David Moyer / President / Moyer, Sherwood Associates, Inc. (2/11):
I have been conducting fully-retained executive searches specifically in PR/corporate communications for over 25 years. In all that time, only one client asked that the candidates we recommended be APR. Once. And the finalist they selected was the one person in our slate who didn't have it. She went in as VP and was promoted within her first six months.
Frustrated with lack of credibility of PRSA! (2/08):
I got 18 out of 20 and, technically, I have had no formal PR training. It underlines what I have always said about the value of an APR, which is minimal, at best.
jim in la (2/08):
Well, I took the test. The computer program is badly flawed. So I'll never know how I did.
Michael Tullier, APR Chair, Universal Accreditation Board Director of External Relations Auburn University College of Education (2/07):
From Chair, Universal Accreditation Board:
The demonstration exam is designed to be just that, a demonstration—not so much of the difficulty of the exam questions as much as a demonstration of the exam environment. Computer-based testing is new to many of our more tenured professionals who didn’t advance professionally during the time of computer-based SAT and GRE exams.
The demonstration was designed to put PR-focused questions into what might be a foreign testing environment…all with the aim of easing test anxiety.
These are not actual questions from the live computer-based Examination—the assertion you make that anyone passing the demo exam could easily pass the live exam and become an APR is neither a fair nor accurate assessment.
There continue to be many new aspects to and developments within our Accreditation process that deserve a well-rounded understanding before they are reported on.
I appreciate your understanding and your interest. I do appreciate you giving the online demo a whirl.
Bill Huey, Strategic Communications, Atlanta, responds (2/07):
Michael Tullier wrote: "The demonstration was designed to put PR-focused questions into what might be a foreign testing environment…all with the aim of easing test anxiety."
Whaaat? Does the demonstration test reflect the real test or not? If it doesn't, why not state that in the demo preview? This is just more PRSA/Universal Accreditation Board obfuscation. No wonder they and the APR haven't much credibility or acceptance.
Bill Huey, Strategic Communications, Atlanta (2/07):
"They laughed when I sat down at the piano, but then I took the APR accreditation exam."
If you don’t think there’s something funny about Question 13 (and its answers) on the sample test, then you should put a lot of stock in the value of this examination and the APR.
Here’s what an experienced market researcher had to say about Question 13: “This is a PRSA question? It's "closed." It assumes the respondent knows what courtesy bias is. It offers really weird answers. I wouldn't have chosen A and B - neither would my students. Good grief.”
I think the multiple-choice APR test is a lot of baloney, and that no one should consider it a big deal if they did well on it. What we need is a lot more EPR (Experienced PR; Ethical PR) and a lot less APR.
Veep (2/07)
17 out of 20. My 16-year-old daughter could probably score a 15.
Aida Mayo, president MAYO Communications, LA,NY, SD, Bern, Switzerland (2/07):
Okay, so I get 17 out of 20 answers right, big deal. Some of the alternate answers offered could easily apply. It's like working in a corp. or government office. You have to do it the company way, but the bottomline is experience and gut feeling on what really works.
What is missing in this test are reality questions, and what really applies. If I did everything the way the corp. or gov. agency wanted, I would get an "A" on the test, but I might get killed in the media.
For example: Here's a question, and a real case scenario. You come back from Christmas vacation, and CBS' "60 Minutes" shows up at a routine board meeting, and your boss, the CEO, is up for a raise before the board that approves his budget. You and the CEO are the only two who don't know why the media is there. When you get to the meeting, the "60 Minutes" producer tells you two board members are resigning, but one is announcing 64 allegations of wrongdoing, including misappropriating government funds.
As an APR person you would:
Update your resume, and get the hell out of Dodge?
Submit detailed answers to the allegations call a news conference to tell everyone its not true
Plant negative allegations against the board members resigning
Downplay the story and give the producer better, more visual stories to cover
If you choose the last answer, you were right. Not only did we dissuade 60 Mins. from doing the story, PR Society awarded us "Best Crisis Commmunicatons" for the campaign.
However, it was a campaign done from the heart and gut, not found in any books or PRS manuals, which explains why only a handful of folks take the APR test. It is a joke, and when we brought up several ethics violations years ago, the national PRS chairman told us the Society "is trying to encourage members to be ethical, we feel it is more effective to do that than to bring them up on charges when they break the rules."
Hmmm...sound familar?
Good luck on the test. We'll be looking for your resume, too. |