Licensed Appraiser Exam Failure -

[crown1king]

I really need some help / advice.

I have been a appraiser assistant for over 3 years in NYS.
I have complete all my hours / reports etc and signed up for the exam. I have taken all the required classes and re-read my books and taken online prep tests through different websites.

I have now failed the test twice for licensed appraiser.

Is there another other way to prep for this exam?
Are their tutors out there?
Anyone have any advice.

 

[Tom D]

wow, i remember when the test 1st happened. i would ask the previous people what questions they remembered. there were questions that i never thought about. anyway , waiting to the last minute to get the 1st time certification i decided to take pages of definitions in my back pockets. asking to take a break my friend and i went to the bathroom, it was held in a high school. needless to say i did pass the exam. i did have my SRA designation from the institute, so i wasn't a dope. the funniest part of that was that we ended up in the girls bathroom at the school. didn't realize it till much later. was wandering why there were no urinals in that bathroom. if you did the appraisal test books then i can't figure out what to do. the appraiser who you work for doesn't help you with questions? maybe a retired appraiser?

 

[Meandering]

Did you write down all the questions you had an issue with, when taking the test?

 

[J Grant]

some schools have cram courses for the exams, look at appraisal schools such as gold coast

 

[Eli]

You have to study more. Get all the sample questions you can find and study, study, and then study some more. Include the materials you received in your prequisite curriculum courses and study study study. Every time you come across something you didn’t know or forgot, write it down and go back later and study it some more. Don’t wait too long after you do all this studying to take the test. I would say study 30 hours a week for 3 months and you’ll be fine. You may feel confident before that long, but you get my drift. If you don’t feel confident after that long, keep studying.

 

[Deleted member 134708]

I'd argue part of your bosses end of the bargin is to give you guidance thru the whole process. I'd put this on his plate. It reflects poorly on them as a trainer.

It seems ashame they didn't prepare you with all the knowledge. Seems you may have just been used by them. It's a 2 way street. I work for cheap, you teach and guide me through the whole processes.

 

[George Hatch]

In counterpoint, one of the vagaries of this type of testing is that they're looking for the answer from the texts. The correct answer, which is sometimes not exactly the right answer. When you get more experience and start seeing exceptions to the rule or a more nuanced understanding of the principles and applications the wording of the questions and answers can contain absolutes that you have come to understand from experience are not always the case.

Long story short, you're trying to pass a test based on the lowest common denominator; based on texts that are aimed at raw recruits for whom the material is all abstracts to them because they've never seen anything.

I saw the same thing back in 1991 when experienced appraisers were repeatedly failing the tests because their understanding was more nuanced than the texts. My advice is to go back through the texts and the quizzes in those texts until you get on the same page with some of the absolutes they're using in a basic concepts/principles instruction.

 

[Koya]

I agree you should be going over this with your mentor.

That being said, you could give some more info about where the problem areas are. Are you running out of time or is there plenty of time? Are there certain types of questions that you just don't get (don't know what they're driving at or don't know what to do to get to what they want)? Do you know what they want but have trouble remembering the answer or formula in a test situation? The first is a time management problem, the second is likely a conceptual understanding problem, and the third is a memory problem.

 

[J Grant]

I hate the way tests are presented...almost more like traps to confuse with some of the answers, rather than really testing appraisal knowledge. Like two answers are both "right" in a multiple choice, but one just a hair off due to a word dropped in to confuse.

 

[timd354]

anyway , waiting to the last minute to get the 1st time certification i decided to take pages of definitions in my back pockets. asking to take a break my friend and i went to the bathroom, it was held in a high school. needless to say i did pass the exam.

Nice, so you cheated to pass the exam and now you are dumb enough to come out and announce to the world that you and your friend both cheated. That's just great, what a great reflection on our profession