I took and passed my lic exam in 2001 and cert exam in 2005. Due to a career change in 08 I foolishly allowed my lic to expire. I have retaken the classes and I'm now preparing to take the CA lic exam. With so many changes, the test being a lot more difficult and having a 60 year old memory I'm looking for the best test study program available. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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Test study (cram) programs/classes
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SpartanAG
Member
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2008
- Professional Status
- Certified General Appraiser
- State
- Arkansas
For computer studying I used CompuCram. I liked the questions and format. It is set up similar to the way the test is presented on computer.
For book studying I used the quiz's and books from my classes and "The Student Handbook to The Appraisal of Real Estate, 13th Edition (Mark Ratterman)" from the Appraisal Institute.
And of course the most current version of USPAP. I would look up answers from CompuCram that I didn't know. I also found the FAQ's in the back to be helpful.
Results may vary depending on your learning style, but this worked for me.
Best of luck on your exam!
For book studying I used the quiz's and books from my classes and "The Student Handbook to The Appraisal of Real Estate, 13th Edition (Mark Ratterman)" from the Appraisal Institute.
And of course the most current version of USPAP. I would look up answers from CompuCram that I didn't know. I also found the FAQ's in the back to be helpful.
Results may vary depending on your learning style, but this worked for me.
Best of luck on your exam!
RBAF35
Freshman Member
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2012
- Professional Status
- Certified General Appraiser
- State
- Florida
Like you, I was once licensed and then because of a career change allowed my license to lapse. In my instance, I began my commercial real estate appraisal career right out of college in 1986; that was under the old system, where, in the state of Florida, you were licensed to appraise under the real estate sales broker license. In 1995, I went over to the commercial real estate finance side of the business; during this time. I stayed very current on appraisal theory and technology because I was interacting with appraisers on an ongoing basis, including time as a correspondent lender, during which I was the client ordering and reviewing appraisals. Nevertheless, I was out of the business of providing field appraisal work, for a long time.
I had to retake the full USPAP course and examination, which although I complained about the time, nevertheless, helped me to prepare for the national portion of the Certified General Exam. I too went looking for a good online cram course to prepare me for the eight hour exam. As you might guess, and as might be to your benefit, most of what is available is geared toward the residential exams.
I downloaded the CompuCram trial and found it to be good in general, but lacking with respect to the elements of commercial appraising, which are included in the Certified General exam. Consequently, I did not order the full version. I did quite a bit of research in online prep courses and could find very little that was geared specifically toward The Certified General Exam, which was frustrating, but which may not impact you.
I stumbled onto the learnappraising.com website and found that it had preparation for both the residential and commercial exams. I wound up purchasing a yearly subscription, even though I needed for just a few days. It was reasonably cost-effective, and in line with CompuCram. I assume the annual subscription allows them greater control over the content as you are not actually downloading software.
Although it is far from perfect I found it to be useful in preparation for the Certified General exam. One thing that I did find helpful was they offer "cheat sheets" which you can use sort of like flashcards to study the high points of formulas definitions methodologies etc.
The website also contains a pretty good section on appraisal mathematics which includes explanations for calculating fractions, percentages etc. It also gives a good overview of financial applications utilized in appraising. I am not sure how much of the exam is geared specifically toward measurement techniques, but I do know there were a number of questions on the exam, and this website has a section titled "Measurement Techniques", which was helpful.
The study material does not cover everything on the exam, but pretty much everything in the study materials was on the exam, if that makes sense. In other words, I would study more than what is available with a subscription, but it is certainly good advice to study everything on the site. Again, they have sections geared specifically toward residential appraising and commercial appraising, so you can focus your study that way.
For what it's worth, I will offer a few observations on the national portion of the Certified General Appraiser exam.
1. There are a lot of math, and USPAP questions on the exam;
2. I started my appraisal experience right out of college in the late 1980s and because of the interest rate environment (for those of you too young to remember we were in a period of prolonged high inflation, which, in turn, resulted in high interest rates for commercial and residential real estate loans) there was a lot of seller financing, which required a significant amount of Cash Equivalency adjustments. Moreover, the loan documents were much more assumption friendly, particularly with residential (a significant number were fully assumable with no borrower qualifications), and so a number of loans made from a low interest period were being assumed; sellers were paying points etc. I found very little need for Cash Equivalency adjustments after the early 1990s. So, I was a little rusty on some of these concepts and I was surprised at the amount that was on the exam. None of the material that I read suggested there would be as much, as I consider there to be, on the actual exam. My advice, obviously, is to bone up on Cash Equivalency calculations. I suspect, though I certainly don't know, there would be a fair amount of this on the residential exam.
