How hard was your Certified Residential Test?

[Dwayne Drummond]

I had a similar experiance with Suzi and Dan from earlier post, far more income property questions than I expected for a residential exam. I had just completed AB III and the exit test from that course was very helpful. I passed on the first attempt last week, took 1.5 hrs. The major difference on my CR test and the AB III exit was Band of Investment and Mortgage constant problems.

 

[RobertTurner]

I just passed my CR exam this morning. My experience was somewhere between the previous posts. I felt really confident due to the degree of people who said they finished in 30 mins.

I have a lot of education and feel that I'm a great test taker.

It took me 60 minutes to finish the test and I spent 15 minutes checking my answers over. I can definitely see how some people took the test 3 times. If you haven't prepared and have good general knowledge in the field you will not pass.

The things that surprised me:

Forgot that there would be questions regarding licensing rules, for example: how many days can you be late on renewing your license before you just have to retake the CE, or before you have to recomply with all the licensing education and experience requirements

FNMA requirements: I had a question asking what is the FNMA requirement for comparables in a new condo development. I said that at least one condo must come from outside the subject development which just matches my personal experience.

Forgot how to calculate standard deviation which is embarrassing given the amount of stat classes I've had.

Forgot how to determine the amount of interest paid in an amortization schedule over x time. The question asked you to find the cost of buying down the rate on a loan from 9% to 8%.

Reading was definitely key on the exam. There were probably 6 questions that I answered incorrectly the first time around due to simple reading issues. The problems were pretty tricky in some areas especially if you try to read into the questions.

Practical application was also important. One question said that market GRM were 106, 128, 129, 130, 130, 130, 130 & 146 and given that what is the value of the property given the subject rent. The average did not match any of the answers so I presumed that they wanted me to exclude the statistical outliers (106 & 146) and then use the average of the remaining data which then provide a correct answer.

Best of luck to all and hope the above helps.

Bottom line is I agree if you can't pass the test I just took you shouldn't be an appraiser.

Rob Turner

 

[Ajax in CA]

Contratulations!

I had a similar experiance with Suzi and Dan from earlier post, far more income property questions than I expected for a residential exam. I had just completed AB III and the exit test from that course was very helpful. I passed on the first attempt last week, took 1.5 hrs. The major difference on my CR test and the AB III exit was Band of Investment and Mortgage constant problems.

Which test had more Band of Investment and Mortgage Constant problems, the CR or the AB III? I hear they have about 8 different tests, some of which have quite a bit of math. Congratulations on passing!

Ajax

 

[byzbl16]

Taking 2008 Certified test

I just received my upgrade letter from the Ca OREA to take the Certified AR Exam. Anyone have an idea what to expect since it is under the new 2008 quidelines?

 

[Dwayne Drummond]

AB III, Income Capitalization is the course.

 

[byzbl16]

Thanks for the info.