More NHIE frustrations.

I would first like to say Hello and thank you accepting my request to join.

I have recently taken the NHIE exam and failed with a 447. I passed the AHIT exams with no real issues, and recently received a score of 87 on the InterNACHI practice test with 25min left. Prior to taking the NHIE exam I was getting 97% of the AHIT mock exam and practice tests correct. So I figured that I had a decent grasp of what was expected.
To my surprise I found that I was greatly unprepared, I did expect that some questions would be slightly different but not to that extent.
So my question is this. Is there anyone in the Phoenix area (I live in the East Valley) that has the NHIE study guide or maybe the manual that I could borrow, check out, or possibly rent for the next few weeks. I have recently purchased the Code Check Complete 2nd edition and I am studying that as I feel that codes and materials are my greatest weakness at this point.

Thank you.
Justin.

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Email me fastreply@nachi.org . I can help.

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Can you help me as well? I just took my NHIE and got a 447. I tried to emailing you with the email link that was provided to Justin and I got a reply from someone else.
I can take InterNACHI tests and pass but can’t seem to pass a state regulated test that ask me questions that aren’t even related to home inspection.
Is there a book that’s not ridiculously over priced? I’m a single mom and just threw away $225.00 for nothing on a test that is beyond ridiculous.

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Nikki Jerrett,
Try again … fastreply@nachi.org

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Nikki, this is helpful and the questions on the NHIE have more than one right answer. One has to choose the best answer. Also, if you don’t know the answer to a question, mark it and come back to it, as some later questions help in choosing the best answer to the first question.

https://quizlet.com/178068924/national-home-inspector-practice-exam-flash-cards/

Edit: More info to peruse: https://candidate.psiexams.com/bulletin/display_bulletin.jsp?ro=yes&actionname=83&bulletinid=485&bulletinurl=.pdf

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Nikki,
I recommend you purchase the NHIE study guide. I know it is not cheap, but it has all of the areas you will be tested on in it. If you study and learn (not memorize) what is in the guide, I am confident you will pass the exam. As Larry said, the questions may have more than one correct answer. You have to chose the BEST answer. Remember that it is a national exam and some questions may not be applicable to your area, but you will need to learn them regardless. Good luck and do not be discouraged.

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Larry thank you for the link. I’ve looked up all of the links on quizlet that pertained to the NHIE. There were so many questions that didn’t even pertain to a home inspector. I’m just frustrated. I’m a single mom. I can’t afford to keep handing over $225. Lol. Ugh.

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Thank you Joseph. I think I’m going to post to see if anyone has the NHIE manual. Maybe someone will have one for sale. Thank you for the encouraging words.

I know this is an old thread but… I took the AHIT class also. Imho, they provided the required material to meet the state minimum. Basically a semester crammed into 6 days. I didn’t think it prepared me for the National test. The class is only a pre-requsit be allowed to take the National standard exam, not a class to pass it. The rest is on me. But I was told this so it was what I expected.

I am mentoring someone now who took the same required class over a full semester at a community college. I suggested she take the free InterNACHI tests over and over until she passed in the high 90% every time. I think I was averaging around 97-98% before I took the National test. Those %s are atainable with repetition. She failed miserably on the free InterNACHI practice exams after the AHIT class. I also re-read every study guide provided by AHIT… at my own pace and re-took the quizes. Not at the lightning pace of an AHIT class. This took over a month. Then I took and passed the National test. I still didn’t know a lot of answers but I believe those questions were not heavily weighted. I had never heard of them before. The questions in the free InterNACHI practice tests and the AHIT material are apparently heavily weighted questions. Even though I struggled with the National test, I passed with a fairly high score. That’s when I came to understand that some questions are more heavily weighted than others. I was prepared for those questions. If you want to take it a step further, dive into the InterNACHI basic courses. They are better than the required pre-requsit AHIT class and free if you are an InterNACHI member. I’m not at all unhappy with AHIT. Imho, they crammed as much as possible into their class in the time required by te state of Maryland. At a bare minimum, take the 25 standards and the ethics InterNACHI courses. They will help with some of those odd test questions.

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I wish they let me use a dictionary…

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Just got finished taking this exam and there were TONS of questions on it that only experienced people would be able to answer. No amount of test or practice tests, or flash cards could have prepared anyone for this test. No, I didnt pass either.