3. As stated above, there is a lot of math on the Certified General exam. You need to remember 43560, or the amount square feet in an acre; memorize the amount of acreage in a Township, Section, etc. you'll need to know this especially if you are a part of the country where they do not utilize this system for legal descriptions and so you may not be familiar at all. There were a number of questions in which you are required to calculate the value of a property, when you're given a market value per square foot, but not the actual size of the property. You have to be able to calculate the size of the property, based on it being one half of the Northeast one quarter, etc.
4. One question which caught me completely flat-footed, because I saw nothing in any material that suggested it would be on the exam. It was just one question, so it's not that big of a deal, but it would've been otherwise easy question. That is, they gave you a scenario whereby you are required to calculate the square feet of the surface area of a circle. I had not seen the formula for many years, but had memorized it 20 years ago. For those of you don't know, the formula is pi R squared, where pi equals 3.14 and R equals Radius; you also need to remember that radius equals one half of the diameter.
5. In some parts of the country, and particularly with regard to residential appraisers, it is, apparently, standard to think of a Gross Rent Multiplier based on a factor of monthly rent. When I first started appraising commercial properties, it seemed I would get a lot of assignments of older properties, which might include an element of residential units, such as a retail strip center with four apartments over the top. I found that using gross rent multipliers, for adjustments to that portion of the income stream, attributable to the apartments, was quite effective. But I never calculated this on a monthly basis; it was always a gross rent multiplier, based on the annual income. That is no big deal except the fact that in the exam it is not clear, which they are referring to. My advice is to assume that it is a monthly multiplier unless it is otherwise explicit.
6. Regarding multipliers, read the questions carefully as there will likely be questions in which you were given a Gross Rent Multiplier versus a Gross Income Multiplier, and vice versa. Note that gross income includes all income whereas Gross Rent is based solely on the scheduled rent, whether you have additional income or not. Accordingly, it will likely give you some information about ancillary income and depending on the wording you will either need to include this or not. During an eight hour examination, in one room, sitting on one chair, starring at one computer screen, mental, as well as physical, fatigue comes in to play and I almost missed one question because of a very minor amount of ancillary income.
7. During the Certified General Exam, as indicated above, fatigue, boredom from repetition, to say nothing of Adult Attention Deficit Disorder, I found became a major factor. During the first half exam I was quite confident that I was doing extremely well. By the last half, my mind, not to mention my posterior was becoming numb. If there's any way that you can take one day and attempt to replicate the scenario this might be helpful.
That's all I have the time I have for now. If anyone has any questions, with regard to preparing for the national portion of the Certified General exam feel free to ask.
By the way, I passed the exam and the good news is the results are instantaneous. The bad news is that other than meeting the minimum threshold, at least in the state of Florida, you have no idea how many questions you answered correctly, or incorrectly. You're allowed to go back and audit the questions if you failed the exam, but if you pass it is not allowed. Frankly, I think this is ridiculous, but that's the way it is.
I had to retake the full USPAP course and examination, which although I complained about the time, nevertheless, helped me to prepare for the national portion of the Certified General Exam. I too went looking for a good online cram course to prepare me for the eight hour exam. As you might guess, and as might be to your benefit, most of what is available is geared toward the residential exams.
I downloaded the CompuCram trial and found it to be good in general, but lacking with respect to the elements of commercial appraising, which are included in the Certified General exam. Consequently, I did not order the full version. I did quite a bit of research in online prep courses and could find very little that was geared specifically toward The Certified General Exam, which was frustrating, but which may not impact you.
I stumbled onto the learnappraising.com website and found that it had preparation for both the residential and commercial exams. I wound up purchasing a yearly subscription, even though I needed for just a few days. It was reasonably cost-effective, and in line with CompuCram. I assume the annual subscription allows them greater control over the content as you are not actually downloading software.
