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HECM Counselor Exam Guide
Basic Information Registration & Scheduling Registration & Scheduling To take the HECM Counselor Exam, you must 1) be an employee of a HUD-approved counseling agency; 2) register and pay for the exam ($100 per exam) at Registration & Scheduling; 3) schedule the date, time, and place of your exam at Registration & Scheduling. Exam registration and payment can only be done online with a credit card. Secure online exam fee payment is available through VeriSign, and all major credit cards are accepted. After you have registered and paid for the exam, you can then take the next step: scheduling your exam. You must set up an appointment in advance to take the exam. When you register, you will have two options for scheduling your exam appointment (see Option A and Option B below - select whichever works best for you): A) OPTION A - Techskills: Select from a list of testing sites operated by Techskills in AZ, CA, CO, FL, IL, IN, KS, MN, MO, NV, NC, OH, OK, TN, TX, UT, and WI. If you select one of these sites, you can schedule your exam online, and you will receive a confirmation by email. To see the Techskills sites, go to www.techskills.com/locations/ and select your state (or a nearby state). B) OPTION B - Prometric: If none of the Techskills testing sites are conveniently located, you can select from among many more testing sites operated by Thomson Prometric. If you select one of these sites, you will print out an "Exam Authorization Letter" when you register online. This letter will give you the information and directions you will need to call Thomson Prometric to schedule your exam. To see the Prometric sites, go to www.2test.com and then do the following: 1) Select "Academic, Professional Licensure, Government, and Corporate Programs" 2) Select "Net Certification" as the Testing Program 3) Select " 4) Select your state (or a nearby state) 5) Click "Next" 6) Click on "Locate a test site" 7) Select "Net Certification" 8) Click "Next" 9) Select "NET-NET2 -- 2 HOUR APPOINTMENT TIME BLOCK" 10) Click "Next" - all available sites will be listed
Schedule your exam as far in advance of your preferred date as possible. Some high-volume testing sites may have no exam appointments available until three or four weeks after your call. So if you wait too long to call, you may not be able to take the exam when and where you prefer.
Plan on arriving 30 minutes before your exam appointment for check-in purposes, and then allow another two and a half (2.5) hours to complete the total process.
SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS Detailed instructions on registering for and scheduling
Plan to arrive at the testing site you selected 30 minutes before your exam appointment to allow enough time for the check-in process. You must bring two forms of identification. Both forms must include your signature, and one of them must be a current or valid government-issued photo ID (for example, a driver's license, state-issued photo ID, military ID card, passport). · If you are taking the exam at a Techskills site, · If you are taking the exam at Thomson Prometric site, The Testing Administrator will sign you in and escort you to your testing station. You will not be permitted to bring anything into the testing area. But lockers will be available for any personal items (for example, purses, briefcases) you may want to store during the exam. The HECM Counselor Exam consists of 100 multiple-choice questions written by experienced counselors with the help of a testing expert. The questions address four content areas that you can find at Exam Content, which also provides a list of specific topics that may be covered in the exam. Each question is generally followed by four possible answers. You should select the one best answer for each question, as no credit is given for multiple answers. You will be allowed TWO HOURS to complete the exam (this includes the time it will take you to answer the survey questions discussed below). So do not waste time on the most difficult questions. Leave them until you have completed the rest of the questions. If at that time you are still unsure of the answer, it is better to guess than to leave the answer blank. At Sample Questions, you can find questions that are similar in format to the 100 multiple-choice questions in the exam. But these questions do not represent the complete range or difficulty of the material that may be covered by the exam. To see a list of the content categories and specific topics that may be covered in the exam, go to Exam Content. To help you locate resources to prepare for the exam, go to Study Materials. TEXAS & Effective Date: To meet HUD's requirement for a "uniform national exam," this exam is based solely on the national HECM program and related information as of the date the exam is taken. To help us assess agency needs and evaluate the exam, you will be asked to complete a brief 9-question survey as part of the exam process. None of your survey answers will be taken into account in scoring your exam or in selecting agencies for new HECM funding. At the exam, the nine survey questions listed below will be the first ones you see. Answering them will give you some practice with the computer-based exam format before you begin the 100-item exam. But remember, the time limit for the complete exam process - including the survey - is two hours. So please come to the exam prepared to answer these survey questions: A) For how many total years have you provided HECM counseling?
