpreting Levy-Jennings charts- probably because every laboratory worker will find value in that. It wasn't a bad class if that's what I'm accidentally portraying, it was just a general overview of the topics involved that you would see as a lab manager, without too much depth in any one topic.

I do know we covered break-even points and spent some time on billables, but I also remember the lecturer saying that some people do an entire degree's worth of study on the topic in the form of an MBA, which may be overkill for your situation, but also might be worth considering if your career is heading that direction (and if your employer does tuition reimbursement).

The book I used, while a touch dry, was actually helpful in going a little bit more into depth in those billing, reimbursement, and LIS aspects. It might be a good jumping off point, maybe a little more cost-effective and a better time investment, given that my entire course might only have an hour or two of class lecture on the topics you're interested in.

https://www.amazon.com/Laboratory-Management-Principles-Processes-Third/dp/0943903122

I second every single one of those recommendations (with special emphasis placed on the blood bank and micro texts), but I do want to recommend a different text for Hematology/Hemostasis.

To fill in some other gaps:

This is what we used for Immunology/Serology.

Mycology and Parasitology. Virology was covered using online materials. I honestly found all of those materials a bit underwhelming. Abbott provides a pretty decent PDF on the Hepatitis Virus though.

BioChemistry. Though, the only reason I don't necessarily recommend it over the initial suggestion is because this book is so loaded with information it's honestly overwhelming; however, very very thorough.

Finally, I don't know what other review books people used for the ASCP, but this book's^^[1] publisher^^[2] guarantees you'll pass or your money back. I'm not sure if that information is actually listed on their website or not, it's just something to look into.

Questions in the BOC book were harder than what I had in my test. Had the Harr book but didn't use it since I didn't like the format of the book

For study materials, I definitely recommend:

SUCCESS! in Clinical Laboratory Science

This has a lot of outline reviews that I found extremely helpful

Clinical Laboratory Science Review: A Bottom Line Approach

This book has a lot of tables, graphics, and charts to help you remember all this info

I'm not aware of any textbook that contains all the subjects in one, and isn't test prep (question and answer format). That said, I only used ASCP's book (BOC Study Guide), which was not that helpful. These are probably too much information, but if she already knows enough about the clinical laboratory to navigate them, they may be helpful. Particularly if you can find cheap used ones a few editions old. These are the books I used for my clinical theory classes:

Hematology

Hematology Atlas

Clinical Chemistry

Clinical Microbiology

Parasitology

Blood Banking

She may also need one for Urinalysis & Body Fluids, though I have not used this one, just picked it from Amazon.

If nothing else the blood banking one is cheap! Good luck!

I just passed it last month on my first try. What really helped me was this Lela Buckingham book as well as this Indeed forum. My best advice to you is to go through the entire forum, all 1300+ post from the very beginning and compile a list of questions and topics that people mention and study that rigorously. 60% of my exam consisted of questions I had already seen on the forum so I felt really confident! I focused mainly on that and also read up on topics in the book that I was not too familiar with!

I played the free quiz game on LabCE's website. You get questions from all the disciplines until you miss five questions. There are no limits on how often or long you play.

These cards are awesome and they fit in lab coat pockets so you can review them while you are waiting on timers, centrifuges, etc.

This was what I used as well as my professor's notes! Good luck. As for anyone else taking the exam a piece of advice would be to not wait too long after graduating to take it. I had friends who were kicking themselves for waiting so long. I took it three months after I graduated which gave me time to study. I think the ASCP web site also has a list of guidelines on what to study. I will see if I can dig it up for you.

I personally used the Harr book since my program gave us a manual/study guide that was basically a review of everything. Harr is great for practice tests with easy access to the answers.

I had a classmate that swore by the Success in CLS book. It has an awesome review section if you need one.

For my own studying, I stuck to my study guide, the Harr book, and lots and lots of LabCE.

Took and passed the ASCP exam in October.

Harr is most representative of the difficulty IMO.

The Bottom Line book is great. SUCCESS is okay, but super dense.

Polansky flash cards: not like the typical flash cards. Just a bunch of information on every card. I used these, Harr, and the bottom line book.

http://www.amazon.com/Quick-Review-Medical-Laboratory-Science/dp/0803629567/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Like most people are saying below, the labCE questions are harder, but it's nice to practice how the actual test will be (the questions get harder and harder as you go, if you are answering correctly).
Also, as hamstercar11 said below, get the review book "Clinical Laboratory Science: A bottom line approach." (https://www.amazon.com/Clinical-Laboratory-Science-Review-Approach/dp/0967043425) I literally read that book cover to cover twice and did LabCE for the 2 weeks right before my exam and it was very helpful.