Although it is far from perfect I found it to be useful in preparation for the Certified General exam. One thing that I did find helpful was they offer "cheat sheets" which you can use sort of like flashcards to study the high points of formulas definitions methodologies etc.
The website also contains a pretty good section on appraisal mathematics which includes explanations for calculating fractions, percentages etc. It also gives a good overview of financial applications utilized in appraising. I am not sure how much of the exam is geared specifically toward measurement techniques, but I do know there were a number of questions on the exam, and this website has a section titled "Measurement Techniques", which was helpful.
The study material does not cover everything on the exam, but pretty much everything in the study materials was on the exam, if that makes sense. In other words, I would study more than what is available with a subscription, but it is certainly good advice to study everything on the site. Again, they have sections geared specifically toward residential appraising and commercial appraising, so you can focus your study that way.
For what it's worth, I will offer a few observations on the national portion of the Certified General Appraiser exam.
1. There are a lot of math, and USPAP questions on the exam;
2. I started my appraisal experience right out of college in the late 1980s and because of the interest rate environment (for those of you too young to remember we were in a period of prolonged high inflation, which, in turn, resulted in high interest rates for commercial and residential real estate loans) there was a lot of seller financing, which required a significant amount of Cash Equivalency adjustments. Moreover, the loan documents were much more assumption friendly, particularly with residential (a significant number were fully assumable with no borrower qualifications), and so a number of loans made from a low interest period were being assumed; sellers were paying points etc. I found very little need for Cash Equivalency adjustments after the early 1990s. So, I was a little rusty on some of these concepts and I was surprised at the amount that was on the exam. None of the material that I read suggested there would be as much, as I consider there to be, on the actual exam. My advice, obviously, is to bone up on Cash Equivalency calculations. I suspect, though I certainly don't know, there would be a fair amount of this on the residential exam.
3. As stated above, there is a lot of math on the Certified General exam. You need to remember 43560, or the amount square feet in an acre; memorize the amount of acreage in a Township, Section, etc. you'll need to know this especially if you are a part of the country where they do not utilize this system for legal descriptions and so you may not be familiar at all. There were a number of questions in which you are required to calculate the value of a property, when you're given a market value per square foot, but not the actual size of the property. You have to be able to calculate the size of the property, based on it being one half of the Northeast one quarter, etc.
4. One question which caught me completely flat-footed, because I saw nothing in any material that suggested it would be on the exam. It was just one question, so it's not that big of a deal, but it would've been otherwise easy question. That is, they gave you a scenario whereby you are required to calculate the square feet of the surface area of a circle. I had not seen the formula for many years, but had memorized it 20 years ago. For those of you don't know, the formula is pi R squared, where pi equals 3.14 and R equals Radius; you also need to remember that radius equals one half of the diameter.
5. In some parts of the country, and particularly with regard to residential appraisers, it is, apparently, standard to think of a Gross Rent Multiplier based on a factor of monthly rent. When I first started appraising commercial properties, it seemed I would get a lot of assignments of older properties, which might include an element of residential units, such as a retail strip center with four apartments over the top. I found that using gross rent multipliers, for adjustments to that portion of the income stream, attributable to the apartments, was quite effective. But I never calculated this on a monthly basis; it was always a gross rent multiplier, based on the annual income. That is no big deal except the fact that in the exam it is not clear, which they are referring to. My advice is to assume that it is a monthly multiplier unless it is otherwise explicit.
6. Regarding multipliers, read the questions carefully as there will likely be questions in which you were given a Gross Rent Multiplier versus a Gross Income Multiplier, and vice versa. Note that gross income includes all income whereas Gross Rent is based solely on the scheduled rent, whether you have additional income or not. Accordingly, it will likely give you some information about ancillary income and depending on the wording you will either need to include this or not. During an eight hour examination, in one room, sitting on one chair, starring at one computer screen, mental, as well as physical, fatigue comes in to play and I almost missed one question because of a very minor amount of ancillary income.
7. During the Certified General Exam, as indicated above, fatigue, boredom from repetition, to say nothing of Adult Attention Deficit Disorder, I found became a major factor. During the first half exam I was quite confident that I was doing extremely well. By the last half, my mind, not to mention my posterior was becoming numb. If there's any way that you can take one day and attempt to replicate the scenario this might be helpful.