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Can I ask what you did to prepare for the test and where you took your class?

I thought it was a hard test too and many of the questions had zero to do with my training and study materials. I was convinced that I failed it but it turns out I did pretty well and passed.

The NHIE questions are weighted. Some worth a lot and some worth a little. I took the 6 day AHIT class (one semester in 6 days). I took the free practice tests here and studied my AHIT materials for about 2 months and re-took all the tests and quizes that I saved from the AHIT class. So it appears that the AHIT class and the free INTERnachi practice tests address the heavily weighted questions.

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Remember that it is a national test. Some questions may not apply to your area.However, you must be prepared to answer them. Also note that you must pick the best answer to the question as all of the choices may be correct.
My advice would be to purchase the study guide directly from NHIE. With the study guide you get quizzes to answer which will help you answering the questions on the test.
Don’t be discouraged. Get the study guide and learn it front to back. I am confident you will pass the test.
Good Luck!

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I read the NHIE study guide cover to cover and highlighted the important material And read it several more times only reading the highlighted parts and not the, blah, blah, blah stuff.

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went back and took all the tests from the online courses of the REcampus where I received my online certificate. Also got the compucram testing and studying which had different aspects of what I learned from the REcampus. I didnt take the practice tests on this site yet. Seems that I have to go that route for next time as well as the rest of the other guides that I have at the moment to study for it. To me that test was geared heavily towards someone that had INFIELD experience or had been through practical applications of home inspection rather than texbook questions and answers. Well I have another month to prepare for it so i’ll try other avenues as this one here.

For those having difficulty passing the NHIE…

  1. What is your prior experience with construction and operating a business, including business ethics and legal?
  2. Do you actually understand the subject matter, or is your knowledge only from the H.I. courses you have taken?
  3. Give us a few examples of some exam questions “not even related to inspecting”.

Help us help you!!

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  1. No experience with construction but have owned a business since 2005.
  2. Only on the items where i scored 80% or higher did I have experience either from my current field of
    work and/or college degree.
  3. I cant register back to all the questions but one of them was a picture of an AC duct in the attic, from what it looked like, behind two metal cross members and some of the outer insulation was worn. What would be the cause of this insulation being in the state that its in.

As I said… a lot of the issues that i ran into was the lack of actual on field information in the online courses which weighed heavily in the test that I took. Thanks for all y’alls help with this. Going to keep pedaling that bike to get a passing grade on this exam.

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Kinda what I figured. You are likely having difficulty as you don’t really understand the issue, therefore you can’t determine the correct responses. Like someone else mentioned, many questions have many correct or almost correct answers. You need to choose the MOST CORRECT answer, but without truly understanding the concern, you can’t without guessing.

You may wish to make contact with an inspector or three, (everyone operates differently), out of your intended area of operation and see if you can be his/her “helper” for a few inspections to get some on-hand knowledge. Studying out of a book is good, but on-hand interaction is far superior.

Good luck!

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I’ve recently taken and passed the NHIE on my first attempt. Here is what I did to prepare:

  1. Paid the $$ for ICA Home Inspector Course. I forgot what the price was but it wasn’t cheap. The material is decent, and it’s all downloadable so you can read it pretty much when/wherever you want. It’s divided into modules so it’s easy to concentrate on the areas where you’re weak.
  2. Spent a cumulative 3 months going over all the course materials. It is substantial, and for me it was necessary to go through it more than once for most modules.
  3. Became an InterNACHI member.
  4. Took the InterNACHI courses on subjects where I thought I was weakest.
  5. Went through all the InterNACHI practice test questions (yes, all 84 pages). Three times.
  6. Took the final exam questions from ICA three times.
  7. Took the 120 question InterNACHI exam. I did this over a period of about 2 weeks. I would take the exam every day for three days and note the scores from each area of concentration. Then I would take the course associated with any area where I scored less than 80. I did this twice.
  8. I Googled “NHIE exam questions” and took every free test I could find.
  9. Took the NHIE before all that study material leaked out of my brain.

A note on ICA: One of the reasons I paid the money for ICA is that access to the material never expires, and the modules are presented as a slideshow with full narration. I find that combination helps me retain more of the information. Your learning process might be different though.

HTH and GL!

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Congratulations, and welcome to the forum, Ray :+1: