HRCP Blog

The number one complaint I hear about the PHR and SPHR exams is the level of ambiguity in many of the questions. The frustration is not usually due to an inability to find a right answer, but rather that you could make a plausible argument for every one of the alternatives. Here’s where you’ve got to take the question apart and figure out what the item writer is looking for. Each exam question is assessing your knowledge or skill in a particular area. Ask yourself, what am I being tested on here? Is this item trying to determine if I know some particular fact? Is it trying to assess if I can do something? By asking yourself these questions, you can often eliminate the extraneous garbage and get to the heart of the matter.

If, when you’ve dissected the question, you find that you don’t know the pertinent fact or don’t possess the necessary skill, then make your best guess. Often you’ll find, however, that breaking the question down and finding the concept that is being testing will help you arrive at the best answer.

As a school child, I liked spelling tests, which is strange considering the fact that I’m not a particularly good speller. I think what I liked about spelling tests was the absence of surprises. We had a list of words, and we were tested on our ability to spell those words. I was pretty good at memorizing, so I fared well in spelling despite my lack of natural ability in the area. Some questions on the PHR and SPHR exams are not so different from grade school spelling tests. We memorize facts and identify correct definitions or concepts on the exam.

The tough questions are the ones that ask for more than facts. And there are a lot of them. The items on the HRCI certification exams may be classified into three cognitive types:

1. Knowledge/Comprehension. These items are designed to assess your ability to recall facts or interpret a concept. (The “spelling test” questions.)
2. Application/Problem Solving. These items assess your ability to solve real-life problems by applying familiar principles or generalizations.
3. Synthesis/Evaluation. These items assess your ability to accurately and logically use critical judgments to combine distantly-related elements into a whole.

HRCI attempts to include items from the three cognitive types on the exams using the percentages shown in the following table:

Just as acing your spelling tests has limited usefulness until you’re able to put those words to use in sentences, the facts and knowledge you learn in preparation for the PHR or SPHR exam only get you part of the way there. You need to push yourself beyond the facts and into application and synthesis.

In just twenty weeks from now, we will be in the beginning days of the December/January PHR and SPHR testing window. If you are the type who has all your Christmas shopping done before Halloween and you already know what you’ll be doing for Spring Break 2009, it’s time for you to begin studying. Procrastinators, you’ve still got plenty of time. Why rush?

I have written before about how long it takes to prepare for the HR certification exams. Many factors combine to determine how much time you, personally, need to devote to preparation, including your work experience, your educational background, and how efficiently you study. Really, the important thing is to make a schedule and stick to it.

If you don’t have study materials, now would be a good time to order them. If you are thinking of taking a class, find out what your options are. Do you have colleagues who are also planning to take the PHR or SPHR exam? Organize a study group. I know the next testing window seems a long way off, but it will be here before we know it.

Yikes! There are just 161 shopping days left until Christmas.

For some human resource professionals, taking the PHR or SPHR exam is not a question of if but of when. For others, the decision is not so easy. If you are one of those teetering on decision’s edge, you might ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I qualified? If you lack the necessary work experience, your decision is made for you. See HRCI’s eligibility requirements.
  
• Where am I in my career? Certification is significantly more important for those starting out their careers than for those who are closing in on retirement. Obtaining your PHR or SPHR certification demonstrates that you have the knowledge and skills that are vital to human resource management. If you’ve already worked in HR for 40 years, that should be well established. If you have less experience, certification can show that you know your stuff, despite the thinner resume. Many seasoned HR professionals still pursue certification for personal satisfaction, to further build credibility, or to provide an example to younger HR professionals.
• Am I considering a search for a new job? Certification is increasingly recognized as an essential standard for human resource managers. Many companies already limit employment in human resource management positions to those who are certified professionals. If you have similar qualifications as the other candidate, but one of you is certified and the other is not, who likely gets the nod?
• Am I willing and able to adequately prepare? The PHR and SPHR exams are tough. While some few people can breeze through the process without cracking a book, most of us require study. A lot of study. If your work and life circumstances prevent you from being able to commit to the cumbrous preparation required for the HR certification exams, perhaps now is not the time to pursue it. Here’s what I’ve said about the amount of time required to prepare.

I’ve seen it time and time again: the nightmares, the flashbacks, the anxiety, and the absolute insistence that nothing they studied was on the PHR or SPHR exam. Okay, the nightmares and flashbacks might be a bit of an exaggeration, but many people who have recently suffered through taken the HR certification exam truly believe that what they studied had no correspondence with what they found on the actual exam.

I can understand the feeling. When I was in my early twenties, I lived in Honduras, Central America, for a year and a half. In preparation for my time abroad, I studied Spanish intensively for nine weeks, and I felt pretty confident in my ability to carry on basic conversations in the language. When I arrived in Honduras, however, I couldn’t understand a word anyone was saying. I thought, “Oh, no, they taught me the wrong language.” Of course, I soon found that I had, indeed, studied the right language, but I needed some time to adapt to the accent and the speed with with the people spoke. I had studied the right stuff. The application of the knowledge was the difficult part.

For many, their experience with the PHR and SPHR exam is similar. The exam seems to be written in a different language. There are more application questions than many test-takers are expecting. The “which of the following would you do first” and “which is the most important consideration” questions baffle even the most seasoned HR professional. In most cases, the topics are not unfamiliar and are included in any decent set of HR certification study materials. The oh-no-they-taught-me-the-wrong-language reaction is due to the nature of the exam questions. When we study, we tend to focus on facts. We review, we drill, we memorize, and we assess our progress by how much we can regurgitate. On the exam we are expected to be able to apply the facts.

True, there will almost always be some topics covered on the exam that we didn’t study. Every time I’ve taken the exam, I’ve been blindsided by one or more questions. In stressful situations, we tend to become fixated on, and remember, the difficult parts, while the easy stuff makes no lasting impression.

So, is there a treatment for HRCI post-traumatic stress disorder? Yes. It’s the same one that worked for me in Central America: hang in there. Fluency comes when facts and application meld.

Have you ever watched the closing ceremonies of the Olympics? Basically, it’s just a party where all the athletes celebrate their participation in The Games. It’s not about winners or losers, world records, or medal counts. The focus in on having taken part, having done your best. Everyone is celebrating, the quadruple gold medalist as well as the guy who tripped on the first hurdle and fell flat on his face. At the closing ceremonies, everyone is a winner.

The PHR and SPHR May-June testing window closed on Saturday. If statistics hold, somewhere around 50 or 60 percent of those who sat for the exam passed (which means, sadly, that 40 to 50 percent didn’t). Now is the time to celebrate your accomplishments. If you passed, you can celebrate that nifty acronym you get to add to your business cards. If you didn’t, celebrate the fact that you were brave enough to line up for the race in the first place. Putting your knowledge and credibility on the line isn’t for the faint of heart. Having tried is significant. (Sitting still in one place for four hours is a huge accomplishment in my book.) Today, don’t worry about what might have gone wrong or whether you’ll re-take the exam in six months or a year. There will be time to review, assess, and analyze. For now, be satisfied that you tried at all. Many don’t make it that far.