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As a co-founder of Rising Star Promotions with Ed back in 2006, I feel compelled to speak about the exam you all just experienced. Ed and I started our school because of the same frustrations many of you have now - we were not happy with the schools that were out there for our promotional exams, and what they taught wasn't always on the exam. Ed and I were absolute ANIMALS when it came to studying and our study sessions often resulted in fights and objects being thrown around. We purposely wrote ridiculous study session questions from obscure procedures to prepare ourselves for ANYTHING they could possibly throw at us on test day. We purposely read and analyzed the meaning of words used in the guides to absorb their true meaning and intent within the procedure. By the time we were done studying for our exams, we knew the guides better than the course instructors and the exam writers - our list numbers have proven that. We walked into every one of our exams with the confidence of a gladiator. Why? Because we left NOTHING to chance. We left no stone unturned and studied EVERYTHING. We took zero chance listening to courses tell us what "usually" appears on a test and put zero faith into "procedure rankings" of difficulty or likeliness to appear. The fact is, anything and everything is testable. We always hope for a ground ball exam and know there will always be at a minimum a few hard questions to weed out the true studiers. But when exams are overall difficult or written poorly, it's all that more important that you were prepared and studied for a hard exam. It was on this premise, that Ed and I developed Rising Star Promotions. We have NEVER told one of our students, "don't bother reading that", or "this will likely be on your test", etc. We see that as what I term, "promotional suicide" (false sense of confidence). Our material is designed to condition our students to read the guides in a way that reinforces retention & understanding which results in increased legitimate confidence. Our sometimes challenging and tricky questions will make you see things you wouldn't have seen otherwise with easy, feel good questions that other students sometimes utilize. Every NYPD promotional school has it's pros & cons and that's why we recommend that our students do not just take one course - everyone studies differently and feels more comfortable with different styles of instructors and formats. With all that said, what went on in the NYPD promotion exam process for Ed and I almost 30 years ago, hasn't changed much today as evidenced by your comments of frustrations and disappointment. Ed and I sincerely have our student's best interest at heart and love to see them promoted. We don't disappear after an exam is over, and in fact, when it was allowed, we not only sat for your exams but we also appeared at DCAS protest sessions to help students appeal faulty questions. We have also been responsible for several DCAS rule changes. From the overwhelmingly positive feedback we have have received thus far, Rising Star was spot-on again with our questions and methods. We wish the best of luck to all those who took this exam and hope you do well regardless of what course you utilized. For our students, thank you for trusting us to assist you with your promotional efforts. Stay safe everyone.
Tony & Ed
-- Edited by Tony Rags on Thursday 4th of August 2022 04:13:54 PM
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Tony Raganella - Co-Founder, Rising Star Promotions
What were your study techniques? I think the problem for myself and others is just kind of following what we were told. Its a lot of information and its difficult to maintain but Im curious whats a good method for learning and remembering. This test hammered me and although I did remember many things I was to unconfident not to fall for tricks
One of the things that stick out to me With rising stars is that they did test about the highly testable procedures but they didnt go to step 1-10, they would ask u answers that were found in the additional data statements, or like step 28.
What were your study techniques? I think the problem for myself and others is just kind of following what we were told. Its a lot of information and its difficult to maintain but Im curious whats a good method for learning and remembering. This test hammered me and although I did remember many things I was to unconfident not to fall for tricks
GR5,
Sorry you had such difficulty with the exam. Many first-time exam takers are completely blind-sided by what an NYPD promotional exam can entail. There is a tremendous amount of sacrifice & commitment that goes into the preparation and study process. Because everyone studies and retains information differently, it would be impossible to say what works for me, will work for you. Ed & I took drastically different approaches to our study methods, yet ended up with the same top-scoring results. You have to find what works for you personally. In our course material and questions, we cover general methods that work well. It's then up to you to tweak them for your personal style. I always teach students the 3 parts to a successful promotional exam are: 1. the upfront desire, commitment & sacrifice; 2. Understanding HOW to read the guides and what the words contained in the procedures actually mean and how they apply; and, 3. the ability to breakdown and attack multiple choice questions and an awareness of all the tricks that test-writers can employ to stump you on exam day. Unfortunately, Ed & I have found that other schools we utilized when we studied failed miserably at 2 & 3 and that's why we knew we'd be successful at passing on that knowledge, as long as you, the student, had 1 covered.
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Tony Raganella - Co-Founder, Rising Star Promotions
One of the things that stick out to me With rising stars is that they did test about the highly testable procedures but they didnt go to step 1-10, they would ask u answers that were found in the additional data statements, or like step 28.
This is EXACTLY why I can spend hours writing a single practice question for our course. I dig deep looking for the things the exam-writers will notice and then turn that into a learning experience for our students so they may get it wrong once in practice, learn from it, and then never get it wrong on exam day!
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Tony Raganella - Co-Founder, Rising Star Promotions
