2011 Exam...

[Jonathan]

Hey all,

So to all those examinees...How was the exam? What did you think? To
easy? To hard? Just right? I would like to keep this group active for
folks that are still preparing their applications for next years
exam!

I am part of the exam committee as well and had a hand in some
questions so your input would be appreciated...of course without
getting specific! ;)

[Liz Hughston]

Oh come on: you can be specific ;)

Getting apprehensive about next year's exam already!

Thanks, Jonathan, for keeping this group active.  Nice to meet you in person last week, too!

Liz

[Jonathan]

Really great I got to meet you and Ken! I was hoping that I would!

On Sep 21, 2:53 pm, Liz Hughston <mackhughs...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Oh come on: you can be specific ;)
>
> Getting apprehensive about next year's exam already!
>
> Thanks, Jonathan, for keeping this group active.  Nice to meet you in person
> last week, too!
>
> Liz
>

[Kenichiro Yagi]

Hey Jonathan,

It was great meeting you too!

My thoughts regarding the exam:
1. Difficulty level in questions differed. Some were pure
memorization, and some used some thinking.
2. Most of the questions I had to guess on, was a "oh man, I forgot/
didn't have time to go over this"
3. 4 questions, my response was "never heard of this, nor do I know
what the answer choices are"
4. I walked out feeling with a strong possibility of failing, but with
some hope I'd pass.
5. My feelings about where I am in my professional development was
confirmed with the exam. "I am not quite worthy to be called a VTS.
Since where I want to be is beyond being certified, whether I pass
this year or not, I have so much more to learn."
6. The process of applying and sitting the exam has pushed me even
further as a technician. Thank you.

The agreement we had to sign upon taking the exam was:

"I pledge that I have had no prior exposure to materials related to
this examination other than the general information sent to me by the
Academy. I pledge not to duplicate, reconstruct or verbally
disseminate any part of this examination for use by others realizing
that it is unethical and constitutes grounds for immediate
disqualification and/or invalidation of the examination."

I'm a bit disappointed that this means I can't make up any mock
questions for myself and others. I felt that was a great learning tool
for myself. I do fully understand the reason behind it, however, and I
agree with it fully.

Ken

[Jonathan]

Those are great thoughts Ken. You should definitely shoot for that and
not be satisfied with certification. It definitely is a step, but not
the last.

As for mock exams....I agree with what you are saying. It would be
tough for you to make one up at this point but I do know of one and I
will see if it would be alright to send to you.

jon

> > > > getting specific! ;)- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[amy flint]

jon,
i'd really like to push for access to a mock exam, i've been asking the committee since first looking at this accreditation 3 years ago, but on the whole i find them very protective. I recognise that there are some sample questions in the exam guide, but i don't feel they are realistic enough. I know there's a mock exam each year at IVECCs, but being so far away I find that very restrictive.  Here in australia, this is the only way we can expand our knowledge beyond the standard and I would be honored to build my skill/knowledge to that of, and beyond the accreditation. I don't want a 40hour round trip being the barrier to the expansion of my knowledge.
I think the mock exam  is not only an important study tool, so focous points can be created, but a great starting point for candidites wishing to apply to assess where their knowledge base is at.

just my 2 cents
-amy

> Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2011 02:59:14 -0700
> Subject: Re: 2011 Exam...
> From: jonatha...@gmail.com
> To: AVECCT...@googlegroups.com

[Jonathan]

Actually Amy, there is a whole exam guide being prepared. It will be
completely updated and more thorough. I heard this past week that it
will be available the first part of the new year. I'll will keep you
update. :)

jon

On Sep 24, 3:59 am, amy flint <amy4...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> jon,
> i'd really like to push for access to a mock exam, i've been asking the committee since first looking at this accreditation 3 years ago, but on the whole i find them very protective. I recognise that there are some sample questions in the exam guide, but i don't feel they are realistic enough. I know there's a mock exam each year at IVECCs, but being so far away I find that very restrictive.  Here in australia, this is the only way we can expand our knowledge beyond the standard and I would be honored to build my skill/knowledge to that of, and beyond the accreditation. I don't want a 40hour round trip being the barrier to the expansion of my knowledge.
> I think the mock exam  is not only an important study tool, so focous points can be created, but a great starting point for candidites wishing to apply to assess where their knowledge base is at.
>
> just my 2 cents
> -amy
>
>
>
> > Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2011 02:59:14 -0700
> > Subject: Re: 2011 Exam...

> > From: jonathan.esm...@gmail.com

> > > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

[Karen Zee]

This exam guide will be VERY helpful. Right now there is almost no guidance. I found the exam to be more difficult even than expected.

