Continental Testing provides me with detailed statistics on their pass/fail rates on all three of the examinations for which I provide a test preparation seminar. One such statistic is what Continental calls “First-Time Passes.” For over thirty years that I have been offering these seminars (17 years for alarm) I have tracked and compared my seminar pass rates to the pass rates of those that do not attend my seminar. In other words, I compare my seminar pass rate to the pass rate of those license candidates who study on their own. My seminar pass rates have been consistently three to five times higher than those candidates who study on their own. I have never tracked my first-time pass rates because I had nothing to compare them to. Until now. I broadened my FOIA request to IDFPR in September 2024 regarding the pass/fail statistics request I make following every examination and received back statistics on first-time pass rates for each exam for the September 2024 examination.
I was astonished by the results of my inquiry. I first determined how many first-time passes I had in each exam and then subtracted my first-time passes from the total first-time passes in each exam as reported by Continental. The test-takers who attended my seminar were the only first-time test-takers who passed on their first attempt in September 2024. In all three examinations! Because I know how ridiculously hard these exams are I had suspected that my seminar attendees would make up the majority of first-time passes. But I never dreamed they would comprise all of them. Astounding.
Note: Continental in response to a previous FOIA request stated that the average license candidate takes approximately four times to pass their exam. I cannot help but wonder what that average would be if you subtracted all of my seminar attendees from the total testing candidates that Continental is using to determine the average number of time to pass. Would the average jump to 5 times? 6 times? 7 times? Interesting.
EWW October 2024