My husband and I both sat for our tests on Friday and passed State but I was off 9 points on National to pass. He didn’t pass National either. Here is our problem. We were prepared and studied hard. Knew all our code cards. I could write 3 pages of absolutes and charts in about a minute. Studied so hard and knew the answers to well in excess of 1800 questions. We were ready. On both of the tests we drew there were maybe 10 questions that we recognized from our studies.Almost 400 hours and countless hours of just studying and nothing. Lots of valve questions on mine along with radon(never taught) and sprinkler questions. We are not even required to inspect the sprinklers and I think radon is a different certification. So we are at a loss as to where to begin to study again for the retake. About 10 people walked out of the test and said the same thing. We all wanted a test on what we had been taught. No one recognized the majority of the questions. I am a little shell shocked and don’t even know where to begin to study again. Do I need to memorize the dang IRC and Carson Dunlop book…geez! Any one have any suggestions.
Answer me two questions:
- How many of our 100+ free, online inspection courses www.nachi.org/education did you complete?
- Did you go through www.nachi.org/qa ?
That’s because you took the NHIE. The NHIE is a joke of an exam. Meaningless piece of crap and a scam IMHO. Radon and sprinklers aren’t part of a home inspector’s SOP.
Perhaps we’ll sue them on your behalf. Would you be interested? We’ll pay for everything. I need someone who has suffered damages to get the lawsuits going.
I did some of your practice tests and looked at a whole lot of your videos. No we took a course here in Houston. $6000 later we completed the required Professional Real Estate Inspector 397 hours of study in our courses. Two ride alongs which taught us absolutely nothing, a 24 hour lab and Exam Prep weekend.
That’s 1/2 your problem. You didn’t take InterNACHI’s free, online courses. That’s your fault.
That’s 1/2 the problem. The NHIE is a stupid piece of crap exam that asks questions outside of a home inspector’s SOP. That’s not your fault.
Would you like Mark to contact you? We stand ready to go to court for you against the EBPHI. You probably passed your exam.
Well you could probably find a whole bunch of emotionally damaged people here in Houston. …LOL I am so ready to get this ball rolling. Another friend of mine who took the same course we did is taking hers next Friday. They need to give us tests on what we will be inspecting. I had a lot of basement questions too and they wanted me to figure out the cause of the problem. I lived in Mass. when I was young so I have actually seen one basement, but I was raised in Louisiana and live in Texas. Chances of seeing a basement down here are slim to none.
The questions about basements are fine as basements are part of a home inspector’s SOP, even in areas that don’t have basements. The questions about radon and sprinklers are not. I can go to federal court for you and get an injunction forcing the EBPHI to grade your exam without those questions being counted. Then through discovery, I’ll find out everyone else who has ever failed the NHIE, and file a class action suit against the EBPHI and all of their current and past directors who knew about this, personally. It’s not even a psychometrically valid exam and I can prove it in court. They’ll owe millions in lost revenue in such a class action suit.
Just say “go.”
Who provided the course?
Course isn’t the problem. The stupid NHIE, the joke exam of the inspection industry is asking questions about radon and lawn sprinklers, both outside of the SOP. They probably flunked thousands of inspectors who actually passed. I smell a huge class action lawsuit here.
The first thing I did when we made the decision to do this it join Nachi. Your courses for Texas just were not enough to get the required hours we needed to get our license so we had to go to the school. We will be taking ALL of your available courses in the hope that it will help us pass the second time around. It’s the only thing we haven’t done. We still have to take the test again and have no clue where to begin our studies again. We were making 100’s on all practice exams. Sue away but that won’t change the test I need to take again in a couple of weeks. We love your video’s!!! Also there were a lot of pictures on the test that we have never even seen what they are supposed to be. I am still trying to figure out what the hell that first valve picture was. Giant black valve, two pvc pipes coming into to it. No clue. And what the hell is a Halford or Hasford “sounds like” loop in probably a heating or air conditioning system. Never heard of it and can’t figure out what that was either.
We’re suing them anyway on behalf of all the people who failed but actually should have passed. We’ll start the process Monday morning.
Yes the exam sucks. We were provided with a huge amount of study.
Yay…can you see if I passed…LOL I made 69% and my husband made 62% but in his defense I built my first house when I was 23 and have a lot of hand ons experience in a lot of different systems. I also followed code on all the houses I have built.He also did better than I did in the courses.
You’re not alone. The NHIE is a joke and now they’re going to be a joke in front of a federal judge.
Keep us posted on the outcome. It won’t help us but it will help a lot more trying to come into the industry. So I am still stuck with my original questions. What do I study to pass this thing??
One more thing. I really think some of their answers on the test were wrong. So that is a no win situation. We actually encountered this in our homework and final exams. The school had the wrong answers and we had to get them to correct it. I remember one question in particular on the National. I can’t remember all the answers but they didn’t apply at all. It was about where a downspout should terminate away from the house. One of the answers was a concrete splash block and the only answer that was close said “6 inches above grade away from the house” not six feet. Carson Dunlop…Downspouts should discharge above grade onto the ground at least six feet from the home. The slope of the ground in this area should be away from the house, to direct water away from the basement. So I know I was killed on couple of questions that didn’t have an answer that was the right choice. I chose the 6 inches because I guessed in some universe this was may be the correct answer.
Go! Go! Go!
Nick, I know one person here in Baltimore that didn’t pass in the past year, if you like I can talk to her about the suit.
Also, I’ve been training a guy to become an inspector for months, he is taking the test on Thursday. He is really smart and studying hard as well. I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t pass.
You need to talk o Roy at champions and see what he says, several years ago the state lowered the pass score so schools would keep a good pass rate to keep their certification. It was about that time the state dropped the state test and went to the two part test usingNHIE and some state stuff. Possibly the schools need to ask TREC to go back to the original test.
Marjorie …
The loop you’re referring to is a "Hartford Loop’. Used on Steam Boilers and very common. I’ve carried 5 varied state licenses over the years AND truthfully I’ve never seen any inspector exam NOT asking about it.
During the years 1879 and 1891, there were 2,159 reported steam boiler explosions in the United States. These explosions killed 3,123 people and seriously injured 4,352. It is an arrangement of return pipes which keep the water from siphoning out of the boiler should a return line spring a leak.The loop was revolutionary when Hartford introduced it because it effectively reduced the rash of boiler explosions.
[FONT="]Another 2 questions asked on almost EVERY state or national exam I’ve ever encountered [FONT="]are:
[FONT="]1) What 1 component is mandatory on a Steam Boiler … Sight Glass
[FONT="]2) [/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][FONT="][FONT="][FONT="][FONT="][FONT="][FONT="][FONT="][FONT="]What 1 component is mandatory on a Oil Fired Furnace or Bo[FONT="]iler[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]… Barometric Damper
At least 50% of every test I’ve ever taken on home inspection or codes comes straight out of your Code Check
The rest are all across the Board. A trainee I was working with 4 years ago studied for 2 months … was getting 90-95% on practice exams. Then took the exam and only got a 61%. Like you said they had gobs of questions on asbestos, lead, radon, sprinklers, Blue Baby Syndrome, etc, pilings (like in the swamps which we ain’t got in the midwest, etc).