Ever since I've worked at the real estate school, I've heard these complaints:
The license exam is meaningless.
Its content is irrevelant to the job.
It tests facts that one will never use.
It does not show who will succeed in real estate or who can do real estate.
It only shows that a person can memorize answers.
Once the test is taken, everything on it will be forgotten.
It's just a hurdle to keep people out of the business.
Now AMP (Applied Measurement Professionals, Inc.) has responded to your complaints.
And I say, "Be careful what you wish for."
Applied Measurement Professionals (AMP) has developed a unique testing devise called a Simulation Exam. This exam is used only for the National portion of the Managing Broker exam. Those testing to become a managing broker must take the Simulation Exam for the National portion and a standard multiple-choice exam for the State portion.
For those taking salesperson or entry-level broker exams, both the State and National portions will be standard multiple-choice exams.
Before reading further, go to:
http://www.goamp.com/repSimTests.aspx and look at some free sample problems provided by AMP. Try the first test. When you're finished, go to the evaluation sheet to see your score and how your responses were graded.
While multiple-choice exams test knowledge regarding the type of information presented in your course – definitions, concepts, etc. – a Simulation Exam does not. It is intended to test a person’s ability to make decisions. This is what a managing broker does. He may have a vague recollect of facts about life estates or adverse possession, but immediate recall of these facts are generally not very relevant to his responsibilities. Instead, he must know what and where to get information AND what to do with it once he has it.
According to AMP, the Simulation Exam's purpose is to assess “higher order thinking related to a content area of interest.” Presented with a realistic scenario, a person is presented with statements testing:
- What does a managing broker need to know to make a decision?
Choices presented include those facts he does need to know (correct choices) and those he does not need to know and those he may ask for, but he does not need to know (both these categories are incorrect response choices).
- What decision should he make based on the information he should know?
If you know one of your licensees violated a law or rule, do you: report him to the licensing agency? fire him? consult an attorney? or counsel him?.
To make the exam more challenging, special rules apply:
1. Each scenario has a different number of options.
2. In some scenarios, you are told there is only one correct option.
3. In others, you are told a number of options may be correct. The fun part is that you are not told how many are correct and you may not go back and change answers. The theory is that in real life, there are a number of actions you may take in response to a situation and you generally cannot go back and change your mind after you made the decision.
5. Each option has a different weight (e.g., 1 or 2 points).
6. If you fail to mark a correct option as being correct, you get no points.
7. If you mark an incorrect answer as being correct, you actually lose points. (You could get most of the choices for a scenario correct and still get a minus score, due to the minuses and their weight.)
Next blog provides some tips on taking this exam.