I’ll send you 980 that came as a free bonus on eBay. They are on their way to you, now.
The EBPHI version.
I also have the EBPHI Certificate.
PS:
Last year I received a letter from the EBPHI asking me to participate in helping them develop / re-write their test.
I have a couple of thousand questions that date back to 2004 (and prior years) that were alleged to have been ASHI and/or NHIE Test related.
Send me your email address and I will forward them along…
Thank You!
Does anyone else have Q. & A’s from their test?
Speaking of licensing…
This is a side note of something funny that happened, today.
I received a copy of a quarterly newsletter from a group of Kansas City female real estate salespeople, today.
The main article was the President of this little group just tearing me up…calling me everything she could think of…for daring to suggest that real estate salesmen have something at stake in our bill.
Anyway…right smack in the middle of this butt-chewing assasination is an advertisement from one of my fellow Missouri MAREI members (who also opposes the bill), promoting his company.
We have been having a good laugh out of this. Not too much else to really laugh about in this licensing business, though.
Just to clarify:
Many states, including Illinois, used ASHI and took the NHIE on as the state test. They added some questions about the state law, since the test was for Illinois licensing.
BUT, in Illinois, once they had the test, they gave it to an independent, professional testing service and this service changes, added to and massaged the test (including pschometric parameters and pictures and computer applications and all that stuff) and expanded on it.
The result? Illinois required the 250 + “full members” of ASHI, who ASHI wanted to have grandfathered, to, at least, take the test. If they didn’t pass it, they would be required to take the 60 hour pre-licensing courses.
Guess what happened?
Only 41% of these 250+ full members passed the test!!!
It has been long known, at least in Illinois, that the test questions and answers were easily available to full ASHI members. These are the guys who wanted to transition from actually doing inspection to becoming pre-licensing and continuing education instructors (Beats crawling attics, don’t it?).
But, the state (and their independent testing company (AMP) fooled them.
It just don’t pay to try to BS a BS artist.
The problem with all independent tests is who has access to the test and who administers it. When this question is dealt with, progress can be made.
Hope this helps;
BTW: I also passed the NHIE. Got the certificate and everything. The state requires them to provide such documentation if you pass the state exam.
Hoist on their own petard!
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Most tests are a joke
I do not care if they are high school - collage - cpa etc. they all can be taught
Tests that are designed to make one think is where it is at – example if you miss a question the test will continue to ask questions in your weak area to see if it was just bad luck as well as when you get a question correct it will continue to test you in that area to see if it was just luck then it will grade you good or bad on a weighted scale
Nachi’s test is real close to being right – If a test is just “memory” it is junk
Basic knowledge is good but CAN YOU INSPECT A HOME
I bet that NACHI members could put a test together that would rock
Remember we are not trying to kill people but to find out if they can inspect a home in a professional manor - we are not trying to build one
Questions like:
Is this safe
Is this about to fail
Is this broke
Is this wrong
Is this something that you should know about
Is this going to cause you problems down the road
Please remember that we have a client that needs to know the condition of what they are buying and that is our job,
Quality reports are going to be our bottom line and if the report software is wrong we will not be able to sue the software company - so lets go back to what we are really trying to do and
**Do it **
rlb
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I think that ICC has it closest to being right.
Open book test with questions that combine facts from several chapters. It is not a memorization of fact, but the ability to apply them to a situation.
Add to that the most important ingredient of all ---- the ability to communicate. This is where inspectors fail more often than in any other area, IMO, and something none of our present testing methods address.
The ability to observe, to find a defect, and to describe it intelligently…cannot be memorized or quantified in a written test.
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Totally and completely agree, Jim.
(Sorry I stopped ingoring you 
It won’t happen again :mrgreen: )
Couldn’t agree more Jim,
Regardless of what the defect is, an inspector must be able to relate this to the buyer in a way which they will understand what the concern is, explain what the options are to have repairs made, and what could also happen if the repair is not made, and also what might be uncovered when the subject item is “opened up” to see the complete picture.
Flat roofs are a prime example of how an inspector must be able to relate a problem to a client that probably does not understand we cannot see what is under the roofing material, maybe the plywood needs to be replaced, maybe roof joists need to be replaced. As we all know most people think we should know what is hidden under that roof surface.
So if an inspector simply hands a client a piece of paper saying to have the roof “Further Evaluated” by a contractor and adds a picture of the screwed up roof surface without explaining to the client “Why”, well all the testing proctored or not will not help that client before they make a decision to purchase.
All those questions on that exam are pretty much worthless in my opinion also, even if they are memorized, completely worthless if an inspector cannot talk intelligently about all those questions, not just answer them.
I endorse an open test with a test bank of thousands of questions. If you can memorize them its great. The ICC tests are open book and products like CodeCheck are great.
Testing technical or code based data does not assure a good inspector but it does not hurt either.
Defect recognition skill is imperative and I don’t know anyone testing effectively for that.
Because home inspection is visual I think the majority of test questions should be supported with an actual picture. I know inspectors who will miss a technical written question and nail pictures perfectly.
