Information
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Frequently asked questions
What is Histology? What does a Histotech do?
Histology is the study of the microscopic anatomy of biological cells and tissue. A Histotech is a profession in which they can prepare (including grossing, processing, embedding, cutting and staining biological samples) patient samples in order for Pathologists to make a diagnosis.
How do I become a certified Histotechnician or Histotechnologist?
There are 3 routes to becoming a certified Histotechnician and 4 routes to becoming a certified Histologtechnologist. If you are on the routes to becoming certified, you will have to take an exam through the American Society for Clinical Pathology- Board of Certification. At Histoprep we are able to offer tutoring services to help students pass this exam.
How does the ASCP exam work?
The HT and HTL tests are mulitple choice 100 question exams. You will be given a 2 hour and 30 minute time frame to complete the exam. The exam is "adaptive" which means that if you answer questions correctly, they will give you harder questions, whereas if you answer them incorrectly, you will be given easier questions. Because of this structure, each questions value is based not only on if it's correct or incorrect, but also the difficulty of the question.
Can you tutor for the ASCP HT or HTL certification exam?
Yes! We tutor for the certification exam for Histotechnician (HT) and Histotechnologist (HTL) exam credentialed by the American Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP) .
How long is the recommended time to study for the HT/HTL exam?
Typically, students meet weekly for 1 hour for 16 weeks (4 months). This covers approximately 1 chapter per week in Histotechnology. We can modify different scheduling though depending on your needs.
My exam is coming up soon. Do you do crash courses?
Yes. We can offer a "crash course" if your exam is coming up soon to pinpoint where you should focus your last few days to bridge knowledge gaps.
What is the difference between an HT and an HTL?
A Histotechnician (HT) and a Histotechnologist (HTL) can have very similar roles in day-to-day workflow at many workplaces. However, the requirements for getting an HTL are slightly higher (for example, you need a Bachelor's degree for an HTL but an associates for an HT) and the exam may cover more content.
Generally, if a student already has a Bachelor's degree when they start their pathway to becoming a Histotech, I encourage them to try for the HTL exam since it can be considered a more rigorous certification. If a student does not have a Bachelor's degree, there is plenty of great jobs you can get with just an HT certification.
Do you offer remote services?
Yes. We tutor students from across the United States, so for practical reasons tutoring is remote. If you happen to live in the Bay Area, California, we can possibly arrange in-person tutoring for additional charges.
What is your tutoring style?
We focus on "active studying" as opposed to "passive studying" where we work on a lot of practice problems. Although the HT/HTL certification exam requires some memorization, we focus on concepts in the field of Histotechnology. We also give strategies to make studying as efficient as possible.
What study materials for the HT/HTL exam do you recommend?
I strongly recommend purchasing the Freida L. Carson, Histology: A Self-Instructional Text in addition to the tutoring services. Both the 3rd and 4th edition are both acceptable.
What is your hourly rate?
Tutoring services are generally $80 per hour.
I struggle with Math. Can I still become a Histotech?
We can definitely help you with Math! In college I majored in Math and I started my background in tutoring Math for the SAT and ACT in 2019. Trust me I have seen it all and we can help.
Fortunately, being a Histotech involves very little Math on a day to day basis. For the exam, it is usually less than ~5% of the exam. You can definitely still pass the exam without being a super strong Math student.