The exam broke down for me as follows:
- A handful of questions that I could have answered easily if I'd just gotten to that material to study
- A handful that I just plain had to guess on because the nature of the question was incredibly specific about a subject area much less important to our knowledge (one of the misc areas)
- A handful that were easy
- A handful that felt a little tricky, with double negatives or somewhat misleading language. I kind of felt this type of question wasn't really necessary. The material itself is hard enough. Being tricky didn't seem quite fair, especially with the small amount of time we had.
- My biggest reaction was there just wasn't enough time for the number of questions. We had just over a minute per question and I barely had time to go back and check my answers once. Thus is where I caught some of the trickier wording I missed in my original dash to get through.

I hope this doesn't sound too negative. I'm really grateful we have this goal to pursue and will definitely continue with my studies and learning whether I passed the test or not.

Thanks so much for asking.
- Karen

[amy flint]

that's awesome Jon

> Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2011 05:18:15 -0700
> Subject: Re: 2011 Exam...
> From: jonatha...@gmail.com
> To: AVECCT...@googlegroups.com

[DCLissa17]

Phew, glad that's over! (hopefully!)

So.....I felt that the test was HARD. I generally test quite well and
I had done quite a bit of studying beforehand, including creating
numerous quizzes for my little study group that I had. And yet, I
still felt a bit shell-shocked!

- I took about 2-2.5 hours to work through the test, and then go back
through the questionable questions. I have learned to not second-guess
myself or take too long making decisions. Either I knew it right off,
I worked through the answers and came to a good conclusion, or I
worked through and then guessed.
- As I went through, I marked ones that I wasn't very confident of my
answer with a ?, if I had to guess the answer (usually had it narrowed
to 2 options though) marked ??. At the end I went through all those
questions a second time, and I totalled them up.
- I had a ? on 51 out of 200 questions
- I guessed on 20 out of 200 questions
- Of course after the test I went back to my book and looked up
whatever questionable/guessing questions that I could remember. It's
such a blur that I couldn't remember a lot of them, or I couldn't
necessarily remember what I had chosed as the answer. But of what I
could, I got some right, some wrong.
- I hope that the statistical analysis/grading will result in many of
the questions I guessed on/got wrong to be less important. :)
- Many of the ? ones were areas that I either didn't really touch on,
or were at a detail level that I didn't go into in studying,

Overall, I am about 75-80% confident that I will pass. If not, I
definitely identified some areas that I can study further on. I
personally used the study guide questions as a baseline for the format
of the test rather than the content itself. I found a couple of people
at my clinic (one who sat for the test, one was a brand new assistant
so very different knowledge bases) and broke the information down
(using the study guide sections) into different areas to study each
week over about 4 months. We met once a week for dinner and went
through a sample quiz that I prepared after reading through that
week's information. I modelled these quizzes off of the structure
shown in the sample questions in the study guide, and would put the
answers in along with an explanatory paragraph. I feel like this way
of studying was definitely helpful and instrumental in my ability to
really go through and absorb the information.

My interpretation of the release is that we cannot recreate those
questions or speak specifically about anything on the test in the
future. It doesn't sound like it would prohibit us from creating
alternate quizzes or mock exams as long as the questions are not the
same as on the test we took. For example, if I don't pass, I would
like to be able to study in the same manner as I did last year,
creating questions and using them to base my study from. Also, I have
13 quizzes encompassing about 100 questions that are a sampling of
information from all the areas in the study guide. I would love to be
able to provide these to others studying for the test in the future.
Would it be ok to do this? Judging from my interpretation of the
release and after sitting the exam, I do not feel that these quizzes
would be in violation.

[Jonathan]

That would not be a violation...sounds like a great way to study! The
three girls I tested with last year used a similar method if not the
same and two of them passed.

jon

[Kelly Cronin]

Jon thanks for keeping the thread active, we have one technician completign her application as we speak and two gearing up for next year with 3 coming close on their heals. I have not gotten results yet, so we will see whether I will bbe studying alongside for fun or for profit.  Either way, thank you to everyone who contributes to this thread. 

--
Kelly Lynn Cronin, R.V.T., L.V.T., B.S. Animal Science
Lead Technician
Veterinary Emergency & Specialty Center of Santa Fe

2001 Vivigen Way

Santa Fe, NM 87505

505-984-0625

kel...@yahoo.com
cell:505-913-0877

[Jonathan]

You are welcome Kelly. Good luck to all of those studying for 2012.

jon

> cell:505-913-0877- Hide quoted text -