PROMETRIC TEST EXAM

1. Visit AICP Website

2. Select Computer Based Tutorial

3. Familiarize Yourself with Format

4. Use the Test Questions

2013 EXAM REWRITE

Approximately 150 of the 600+ exam questions replaced

Focus on removing poorly performing questions and

adding more current planning topics

Updated reading list

HISTORY, THEORY, AND LAW [15%]

A. History of planning

B. Planning law

C. Theory of planning

D. Patterns of human settlement

PLAN MAKING AND IMPLEMENTATION [30%]

A. Visioning and goal setting

B. Quantitative and qualitative

research methods

C. Collecting, organizing, analyzing,

and reporting data and

information

D. D. Demographics and economics

E. Natural and built environment

F. Land use and development

regulations

G. Application of legal principles

H. Environmental analysis

J. Growth management techniques

K. Budgets and financing options

L. GIS/spatial analysis and information

systems

M. Policy analysis and decision making

N. Development plan and project review

O. Program evaluation

P. Communications techniques

Q. Intergovernmental relationships

R. Stakeholder relationships

S. Project and program management

FUNCTIONAL AREAS OF PRACTICE [25%]

A. Community development

B. Comprehensive Planning

C. Development regulation

D. Economic development

E. Economic analysis and forecasting

F. Facilities planning

G. Energy policy

H. Food system planning

I. Growth management

J. Hazard mitigation

K. Historic preservation

L. Housing

M. Infrastructure

N. Labor force or employment

O. Land use

P. Natural resources and the environment

Q. Parks, open space and recreation

R. Planning law

S. Policy planning

T. Public services

U. Social and health services

V. Transportation

W. Urban design

SPATIAL AREAS OF PRACTICE [15%]

A. Planning at national level

B. Planning for multi-state or bi-state regions

C. Planning for state

D. Planning for sub-state region

E. Planning at county level

F. Planning for urban areas

G. Planning for suburban areas

H. Planning for small town

I. Corridors

J. Neighborhoods

K. Waterfronts

L. Historic districts or areas

M. Downtowns

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE [10%]

A. Public involvement planning

B. Public participation techniques

C. Identifying, engaging, and serving underserved groups

D. Social justice issues, literature, and practice

E. Working with diverse communities

F. Coalition building

VI. AICP Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct [5%]

EXAM STRUCTURE

1. 170 Questions, 150 Graded

2. 3 ½ Hours to Complete Exam

3. Need Score of 55 to Pass

4. Scores Range from 25 to 75

SCHEDULE EXAM

Thomson Prometric Test Centers

TAKING THE EXAM

Valid photo ID

Social Security Card, bank teller card or other secondary

ID

Calculator provided

Scratch paper/pencil provided

HOW TO STUDY FOR THE EXAM

Begin studying as early as possible

Devote 80-100 hours in study time

Identify Weak Areas Early

Study Groups

Notecards

Take practice exams

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

APA Reading List

Practicing Planner

RECOMMENDED READINGS

The Practice of Local Government Planning

Everyday Ethics for Practicing Planners

PLANNING MAGAZINE

Review last five years

(starting one year ago)

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN PLANNING

ASSOCIATION

Review the last five years

(starting one year ago)

PLANNING ADVISORY SERVICE REPORTS

Look over titles and topics

Review those with which you

are unfamiliar

SUPPLEMENTAL REVIEW MATERIALS

Online Review Courses

Planetizen

PlanningPrep

Materials for Preparing for the exam

American Planning Association

Institute of Continuing Planning Education

Datachem

OTHER RESOURCES

http://www.wikipedia.org

http://www.studystack.com

http://anymemo.org/

http://www.planning.org

http://www.youtube.com/user/planningwebcast

Define: feature on search engines

THE WEEK BEFORE THE EXAM

The week of the exam get as much rest as possible

Drive to the test site

THE DAY BEFORE THE EXAM

Eat Well

Get Plenty of Rest

THE DAY OF THE EXAM

Dress in Layers

Eat before the exam

Arrive Early

Bring Your Notecards

DURING EXAM

Pace Yourself

Answer every question (Guess!)

Use Marking

Watch for negative questions

Try to come up with answer in your head

For long questions read the answers first

Do math questions twice

Think about the average agency/planner

A PATTERN LANGUAGE (1977)

Christopher Alexander

Guidelines for what makes a great city

• Max 9% parking

• Communities of 7,000

• Web of Shopping

DESIGN WITH NATURE (1971)

Ian McHarg

Suitability Analysis for Land Development

GROWING COOLER (2008)

Reid Ewing, Keith Bartholomew, Steve Winkelman, Jerry

Walters and Don Chen

Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions

PARKING MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES (2006)

Todd Litman

Parking Standards

PLANNING POLICY AND POLITICS (2005)

John DeGrove

Smart Growth

BOOMBURBS (2007)

Robert Lang and Jennifer LeFurgy

Rise of the Suburbs

RURAL BY DESIGN (1994)