Apprenticeship is vital in other industries yet this business has little of it.
Communication skills are vital and again there is little of that. Most inspectors cannot diagram an English sentence (guilty).
I say make the test questions public. Then focus on defect recognition, communication and experience.
Quote: Jim Bushart:
think that ICC has it closest to being right.
Open book test with questions that combine facts from several chapters. It is not a memorization of fact, but the ability to apply them to a situation.
Add to that the most important ingredient of all ---- the ability to communicate. This is where inspectors fail more often than in any other area, IMO, and something none of our present testing methods address.
The ability to observe, to find a defect, and to describe it intelligently…cannot be memorized or quantified in a written test.
End Quote:
Dale & Jim,
Both of you guys are right on the money!
If you have to have a “National” test the ICC is the way to go!
After I paid $225.00 passed the EBPHI / NHIE all I got was a worthless certificate!
When and IF you pass an ICC test the certification can be used to get a City, State, or Federal job!
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and then your INDEMNIFIED
Gosh, I hope Joe Hagarty is wrong and most of those questions aren’t off the NHIE.
As a 30 year inspector, I looked at them and realized that at LEAST 40% of them had nothing to do with what a home inspector would do OR need to know OR have any use for.
My next door neighbor is a HVAC trainer. I showed them to him and I had time to go home, refill my wine glass and go back before he quit laughing.
This has got to be a joke - half of those are embarrassing and idiotic AND a huge waste of someones time unless you’re taking a 6 month to year long course in home inspecting and trying to fill space or time or both.
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Dan,
I purchased a CD off the INTERNET in 2005 that was supposed to be a study with sample questions off the NHIE. Costs me $19 and got to me in a couple days. I did it to prove to someone who didn’t believe such a CD even existed and that is was readily available. I went through it and in fact many of the questions were strictly code questions that had absolutely nothing to do with home inspections. The majority of those questions dealt with construction applications and “how” to build something rather than what it’s purpose was. One in particular that stands out was doing concrete estimation. There were others on fasteners, etc. I wish I had my $19 back as I had nor have any intention of using it. Ive heard from several other sources that there is always a lot of code type questions on the NHIE or whatever the name is this year. In fact I had one fella tell me that if you study just the code Check books you can squeek through the test.
I bought the EXPENSIVE Carson Dunlop / ASHI course and the ***LESS expensive ***Roy Newcomer “American Home Inspector’s Training Institute” study program and I sailed through the test!
All I really needed was the Roy Newcomer course!](*,) #-o
When you buys test prep questions off the internet or eBay there is no guarantee of how accurate they are. Most of these companies are doing the same things for a lot of industries and add like questions.
Tests in a proctored environment are a filtering mechanism. I have designed a few in my previous life and it is hard to recreate real world circumstances. However they do set a benchmark and are way better then internet tests that can be passed by children and dogs.
As far as using 980 questions to prep for the NHIE, I think thats great and you will probably see some of those on the real test. As to which ones that is for the candidate to find out.
If I was a new home buyers and I had to choose between someone who took a national recognized, psychmetrically valid test and one that I could take repeatedly until I got it right, that would be an easy decision
Jeff
I will agree with you up to a point. I do not think too many are saying tests are not a valuable tool, however, many are saying the NHIE is not “the” test to end all tests due to the facts that it is in many ways not germane to the Home inspection world especially if it is loaded with code questions and matrix type questions. When I was flying we were tested twice annually (once in-house and the other from the Fleet evaluators), one open book test and one closed book plus a check ride each time. Those tests were never the same twice in all the years and tests I took, you could not take the test over and over until you passed. If you failed either test (3.5 and 3.3 respectively) you were grounded and went on “stupid study” and had so many days before you were tested again. If you failed again you were looking for a new job. The online tests are generated new each time as well. If 200 of us were to take the test right now, each one would be different from the others. We did the same thing when I was teaching and testing aviators. I had to generate the questions in the bank as well as practice quizzes every week. By the time anyone came due to take their annuals, if they had been practicing on the tests and quizzes they could go through the exams blindfolded. As a test writer and course curriculum developer we learned on day one the most important thing about testing was that tests were not an indication of a students intelligence so much so as to be used as a learning “tool”. Too many factors can skew tests results, especially if the test is on materials not germane or pertinent to the course material. This is called the terminal objective. Loading a test with garbage or unrelated filler questions to create a test that is hard just to be hard does not (1) test the individual on their knowledge required to perform the duties or job they are applying for (2) creates a test suspect of ulterior motives.(i.e. taking a test that costs significant money to keep taking, thus creating additional moneys for the test owners). Looking at the practice tests disk questions i witnessed extremely poorly written questions, many with no correct answer but some with distractors that were “more correct than others”. No one would think of administering a test for dentists to a room full of doctors even though they are both in related fields of medicine. In most States they forbid or bar Home inspectors from even using the word “code”; therefore, it is incongruous for them to then be tested on code in order to go to work.
Found this just today