CA Seismic Exam Pbs have equal points? Passing Score?

[PE_CE_CA]

Hi All!

Does anyone know if the problems given in the seismic exam are equally graded? I was surprised to see 55 problems at the exam in lieu of the 50 problems everyone is talking about. Are the extra 5 some sort of "bonus" problems? What about the average passing score, is it 70ish~75?

Appreciate shedding some light on this topic.

 

[ptatohed]

Hi All!

Does anyone know if the problems given in the seismic exam are equally graded? I was surprised to see 55 problems at the exam in lieu of the 50 problems everyone is talking about. Are the extra 5 some sort of "bonus" problems? What about the average passing score, is it 70ish~75?

Appreciate shedding some light on this topic.

I'm not trying to be rude when I say this, I am just letting you know, all your questions can be answered with very little research. You really should read everything you can on the state board's site (and this forum) about the exam. Also, surveyboards has a good thread. http://surveyorboards.com/topic/10288946/1/#new (edit: sorry, this link is for survey, you're asking only about seismic - but I'll leave the link because there still might be some useful info)

All questions on the exam have equal weight. It has been this way for many years.

Since the exam has gone from pencil to CBT (~2 years ago?), the number of questions has gone from 50 to 55.

It's unknown why the exam increased by 5 questions. I suspect it doesn't help you or hurt you. "It just is"

No, the passing score is nowhere near 70-75% for the CA-Seismic and CA-Survey. In the past, a score of about 55% was needed to pass. The board has stopped posting the passing score in the last several years but I suspect it's about the same. What hasn't really changed over the years is that about 45% +/-5%, or so, people pass each time. So, just make sure you are in the top 40% of examinees.

Good luck.

 

[PE_CE_CA]

Thanks Ptatohed!

Forgive my unfamiliarity with the "concept" of the passing score and if i'm beating this thing to death. So according to what you said, the board after looking at the stats, decides that the passing score is let's say 55%. And on average people that score 55% and above constitute around 40% of the pool of candidates?

 

[ptatohed]

Thanks Ptatohed!

Forgive my unfamiliarity with the "concept" of the passing score and if i'm beating this thing to death. So according to what you said, the board after looking at the stats, decides that the passing score is let's say 55%. And on average people that score 55% and above constitute around 40% of the pool of candidates?

No problem PCC. Yes, what you said is correct. You can confirm this by perusing the statistics of past exams:

http://www.bpelsg.ca.gov/applicants/exam_statistics.shtml

 

[JMT]

It's unknown ​not publicly known why the exam increased by 5 questions. I suspect it doesn't help you or hurt you. "It just is"

People with confidentiality agreements know why the exam increased by five questions.

 

[ptatohed]

It's unknown ​not publicly known why the exam increased by 5 questions. I suspect it doesn't help you or hurt you. "It just is"

People with confidentiality agreements know why the exam increased by five questions.

Yes, unknown to us.

 

[bernardoomar]

The 5 extra questions do not count. They are used to find out how people will assess them and to be used on future tests. The hard part is that you do not know which ones are those 5. Having said that, if you see a question that you have no clue on how to start, it is to assume it is one of those. All questions have equal weight even though some might take more to solve( steps and calculations) than the concept ones that you should take less than a minute to answer. This exam also will test you how you manage your time. Like the other posts, you goal is to anwser correctly around 55% or so.

 

[ptatohed]

The 5 extra questions do not count. They are used to find out how people will assess them and to be used on future tests. The hard part is that you do not know which ones are those 5. Having said that, if you see a question that you have no clue on how to start, it is to assume it is one of those. All questions have equal weight even though some might take more to solve( steps and calculations) than the concept ones that you should take less than a minute to answer. This exam also will test you how you manage your time. Like the other posts, you goal is to anwser correctly around 55% or so.

Can you please share how you know what the extra 5 questions are for and that they don't count? I'm still not convinced. The exam did not have to go from 50 to 55 for the board to include "assessment" questions. I'm sure they were doing that when the exam had 50 questions. I bet NCEES does it with its 80 questions.

 

[mikey00]

I also find it hard to believe the Board would throw in "assessment" questions without notifying the test takers what they are. Even if those questions do not count, you wasted precious time in trying to answer them correctly, which can hurt your chances of finishing the test when time runs short.

I'm thinking the Board increased the number of questions to keep the passing rate between 40 and 50 percent..... Then again, why not just increase the cut score? After all, a 55 percent on an exam in college is failing.

Sorry for blabbing. Just getting anxious for my test results. This is the third time taking the Seismic exam and I want to know already.

 

[daxx1313]

I believe that Dr. Ibrahim from EET said the reason why they went to 55 questions is that they inevitably have to throw out about 5 every time. They're tossed because the writing is ambiguous, there's an error in the writing of the problem, or no one (or very few) got it right.

I have no proof of this, but it seems logical. On the Survey exam, #16 in particular had a number that had one too many zeros on it. I assumed it to be an error and calc'd it without the last zero, then I calc'd it with the extra zero. The answer came up for the calculation without the zero. I hope they don't throw out that one, because I got it right (at least I think I did).

 

[ptatohed]

I believe that Dr. Ibrahim from EET said the reason why they went to 55 questions is that they inevitably have to throw out about 5 every time. They're tossed because the writing is ambiguous, there's an error in the writing of the problem, or no one (or very few) got it right.

I have no proof of this, but it seems logical. On the Survey exam, #16 in particular had a number that had one too many zeros on it. I assumed it to be an error and calc'd it without the last zero, then I calc'd it with the extra zero. The answer came up for the calculation without the zero. I hope they don't throw out that one, because I got it right (at least I think I did).

All I know is 50 q's in 2.5 hours was a ball breaker. I can only imagine that 55 in 2.5 hours must be a real nut buster!