Well, I took the course and exam for IS-700.a, which is an overview of the National Incident Management System. The course itself and the exam were not nearly as well crafted as was IS-100.b. Exam questions were often long winded with some rather minute details distinguishing correct vs. incorrect answers — so careful reading was required. In addition this exam had multiple instances of answers in the “negative” (like “all the above are true EXCEPT”), which is generally considered by educational professionals to be a questioning technique that leads to errors — becoming as much a test of test taking skills as the subject matter at hand. I also felt that this was much more vomiting back, word for word, lists from the class summary rather than asking someone to think critically and respond with an appropriate answer. From the “big picture” point of view, the class is excellent because it shows how all the pieces fit together on the National, State, Local, NGO, and Private Sector.
The course wasn’t hard, and took about 2.5 hours from beginning to end, including test time. With a bit of luck I will receive the certification in a few days, completing the minimum required training to participate in various state and local exercises.
The time for training and planning is BEFORE those skills are put to practical use. So maybe readers of this blog could put the fall and winter to good use and get credentialed. See the ECOMM page for more information.
Did you also notice that they violate the course prep rule of “no new material” in the summary? Sometimes summaries are not read, if you feel you have a good grasp of the material. But for these FEMA introducse more new material not covered in the course, which from all the lesson prep and teaching courses I’ve taken is not a good idea.. I am working these for MARS prep..
Interesting blog thanks for taking the time to do this
Dick