Study for EMT-B before even starting the class?

A friend of mine just passed his NREMT exam and received his license. I am about to start my class in a month or so. He recommended I study it some now.

The course he took was a few nights a week, led by an instructor who was hired by our chief. Apparently, he said he feels like it was a disadvantage because it dragged on for forever, poor instructor in some areas, etc.

I'm going to be taking a day time class with the local paid department rookies. It's 5 days a week, 8 hours a day (minus lunch). He thinks I should have a much easier time this way, but because I also work full time, I will have a lot of 16 hour days between class and work, and only one day a week where I have neither (Saturday). So that's why he said I should probably start studying now, because I won't have much free time for it.

So should I start studying things now? I figured it may be best to wait until the class starts so I don't study something that doesn't match what my class will say, or read something in my own time, and understand it wrong, and then have a skewed idea of how it was actually supposed to be. But he does have a point that I won't have much free time for studying, and it may be a good idea to study some now.

My chief will be providing my actual course book closer to the class and I damn sure don't want to buy it on my own just to see it early, as they seem to be quite expensive. So are there any "crash" books that are worth picking up to read between now and then?