EMT Tests Voided in N.Y. Due to `Cheating`

The state has pulled the plug on the recent EMT-certification test scores of 25 people because of blatant cheating, The Post has learned.

Rabbi Ezra Max, who runs a Brooklyn volunteer ambulance corps and a “Kosher Coaching” counseling business, was accused of snapping photos of the exam with his cellphone.

He was photographed by a fellow test-taker who sent incriminating ­photos to the state Health Department, triggering an investigation.

“It is highly possible that a cellphone was utilized to take pictures or otherwise record the examination booklet,” Andrew Johnson, deputy director of the state’s Bureau of Emergency Services, said in a letter to city EMS officials.

The photos also show test-takers sitting elbow-to-elbow at tables at Universal Emergency Care Training in Brooklyn, the testing site.

“Students were allowed to sit too close to one another and were looking at other students’ answer sheets,” Johnson wrote.

The misconduct led the state to void the exam results, but no one was otherwise disciplined, officials said.

The state also changed the exam’s format and questions because it feared illicit copies could be used to help other test-takers cheat.

Besides requiring exams for new EMTs, the state mandates medics — whether employed by fire departments, hospitals, private firms or volunteer corps — to pass the tests every three years to ensure their competency.

Cellphones are not ­allowed in the exams.

Max denied wrongdoing.

“I didn’t take any pictures of the exam. I don’t know why anybody would make such an accusation,” he said.

Asked whether he had a cellphone at the exam, Max said, “No comment.”

Max also refused to say whether he is certified as an EMT.

He is currently not certified, a state spokesman said.

Max is listed on documents as one of four co-owners of NYC Community EMS, which took over a private firm in April 2012.

The listed president, Isaac Soskin, did not return calls.

A local EMS official faulted the state — which hires proctors to monitor the exams — for lax supervision.

“If anyone failed to do their job properly, it was the state proctor,” said Yedidyah Langsam, a Brooklyn College professor, paramedic, and chairman of the Regional Emergency Medical Services Council of NYC, an oversight body.

But a state spokesman said the June 20 proctor was not disciplined.

Republished with permission of the New York Post.