ECE Practice exam...meanings

[mjno]

Hey everyone,

Does anyone know how to interpret the ECE practice exams?

I have taken both the ECE Ethics practice exams and I did ok on the first one and pretty bad on the second one (but I am not sure what good or bad is).
I have talked to Excelsiors testing department and am more confused than I was before, so it didn't help.
I will use the exams more as a study guide than anything else (thanks JoAnne) so the question posed is more out of curiosity than anything else.

Thanks,
Mike

[chosin01]

Originally Posted by mjno

Hey everyone,

Does anyone know how to interpret the ECE practice exams?

I have taken both the ECE Ethics practice exams and I did ok on the first one and pretty bad on the second one (but I am not sure what good or bad is).
I have talked to Excelsiors testing department and am more confused than I was before, so it didn't help.
I will use the exams more as a study guide than anything else (thanks JoAnne) so the question posed is more out of curiosity than anything else.

Thanks,
Mike

Mike,

According to the 2006 Technical Manual for Ethics cut scores are as follows:
63 - A
54 - B
46 - C
38 - D

The closest interpretation I could give you is to calculate your score on the practice exams and compare them to the cut scores above. Though not a direct correlation it should give you a "Ballpark" of where your at as far as preparation.
Hope this helps.
Jeff

[mjno]

Hey Jeff,

Thanks for the reply!

If I am understanding what you are saying correctly a grade on the practice exam with a score of 68 out of 100 questions would result in an A?

Thanks,
Mike

[chosin01]

Originally Posted by mjno

Hey Jeff,

Thanks for the reply!

If I am understanding what you are saying correctly a grade on the practice exam with a score of 68 out of 100 questions would result in an A?

Thanks,
Mike

Yes based on the minimum cut score of a 63 percent for an A. How ever there are 140 questions on the actual examination.

[mjno]

Hey Jeff,
Thanks again for the reply.

I also did a little research and found in the 2007 ECE Ethics content guide (after finally reading it) that the test actually consists of 160 questions and you have 3 hours to complete it. They graded both the exam and practice tests in what is called instant response theory (IRT) method (Snazzlefrag posted something on this a while ago). It is not like the Clep/DSSt scoring apparently they grade it on the difficulty of the questions to really asses what you know (If you really want to be bored just google IRT scoring unless you like statistics). The IRT method grants a higher score to harder questions then to an easier ones; that is why sometimes people that have taken these exams thought they did better/worse than they actually did on the tests. Lets say for example you have 20 questions and answered 15 easy questions right and 5 hard questions wrong then it may be equivalent to 2/3 of 20 correct (according to IRT scoring) instead of 3/4 of 20 correct because more weight is given to the difficult questions (I know I am starting to babble on). From what I understand the difficulty level of the questions is based on a curve (based on how many got what right or wrong) but the test itself as a whole is not.
I do appreciate your replies and based on the fact that you also have this test coming up I want to return the helping hand. I do not know when you are taking ECE Ethics but another thing to think about is that on October 1, 2007 they will be changing things up again.

Thanks again,
Mike

[Kiwi Lover]

Originally Posted by mjno

I also did a little research and found in the 2007 ECE Ethics content guide (after finally reading it) that the test actually consists of 160 questions and you have 3 hours to complete it.

Hi Mike,

If I remember correctly, when I took the exam last September, the exam only had 140 questions even though it said in the content guide that there would be 160! So I'll be curious to find out how many questions your exam has...

JoAnne

[mjno]

Hi JoAnne,

Thanks again for the reply.

I did speak with Kathy (ECE Testing) and the number of questions on the test will be between 120 and 160 (either way you still have 3 hours to complete it). They do use the IRT scoring method for all Excelsior exams which is (verified by Kathy) what was posted earlier. You are correct (as allways) that it is usually 140 questions but based on what I was told by Kathy that is if you have 160 questions you probably have an easier test, and if you have 120 questions you have a harder test.
I hope this helps people taking these tests; I know it helps me understand more of what I am getting into.

Thanks again,
Mike

[Kiwi Lover]

Originally Posted by mjno

... if you have 160 questions you probably have an easier test, and if you have 120 questions you have a harder test.

Mike,

Here's hoping you don't get 120 questions!!

I can't remember exactly how the ECE's are set up, but I wonder if you can jump ahead to see how many questions YOUR exam has so you'll know ahead of time what you're in for? Then again, maybe you don't want to know....

JoAnne

[mjno]

Hey JoAnne,

The way it was explained to me is that I would not no until I got there (nice I just love these kinds of surprises).
This will be the only ECE exam I would have to take (hopefully) but in the event that I didn't pass I still have many options (wait 2 months and take it again, or take one of the other ECEs). I just wanted to research this so that I have a better understanding of the test so that maybe I can form a better statagy in taking the it. I also think it may help someone else who may have to take a lot of these exams (hopefully).

Thanks,
Mike

[Kiwi Lover]

Originally Posted by mjno

Hey JoAnne,

The way it was explained to me is that I would not know until I got there...

Right...that is what I meant (but didn't clarify)...if you can "jump ahead" to the end of the exam to see how many questions there are in YOUR exam.

Thanks for providing so much good information on the ECE's! I'm sure that will help a lot of IC members.

Good luck on Saturday!!
JoAnne