BiggerPockets

Well, last night I took the school exam. Its required to pass before I take the state exam.

I felt confident I would pass. I know I wouldn't get a 100% but I felt confident.

Take a guess if I passed or failed. I needed a 75% to pass and it was the first time I took it.

You passed!! 99% right?

If you finished that quickly, you would have passed, and probably got between 95 to 100%.

Congrats on passing the school test, the state exam will be much the same!

After all, if you had the feeling you bombed the test, I doubt you would have posted anything about it! LOL

One hour and 12 minutes, you know the material.

You passed, no problem, now go pass that state exam.

I'm going to guess FAIL.

In fact, my guess is that you finished so quickly because you forgot to answer half the questions, and the other half you answered in essay form, even though they were multiple-choice.

Oh, and the dirty pictures you drew on the test probably got another 30 points taken off.

I can't believe you failed...sheesh...

EDIT: I ACTUALLY POSTED THIS AT THE EXACT SAME TIME AS YOURS ABOVE, SO I DIDN'T KNOW YOU FAILED. SORRY ABOUT RUBBING IT IN!!!

[b] WHAT?
[/b] YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING!

OK, no more playtime young man!

The tests won't be any tricker than as they were originally presented.

Jason, right, like that really happens on BP...;)

My biggest problem areas were in areas that I have/had absolutely no interest in.

For instance, Appraisals. I spent an entire class on appraisals, how they're done etc.... Obviously not as detailed as if you were becoming an appraiser but if I'm not allowed by law to appraise, why on earth would you make me sit through a 4 hour class?

Another was commercial real estate & financing. I have no interest in buying/selling/owning or representing either side in a commercial real estate transaction. I really wish they would take that out of the standard licensing class. Its soooo much different than residential real estate. I could really care less about bridge loans, take downs and large commercial development projects.

Another being Property Management. Lastly, I confuse certain dates. For instance, the civil rights act and how it relates to real estate. Whatever happened in 1974, 1988. Handicap stuff etc...

You can see my lack of knowledge, interest in just the way I described the last topic :)

Those were and are my weak points. Am I concerned about it in the 'real world'? nope. I just gotta know enough to pass the test regarding these topics. Thats my weakness. Everything else, I'm fine on.

That is a very good point. I think I care so less about the particular topics because I already know that I don't care about them as topics in general. It does make it harder to absorb the information needed to pass the test this way.

Was it a PSI Exam? In the Dixie states, most state licenses go through PSI exams.

Having taken both the RE Agent exam and the GC Residential Basic exam, I can sympathize with your plight.

The questions are rarely 'trick' questions, but they are often 'tricky'. Study guides are not 100% true to the test, and so flash-carding the test beforehand will only get you so far (As you've learned)

A lot of people like to brag that they "COMPLETED MY TEST IN ONLY ONE HOUR! I HAD 4 HOURS LEFT! LOLOLOL!"... I think this is a mistake.

I have a great education from a damn hard school in a degree program that tended to flush people out. I am no stranger to taking hard tests (The longest final I ever took was about 6 hours)...

On every PSI exam I've taken, I'm careful to use up as much time as I darn well please. When I took the GC Exam, I was the last person from the morning session to leave the test center (I passed)

My strategy works like this... go through the test and answer the questions that match your flash-card questions. MARK any question that doesn't fit 100%... then come back to it.

On the second pass through the test, answer the low-hanging fruit questions first. The ones that will only take you a minute or so to figure out. MARK every other question.

Keep doing this... take your time. READ the question... then answer it... Then READ the question again to make sure that it is asking what you think it's asking.

After you've got an answer, unless another question points you at a different answer, resist the urge to go back and change your answers... sometimes a gut response is the correct response.

Most of all, take your time. You've got all the time in the world on these tests, so don't try and impress the guy next to you by blazing through the thing in 45 minutes, then walking out 2% shy of passing when you still had more than 3 hours on the clock.

Just my advice, YMMV.

Aaron, I'm not sure what a PSI exam is.

Also, please don't dwell on the fact that I finished quickly. I wasn't making that statement to impress anyone. My point was is that I felt I had studied well enough and knew most of the material well enough NOT to spend 30 minutes on each question.

Yes, I failed but I can assure you it had nothing to do with the amount of time it took me. I knew it was gonna be close due to the subjects/topics I was/am weak in.

If anything, I'm proud of myself in my ability to blaze through and get such a high score because of my studying. This isn't about the time it took me.

I'm scheduled to retake the test on Tuesday 6/1/2011 and I'm even more positive not only will I blaze right through it again(b/c of my knowledge in my strong areas) but also because I'll know exactly my weak points and focus on those. But that I will also receive a much higher passing score.