Many years ago when I was teaching vocational electricity at a high school we would teach them to bend EMT like this: Take a 1900 box and 1 stick of 1/2" EMT; place the box flat on the floor; exit the box on the left, bend a double 90 (up in the air) and end up going to the right; bend a 90 to head up; then bend a double 90 and enter the box from the top. And make the length correct so you can use fittings on the 2 ends without cutting the pipe. We wasted a lot of pipe but they usually got it.
I may have had some goof offs, but they coould bend pipe when they left.