Randall Arendt

Conservation Subdivisions

RURAL BY DESIGN (1994)

Randall Arendt

Conservation Subdivisions

SITE PLANNING (1984)

Kevin Lynch and Gary Hack

Site Planning Details

SMART GROWTH IN A CHANGING WORLD

(2007)

Jonathan Barnett, F. Kaid Benfield, W. Paul Farmer,

Shelley Poticha, Robert D. Yaro and Armando

Carbonell

Growth Trends, Smart Growth Solutions

THE URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING READER

(2009)

Edited by Eugenie Birch

Focus on regionalism

AMERICAN CITY PLANNING SINCE 1890 (1969)

Mel Scott

History of City Planning • City Functional/City Efficient

INTRODUCTION TO PLANNING HISTORY

(1983/1997)

Edited by Donald Kruckenberg

History of City Planning • City Beautiful

• Radburn

SEARCHING FOR THE GOOD PLAN (2009)

Philip Berke and David Godschalk

Comprehensive Plan Evaluation

Internal characteristics

Issue identification and vision

Goals

Fact base

Policies

Implementation

Monitoring and evaluation

Internal consistency

External characteristics

Organization and presentation

Interorganizational coordination

Compliance

PLAN EVALUATION CRITERIA

APPLIED STATISTICS FOR PUBLIC AND

NONPROFIT ADMINISTRATION (2006/2009)

Kenneth Meier, Jeffrey Brudney, John Bohte

Statistical Techniques

dispersion

Source: http://www.mathwave.com

THE PLANNER’S USE OF INFORMATION

(1988/2003)

Edited by Hemalata Dabdekar

Techniques for data collection

statistics (central tendency, dispersion, distribution,

significance)

population projections

survey methods

QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS FOR PLANNING AND

POLICY (2007)

John and Sharon Gaber

Techniques for qualitative analysis

field research

focus groups

BASIC METHODS OF POLICY ANALYSIS

(1986/1993/2013)

Patton, Sawicki, Clark

Techniques for analysis

evaluation criteria

A LADDER OF CITIZEN PARTICIPATION

Sherry Arnstein

1969

ADVOCACY AND PLURALISM PLANNING

Paul Davidoff

The planner’s role is to advocate for underrepresented groups in the planning process.

Redefined the “public interest”

The City of Bikerville has decided to implement a bike sharing program. It has sent out an RFP soliciting proposals from companies to provide a bike sharing service. The RFP outlines the minimum performance requirements, including the number of bike sharing stations, the number of bicycles to be provided, the location of the stations and other key requirements to ensure success of the program. As the chair of the evaluation committee you are charged with undertaking the selection process. Which evaluation method would you use:

a. Cost-Benefit Analysis

b. Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

c. Cost-Revenue Analysis

d. Community Benefits Agreement

As part of a healthy communities initiative you want to understand how the built environment impacts the walkability of different neighborhoods. You get two different neighborhood associations to participate in wearing pedometers over a one week period. The results below show the average number of steps taken by each person over the course of the week, shown in thousands.

Neighborhood 1: 82.3 60.5 92.8 97.4 82.1 40.3

Neighborhood 2: 20.1 30.2 40.7 60.3 70.2 12.3

After calculating the mean what conclusion can you draw about the neighborhoods.

a) Neighborhood 1 walks substantially more than Neighborhood 2

b) Neighborhood 2 walks substantially more than Neighborhood 1

c) Neighborhood 1 and 2 walk a very similar amount

d) Neither neighborhood is meeting the daily recommended number of steps

The Mayor recently signed the climate change protection agreement along with mayors across the nation. He informs you that the agreement is to strive to meet or beat the Kyoto Protocol targets in your city. He instructs you to create a plan that will focus on climate change. You assemble a team across the city to begin to look at climate change and actions the city could take to reduce the city’s impact. You are the chair of the greenhouse gas subcommittee. At the first subcommittee meeting you present an overview of greenhouse gases, the components and their impact on the community. Which of the following would you include in your presentation?

a) Transportation, such as vehicles driving on the road, is the number one source of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States.

b) Transportation, such as vehicles driving on the road, is the number one source of nitrous oxide emissions in the United States.

c) Methane is the most concerning greenhouse gas and is emitted from agricultural uses and landfills.

d) Ozone is the most concerning greenhouse gas and is emitted from agricultural uses and landfills.