1) Have not yet counseled my first client 2) Less than 1 year 3) 1 to 3 years 4) years 5) More than 6 years B) About how many HECM counseling certificates have you personally issued within the past 12 months? 1) Less than 50 C) About how many total HECM counseling certificates have you personally issued since you began counseling? 1) Less than 150 D) What kind of HECM counselor training have you had? (Mark all that apply.) 1) No training
E) In which languages do you provide HECM counseling?
F) Which of the following best describes your internet access at work? 1) Have fast, always available internet access (DSL, cable, T-1) G) Which reverse mortgage software do you use most often? 1) HUD's HECM software H) In general, about how much of your agency's HECM counseling is provided by telephone? 1) less than 10% I) What would you estimate is the total amount of time that a complete HECM counseling case requires on average (including intake, scheduling, preparation, counseling, paperwork, follow-up)? 1) less than 30 minutes
The qualifying score you need to achieve on the exam to become eligible to join the AARP Foundation's HECM Counseling Network is 80 or more correct (out of 100 questions). This qualifying score was established by HUD and the AARP Foundation's Reverse Mortgage Education Project. YOUR SCORE: You will learn your score on the exam immediately after you complete it. If you achieve the qualifying score of 80 or more, you will be given a printout including
If you do not achieve the qualifying score, this does NOT mean that you have "failed" the exam. The exam does not have a "pass/fail" score. It only has a score that qualifies counselors to be eligible to join the AARP Foundation's HUD-sponsored HECM counseling network. If you do not achieve that score this time, you will still be able to take the exam at a future time (see below). No-Show, Cancellation, Rescheduling, Retesting If for any reason you are not able to take the exam at the time or place of your appointment, please call the TechSkills testing site number on your confirmation email or contact Thomson Prometric at 1-800-715-8345 at least 48 hours before the time of your appointment to cancel or reschedule. If you call less than 48 hours before your exam appointment, or fail to appear at the time and place of your appointment, the AARP Foundation will be charged by Prometric for the full cost of your taking the exam. If this occurs, you will not be permitted to take the exam at a later time unless you or your agency pays the AARP Foundation $100 for the cost of your missed exam. However, allowances will be considered on a case by case basis for written requests received by the Foundation within 15 business days of a missed exam appointment due to verifiable medical, family, or weather-related emergencies.
To cancel your registration altogether, you must make two phone calls. First, call the Techskills testing site number on your confirmation email or Thomson Prometric at 1-800-715-8345 to cancel your appointment as required above. Then, no matter where you were scheduled to take the exam, call Edgia (the company administering the exam) at 1-800-295-5783 to cancel your registration. A fee credit will then be given to the credit card on which the registration fee was charged.
If you do not achieve the qualifying score, you can re-take the exam at any time and as many times as you choose. The exam fee cost for each re-take is be $100. In the past, counselors received a refund of the exam fee if they achieved the qualifying score on the exam. This policy has been discontinued. The exam fee is nonrefundable except as noted above.
After the exam, you will be given an opportunity to comment on any aspect of the Prometric testing environment or the exam. For example, you may believe a question was misleading or deficient in accuracy or content. Or you may believe the exam included too many or too few questions on a given topic. Comments made by examinees on prior exams have been helpful to the AARP Foundation in constructing future forms of the exam. For questions, comments, or feedback about registration or testing, send an email to RMcounsel@aarp.org. For questions about scheduling, call Edgia at 1-800-295-5783.
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