That's all I have the time I have for now. If anyone has any questions, with regard to preparing for the national portion of the Certified General exam feel free to ask.
By the way, I passed the exam and the good news is the results are instantaneous. The bad news is that other than meeting the minimum threshold, at least in the state of Florida, you have no idea how many questions you answered correctly, or incorrectly. You're allowed to go back and audit the questions if you failed the exam, but if you pass it is not allowed. Frankly, I think this is ridiculous, but that's the way it is.
Last edited:
RBAF35, Thank you for your thoughtful and detailed reply. After checking out the CompuCram trial I also settled on learnappraising.com.
I'm amazed as to how much harder the new test is compared to the pre-2008 test. Although all the studying required is affording a deeper understanding of the appraisal process than I had before.
The last four years I owned a retail store which I thought would support us until retirement. Oh well life happens. I enjoyed appraising and am looking forward to getting back to it. However the test really has me worried, so far I'm scoring 82-83 on the practice tests but I know that's not going to cut it on the real test.
It's been seven months since I sold the store and I need to start earning quickly. I'm hoping that I will take the test in one to two weeks (end of Jan.), hopefully get some work by the middle to end of Feb. and maybe start seeing income by the end of March. So it is really important for me to pass the test on the first try. The first time around I passed both the License and Cert tests on the first try but this time I'm feeling a lot more pressure.
Thanks again for the information.
I'm amazed as to how much harder the new test is compared to the pre-2008 test. Although all the studying required is affording a deeper understanding of the appraisal process than I had before.
The last four years I owned a retail store which I thought would support us until retirement. Oh well life happens. I enjoyed appraising and am looking forward to getting back to it. However the test really has me worried, so far I'm scoring 82-83 on the practice tests but I know that's not going to cut it on the real test.
It's been seven months since I sold the store and I need to start earning quickly. I'm hoping that I will take the test in one to two weeks (end of Jan.), hopefully get some work by the middle to end of Feb. and maybe start seeing income by the end of March. So it is really important for me to pass the test on the first try. The first time around I passed both the License and Cert tests on the first try but this time I'm feeling a lot more pressure.
Thanks again for the information.
Last edited:
dacsavannah
Sophomore Member
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2008
- Professional Status
- Certified General Appraiser
- State
- Georgia
There are several threads on the forum that relate to preparing for the CG exam . . . I would search for and find them all, then make a checklist of topics to study by condensing all of the recommendations people make. I have links to several of the threads that I will post once I am at my other computer.
While I'm at it: USPAP, USPAP, USPAP -- study it very thoroughly and expect to be asked about ANY portion, obscure or not
While I'm at it: USPAP, USPAP, USPAP -- study it very thoroughly and expect to be asked about ANY portion, obscure or not
dacsavannah
Sophomore Member
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2008
- Professional Status
- Certified General Appraiser
- State
- Georgia
By the way, several people have said that neither Compucram or Learnappraising were sufficient in preparing for the CG, although that may have changed as they could have updated their material to be commensurate with the newer exam.
Last edited:
dacsavannah
Sophomore Member
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2008
- Professional Status
- Certified General Appraiser
- State
- Georgia
links to other threads
[url]http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=168129[/URL]
[url]http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=162748[/URL]
[url]http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=182357[/URL]
[url]http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=154531[/URL]
[url]http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=171423[/URL]
[url]http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=156124[/URL]
[url]http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=189226[/URL]
[url]http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=187744[/URL]
[url]http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=168129[/URL]
[url]http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=162748[/URL]
[url]http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=182357[/URL]
[url]http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=154531[/URL]
[url]http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=171423[/URL]
[url]http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=156124[/URL]
[url]http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=189226[/URL]
[url]http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=187744[/URL]
dacsavannah
Sophomore Member
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2008
- Professional Status
- Certified General Appraiser
- State
- Georgia
lots of good info on those threads. send me a private message and I'll e-mail you some other info.
Thank you for the links. There is a lot of good info while at the same time a lot of the comments concerning how hard the test is scares the crap out of me.
Anyway I have passed the test before and with a lot of study I think I'll do OK. That said I signed up to take the test 1/24.
Anyway I have passed the test before and with a lot of study I think I'll do OK. That said I signed up to take the test 1/24.
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