Scaled Scoring on the new exam?

[Nancy Lykins]

I agree with you Amy. Some of the questions did not seem appropriate for the level of the test. I recalll one question about a warehouse and inventory that I also felt was over the top. These kinds of questions are not something that was taught in the classes I took, however maybe this is what we should expect in the future classes.

 

[BR549]

Took the exam today, there were 165 questions on the exam, but only 150 on the score sheet. I got 101 right and received a 69/Fail. I took the compucram and scored 81 on the exam which "guaranteed" me to pass. My problems were basically the ambigious qustions and my weekness with the GRM, NPI, all the income stuff, which I never use. I have only 5 statisic questions, which I really studied hard for. And there were a ton of depreciation questions. Unfortenatly, I did not know how to answer the questions, to calculate the depreciation you have to know if the economic life is TOTAL economic life or REMAINING economic life, I have a lot of questions that said "Effective age X, estimated economic life X." Does anyone know which economic to use in that case?? Is that the TOTAL OR REMAINING, without that there is no way to calculate the deprec. rate. (Am I missing something here??)
Also I had a lot of repeat questions. I forgot the difference between assemblge and plotting, (MY BAD)and the same question regarding that was on the test 4 TIMES!!!
Seems like none of the easy questions were repeated! HA

 

[BR549]

Also I thought I read here that there were about 85 questions, break and then the remainder. I got up at 5 drove 2 hours to the test site, no coffee shops in the vicinity (Arlington TX) then went in and found I had to take the entire 6 hour test without anything but a water fountain and a rest room. So beware- take some candy in your pocket to keep the blood sugar up!

 

[Steer]

Also I thought I read here that there were about 85 questions, break and then the remainder. I got up at 5 drove 2 hours to the test site, no coffee shops in the vicinity (Arlington TX) then went in and found I had to take the entire 6 hour test without anything but a water fountain and a rest room. So beware- take some candy in your pocket to keep the blood sugar up!

I took mine Friday and received a failed score of 71. 75 is passing. I studied for weeks and used compucram. I think my test questions were similar to your previous post. I'm not a particulary good test taker-never have been, but this test really did seem to be more theoretical application where several of the answers could be considered to be the right answer. Almost every question on the test was a math based paragrah word problem.

Of course, there were questions that I don't ever recall seeing explained in any of my study material either.

Oh well, Better luck next time!

 

[Doug Wegener]

All of the above results bring up the question?

Which provider has the best material to study for the exam?

 

[Artyman1200]

I will sit for the exam around Jan-Feb '09. I have been using learnappraising.com, which from what I've read is better than compucram. I have found it to be very helpful. It's like $60 for one year's access. I've taken 7 of the courses required for the MAI and I won't need to take anymore before the exam as I fall under the old education requirements. I think between the AI courses and learnappraising.com you shouldn't need anything else.

Additionally, I've gone back through each courses and typed up condensed versions so I can study more efficiently and retain more information. This helps avoid confusion with terminology like plottage vs. assemblage if you were to just breeze through a coursebook. I think you have to write or type the information if you want to better retain it. One thing is for sure, you can't rely on experience alone to pass the test. You have to go back and brush up on theory and terminology that you don't use on a daily basis.

However, the age/life method to depreciation is pretty basic. I would think that most commercial trainees would have a grasp on its calculation and the associated terms. No offense to anyone...

 

[wickedness1]

I will sit for the exam around Jan-Feb '09. I have been using learnappraising.com, which from what I've read is better than compucram. I have found it to be very helpful. It's like $60 for one year's access. I've taken 7 of the courses required for the MAI and I won't need to take anymore before the exam as I fall under the old education requirements. I think between the AI courses and learnappraising.com you shouldn't need anything else.

Additionally, I've gone back through each courses and typed up condensed versions so I can study more efficiently and retain more information. This helps avoid confusion with terminology like plottage vs. assemblage if you were to just breeze through a coursebook. I think you have to write or type the information if you want to better retain it. One thing is for sure, you can't rely on experience alone to pass the test. You have to go back and brush up on theory and terminology that you don't use on a daily basis.

However, the age/life method to depreciation is pretty basic. I would think that most commercial trainees would have a grasp on its calculation and the associated terms. No offense to anyone...

I recently took the Certified Exam & I highly recommend that you also study CompuCram. LearnApprasising is good witht he math but CompuCram is "better" with the wording of the test questions, IMO.

Write the definitions out on note cards! Keep reviewing your note cards. That's what really helped me to

Good Luck

 

[nex2beach]

To Farmguy...

For your information, the Appraisal Foundation, through private psychometric test firms, solicited questions from various appraisers to be utilized in the formation of a new exam. The majority of the questions utilized were obtained from Appraisers from Appraisal Institute. These questions became the basis of the Appraisal Foundation's new test question bank. Then, these questions were incorporated into a number of new exams with time constraints-per-question, order-of-sequence and "scaling". The result is a test that contains numerous indirect and confusing questions, and answers that often do not relate to the question. Check with the Appraisal Standards Board about this issue.

If this were not the case, a competent and knowledgeable person could easily pass the test! If you know the material, and you don't have to deal with arcane or difficult test formats, you should be able to pass the test. Right!

We in the appraisal industry don't need such convoluted tests... all that does is reduce the number of appraisers over time. Instead, we need to have more effectively qualified appraisers so that our industry can be actively represented at both the state and federal levels. Currently, we get blamed for nearly everything wrong that happens in bank or mortgage lending. It would be nice if we had strong representation to keep us from being punished unfairly. Just my two cents worth.

 

[TICK TOCK]

I recently passed the Certified General exam, and like those who post here I to was looking for some help, here's how I did it.
First- make sure you mark and skip every math question until the end, do all other questions first, also I used steve williamson's web site, he actually had some influence on the test questions, his math questions on the prep course are almost identicle to the test, his course is high priced ($295) but for some it's crunch time and you may want to consider it. I also used learnappraising.com and it helped with the non math questions. Good luck

 

[Artyman1200]

I recently passed the Certified General exam, and like those who post here I to was looking for some help, here's how I did it.
First- make sure you mark and skip every math question until the end, do all other questions first, also I used steve williamson's web site, he actually had some influence on the test questions, his math questions on the prep course are almost identicle to the test, his course is high priced ($295) but for some it's crunch time and you may want to consider it. I also used learnappraising.com and it helped with the non math questions. Good luck

If I'm using learnappraising.com and reviewing the course books, is Williamson's course necessary? $295 is alot, but if it means I breeze through the test when I couldn't do it otherwise I suppose I would buy it.