You have been asked to facilitate a focus group to discuss policy alternatives that the city can use to reduce vehicle miles travelled in your city. You know this is a complex topic that will require time to explain before people will be able to effectively participate. You invited 20 people to participate, but you weren’t sure how many people will show up on the day of the focus group. In advance of the focus group you have prepared a flexible agenda that you can adapt based on the number of people that attend. At the time of the focus group 6 people arrive. Based on this level of attendance which of the following is the best strategy?

a) People will have plenty of time to talk, so the conversation may get thin so you have extra questions ready to go to push the conversation forward.

b) People will have plenty of time to talk, so the conversation may get thin and may be dominated by one or two people who consider themselves experts in this area so you have a mix of questions from accessible that anyone can answer to more complex for experts to answer and you use a round robin approach to allow everyone to speak.

c) Given the complexity of the topic you may lose people and there may not be enough time for people to talk and some may not want to speak in front of others so you keep the questions brief to allow the most time for people to talk and you use a round robin approach to allow everyone to speak

d) Lots of people will want to talk and it may be difficult to move from one question to another so you announce the amount of time that will be spent on each question before moving on.

Your lakefront suburb of 50,000 is a fairly homogenous middle class community of people who were attracted to live in the community because of the lake. The City considering investing in the redevelopment of a major waterfront recreational area that would include a mix of activities such as kayaking, fishing, and paddleboating. Before moving forward with a detailed design you want to know which recreational activities residents in the city would like to undertake. You have decided to undertake an in person survey at the existing lakefront park, your planning interns collect 402 surveys over two weekends. You are now writing up the results of the survey to present to the city council. You know one of the council members is going to want to know the statistical validity of the survey, which of the following would be accurate to state in the report?

a) This is a cross-sectional survey with a simple random sample with 402 respondents, which exceeds the 95% confidence level.

b) This is a weighted cross-sectional survey with a stratified sample with 402 respondents, which exceeds the 95% confidence level.

c) This is a longitudinal survey with a simple random sample with 402 respondents, which exceeds the 90% confidence level.

d) This is a cross-sectional survey with a simple random sample with 402 respondents, which exceeds the 90% confidence level.

APA LAW RESOURCES

Prof. Mandelker Blog http://law.wustl.edu/landuselaw/

APA Planning Law Division

http://apapld.wordpress.com/resources/

PocketJustice app of Supreme Court cases

2009 COURT CASES

Stop the Beach Renourishment v Florida Dept of

Environmental Protection (US Supreme Court

RTM Media v City of Houston (US Court of Appeals)

Midwest Media v City of Erlanger and City of Ft. Wright

(US Court of Appeals)

2010 COURT CASES

Continental Property Group v City of Minneapolis

Guggenheim v City of Goleta (US Court of Appeals

Kyser v Kasson Townships (Michigan Supreme Court)

Rocky Mountain Christian Church v Board of County

Commissioners (US Court of Appeals)

2011 CASES

West Linn Corporate Park v City of West Linn (US Court of

Appeals)

Magner v Gallagher

2012 CASES

Koontz v St. Johns River Water Management District

PRACTICE QUESTION

The City has recently seen a prolific number of applications for digital billboards.

The City Council doesn’t want to approve any of these even though the applications are in compliance with the city’s zoning ordinance. You have recommended that the Council approve these applications and then proceed to write a zoning ordinance amendment that would disallow off-premise signs of certain dimensions. To ensure a constitutional ordinance you want to make sure that the ordinance advances a significant governmental interest. Which of the following reasons would likely be upheld?

I. Aesthetics

II. Traffic Safety

III. Protected Speech

IV. Legibility

A. II only B. I and II only C. I, II and III only D. I, II, III, and IV

PRACTICE QUESTION

A megachurch has made a request to build a 300,000 square foot facility that includes a bookstore, school, and recreational facility in addition to congregation and prayer facilities. The property is currently zoned for agriculture, but in the comprehensive plan the area calls for low density residential development. You are reviewing the application and plan to recommend denial of the application. Before completing the staff report you reference compliance with which of the following:

A. PUD

B. Eminent Domain

C. RLUIPA

D. Rational Nexus

PRACTICE QUESTION

A megachurch has made a request to build a 300,000 square foot facility that includes a bookstore, school, and recreational facility in addition to congregation and prayer facilities. The property is currently zoned for agriculture, but in the comprehensive plan the area calls for low density residential development. You are reviewing the application and plan to recommend denial of the application. Before completing the staff report you reference compliance with which of the following:

A. PUD

B. Eminent Domain

C. RLUIPA

D. Rational Nexus

A developer has approached the city about building condominiums along the city’s riverfront. The river has significant and substantial wetlands along the riverfront in the vicinity of the proposed development. The land is currently zoned for rural residential. Your evaluation is that a portion of the property should be put into permanent conservation prior to any building permit being issued. The staff recommendation to the planning commission is:

a) The approval of the rezoning to allow for the increase in density be conditioned upon the dedication of land for permanent conservation.

b) The application for rezoning should be denied as submitted. The city should put in place a moratorium on development along the riverfront while the city evaluates the natural resources to determine what requirements should be put in place along the riverfront prior to any intensification of use.

c) The application for rezoning should be denied, condominium development is too intense for such an important natural resource area.

d) The application for rezoning should be approved to allow for the increase in density if prior to the planning commission meeting the developer voluntarily amends their application to include a deed restriction that would prevent the future development of a portion of the property.