Taking the AICP Exam

The remainder of this discussion relates to the exam itself and to scoring the exam. You may want to come back and read this later, nearer to the actual exam.

The exam consists of 150 multiple choice questions chosen from a larger pool of potential questions prepared by a committee of AICP members (the Exam Specifications Committee or ESC). The ESC meets every other year to review and fine tune the test. The ESC met here in New Jersey in December of 1996, where it reviewed the performance of 184 questions used on recent exams, approving, tossing out or revising them. The Committee also wrote over 70 completely new questions.

The Exam itself is prepared and conducted by a professional testing service, so the format is the familiar Do-Not-Open-This-Booklet-Until-Told-To-Do-So exam book and machine readable Mark-The-Box answer sheet. The work period is precisely timed and, if experience is any indication, the desks will be small and uncomfortable. It is critical that you work methodically and answer all of the questions on the Exam. We will show you why a bit later.

One hundred fifty questions in a three-hour period works out to 1.2 minutes per question on average. But you shouldn't expect to spend exactly 1 minute and 12 seconds on each question because some are harder than others - much harder. Most of the questions (about 3/4 of the exam) are simple multiple choice with four or five possible responses, like this:

1. The plan for Radburn, New Jersey includes all of the following expect:

1. large common open spaces linked by pedestrian ways.
2. both community shopping and industrial areas.
3. peripheral green belt.
4. apartments grouped on arterial streets.

Questions have only four possible responses (i.e., A through D) and there are no questions with a possible answer of "none of the above".

For these short single sentence questions, read the question carefully and completely. Decide what the question is asking before you look at the answers. Usually, you will find that the correct answer is clear. Don't compare the answers to each other because you will find yourself trying to decide which wrong answer is the best. Pay more attention to the differences between candidate responses than to their similarities.

You will know the correct response to some questions immediately. For these questions you should mark the correct response on the answer sheet, use your notation system to note that you have responded to that question (the standard notation is a slash through the question), and move on. Elapsed time, maybe 20 to 30 seconds.

For others, particularly those with several plausibly correct responses, you will need to spend a bit more time analyzing each response. Eliminate responses that are clearly incorrect by marking them with a slash. Often you will be able to use this process of elimination to narrow the choice of plausible responses to two or even one and, to paraphrase Sherlock Holmes, "if you have eliminated all of the impossibilities, the only remaining possibility must be the correct one, no matter how implausible!" If you still can't decide, circle the question number and go on - don't waste time pondering or worrying about one question! We repeat, it is critical that you complete the Exam!

Some of the questions are "compound-multiple," having both a choice of possible responses and a combination of correct response (usually about 25% of the exam):

If you were to apply for a variance for a development project, on what grounds would you claim that a variance should be granted?

1. The unusual shape of the site precludes designing a structure that would meet yard requirements.
2. The existing structure has been declared historically significant by the city and must be saved at any cost.
3. The proposed variance constitutes only a minor encroachment and will not alter the character of the neighborhood.
4. Both the area of the site and its proposed development are consistent with that of other lots in the immediate vicinity.

1. I only
2. II, III, and IV only
3. III and IV only
4. I, II, III, and IV only

Approach these just as you would a simple multiple choice question: analyze each of the possible answers (in this case I through IV), eliminating those that are clearly incorrect. Then eliminate all of the responses (A through D) that contain the eliminated possibilities. Here too, if you get stumped or frustrated by the question, move on! You must finish the Exam!

Some questions are based on scenarios, little stories that are set out within the Exam. You will need to take time to read these carefully (using the techniques above) since misinterpreting or skipping part of the scenario could change the entire meaning and cost you not one but several wrong answers. These scenarios are not designed to trick you. In general, they include all of the facts that you need to know to answer the questions - and probably some extraneous facts as well. The facts in the question should be considered in the context of Good Planning, but don't read additional facts into the scenario, as discussed above.

To maximize your score - and thus your chances of passing the exam - you must respond to all of the questions. Failure to finish the test, or completing the exam but not going back to try the tough questions you skipped, is guaranteed to reduce your score and lessen your chances of passing.

Plan to go through the exam at least twice, preferably three times. Use the first round to take care of the "slam dunk" questions and to mark the others as "M" for medium or "H" for hard. Most people answer between 80 and 130 of the questions on the first round, depending on their background and level of preparation. But be sure to carefully read all of the questions during this first round, even if you don't yet answer them. The reasons for doing this will become clear in a moment. Underline key words and modifiers. Circle qualifiers such as "best," "most effective," etc. Put a box around words like "never" and "always." Work quickly but carefully during this round and, depending on the number of questions you are actually completing, plan to finish the first round in 1 to 1.5 hours. Before you go back to the beginning for the second round, take a break! Stretch, close your eyes, shake your hands, wiggle your feet. Think about something pleasant.

After the first round, there are still a considerable number of questions that you'll need to think seriously about to answer correctly. Here is where on big benefit of having read all of the questions comes in: there are bound to be questions of closely related subject matter. In fact, it is quite likely that you will find the answers to several questions embedded in other questions elsewhere on the Exam. You can use this fact to cross check the answers to questions you have already completed and to find answers to questions you have left for the second round.

In the second round, you have already read each question, so you won't need to spend as much time reading as you did before. But be sure that you understand each question clearly. Concentrate on the "medium" questions in this round, then go back and do the "hard" questions in a last round. If, during these rounds, there are still a few questions that have you completely stumped, mark them clearly with a large star or something similar and go on. You cannot afford to spend time pondering one question and fail to respond to 5 or 6 because you ran out of time! Use the Holmes method to weed out incorrect responses and, if all else fails guess! There is no penalty for wrong answers and, if you have eliminated several clearly incorrect responses, you may have odds as good as 50:50 for your guess.

You may want to simply mark the correct answer on the Exam itself (e.g., with a circle) and return later to transfer the marks to the answer sheet. This is faster, but a bit risky. You may run out of time and not be able to transfer all of your responses to the answer sheet so be sure that you transfer answers after 10-20 questions or at the end of the first pass through the Exam. Beware of getting out of sync in transferring and ending up with a long string of wrong answers. When you are transferring, cross check the question number with that of the answer space you are marking about every five questions or so. That way, if you do get out of kilter you won't have too far to go back and make corrections.

Remember, there may be several plausible answers offered. Often, the AICP Exam is not asking which answer is the only correct answer, but which is the best answer.