Overall, I think it was my instructor who really got me prepared for the exam. She's been doing it for so many years, she has it down to a science. But as far as what I did to prepare I used this book to do review. My classmates and I called it the cartoon book because it has some pictures to try and help you remember key things. But it has a nice run down of the main things you need to know. I feel like it helped a lot.

LabCE, Success in Clinical Lab Science, and the BOC book. I also had this book from Louisiana State University. It's very bare bones, but it's written in a way that helps you remember key information. I found it very useful.

[This book was pretty helpful. It explains the entire program section by section lecture notes style and has plenty of good certification test style questions] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0135126487/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1487905341&sr=8-4&pi=SL75_QL70&keywords=clinical+laboratory+science+review)

I did the labce adaptive learning exams. They mimicked the boc pretty well. Just don't get discouraged when you score a 40 or 50% on it. They give you really tough questions. Learn from them. For study guides I really liked the lsu book. It's usually cheaper on the school's website than Amazon.


Clinical Laboratory Science Review: A Bottom Line Approach https://www.amazon.com/dp/0967043425/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fRMWAbK16XCT1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0803628285?pc_redir=1397702281&robot_redir=1

This is the only book I used. It was highly recommend by my professors and it was all we used to study for college exams too. It's great in that not only does it tell you the correct answer, it tells you why the others are wrong. I always recommend this book to the students we get. It also comes with a cd with even more questions.

Clinical Laboratory Science Review: A Bottom Line Approach is a good review book with a lot of helpful tips on remembering difficult-to-memorize facts that you'll need to know.

I used the BOC Study Guide (actually I just pulled it out of my trunk and was going to take it to work), 5th edition was the newest then. I also used MediaLab Exam Simulator, we had used it during my program and my subscription was still good (I use it for my CEUs now). I also picked up some review cards (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0803604599) which were helpful, I would take a few with me wherever I went.

Man the Casios are P U R E C L A S S and are actually very popular for their utility and price point over at r/watches. F91W is a reliable classic for $10. If you double the price to $20, you can get one of the stainless steel ones like the World Time Casio Men's AE1200WHD-1A Stainless Steel Digital Watch https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0094B79CI/

I used the Bottom Line Approach book with LabCE exam prep. I also had bought the BOC study guide book but didn't find it very helpful.

I got one of these prior to my clinicals and it is enormously helpful. Even the older techs snagged it once in awhile to double check something!

https://www.amazon.com/Heme-Notes-Pocket-Atlas-Morphology/dp/0803619022/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526121388&sr=8-1&keywords=heme+notes

No problem. Since that list is pretty long, I could even narrow it down a bit.

Microbiology

Transfusion Medicine

Clinical Chemistry

Histotechnology

Hematology

Urinalysis

Molecular Diagnostics

Specimen Procurement

Some of these you can even find free PDFs of online, if you're savvy.

I won't be taking the exam until June of next year, so I'm interested in seeing the resources that others mentioned, too.

My instructors haven't mentioned using anything beyond the BOC, so I have both that and the downloadable program for my iPhone. I have heard very good things about the Polansky flash cards from others.

If ur going to buy a book, don't buy a text book. But a study guide. I'll put a plug in for my favorite: https://www.amazon.com/SUCCESS-Clinical-Laboratory-Science-4th/dp/0135126487.

Disclaimer: my professors wrote this book.

If you're a member of CSMLS/ASCP usually they have free general refresher courses.

Also another option is to invest in the Quick Review Cards They will cost you $60 but will cover everything you need to know in case you switch departments again.

If you are talking about this book, we use ours on the bench all the time. I would say this is the one text that was worth every penny to me.

Assuming my phone formats correctly, here's the Amazon link:

https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Review-Medical-Laboratory-Science/dp/0803629567

Learn the characteristics of each cell.

I keep this in my lab:

Heme Notes: A Pocket Atlas of Cell Morphology https://www.amazon.com/dp/0803619022/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_jBhkDbT3FF9C4

Here is the desktop version of your link

Medical Parasitology: A Self-Instructional Text https://www.amazon.com/dp/080362543X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_LGXXzb35E1MP3

The Harr book is call you need.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0803628285/ref=pd_aw_fbt_b_img_3?refRID=1PDVYHCBFW6KS037BK0Y

1. The ASCPi is such a new thing I have no idea how a lab manager would perceive it. If anything the ASCPi is used internationally as an ASCP outside of America, not the other way around. If anything the lab manager will probably ask the interviewee what the ASCPi is. There is no definitive answer on this.
   
   2 and 3. This is an INCREDIBLY broad question. The test is VERY difficult and inclusive of the full range of the MLS profession. The can ask you what disease state and ANA stain indicates and then which of these bacteria are urease positive the next.
   
   There is no ONE book that will go over everything.
   
   This one looks good to start off with and not that expensive.