2021 RETA Breeze March-April

The CARO Study Guide can be downloaded free from the RETA website. The study guide includes content outlines, lists references, and illustrates key concepts needed to pass the CARO exam. The CARO Study Guide also includes on-screen references that will appear next to the questions during the test. candidates are strongly encouraged to become as familiar with these onscreen references as they are with the manuals they use for equipment in the plants where they work. For example, scores dropped from 73% to 66% in Safety Standards and Procedures. Answers to many of these questions are available in the Ammonia Safety Data Sheet (SDS) that appears in the onscreen references. More candidates could pass CARO if they knew when they can LOOK UP the correct answer to a question in the SDS that in the onscreen references their CARO exam. The ammonia SDS is included on the onscreen references for every RETA exam. The CARO Practice Test is another valuable resource. All practice test questions are similar to those in the full exam and have been validated by RETA’s Certification Committee. Practice test score reports also direct candidates into the references that support content areas where they answered some questions incorrectly. These trends are even more dramatic for CIRO performance data. Average scores have fallen from 76% to 65% and pass rates dropped by over 50%. Average scores in four of the eight CIRO content areas have fallen from the 70s to the low 60s, and scores in electricity fell from 68% on earlier tests to 62% in the current exam. (See chart on the right.) RETA’s Certification Committee expanded the pool of questions available for CIRO to reflect changes in new editions of Industrial Refrigeration Book 2 (IR-2) and in Basic Electricity BE-1 and BE-2. The committee also retired more than 100 questions that no longer can appear in CIRO exams. The CIRO Study Guide documents these changes. RETA also expanded the CIRO Practice Test from 50 to 70 questions to provide a larger sample of questions similar to those that appear on the full exam. RETA’s goal is to provide every candidate with resources to help them earn credentials that improve the safety and efficiency of refrigeration system operations throughout the industry. Study guides offer guidance on how to prepare for each test. Practice Test score reports also direct candidates back into the chapters that support every question they answer incorrectly. They are designed to help candidates identify content areas and references where more study can help them earn these credentials. Candidates can take each RETA practice test as often as they wish for $59 per attempt.

AVERAGE CIRO SCORES BY CONTENT AREA SINCE JANUARY 2020

EARLIER EXAMS

CURRENT EXAMS

CIRO CONTENT AREAS

76%

74%

1. Safety Standards & Practices

68%

62%

2. Electricity

78%

71%

3. Heat Flow

75%

63%

4. Monitoring System Performance

77%

62%

5. Valves, Controls & DX Systems

70%

61%

6. Liquid Overfeed & Flooded Systems

7. Two-Stage & Secondary Coolant Systems

70%

60%

None

75%

8. Evaporator Defrost

76% 78%

65% 37%

Total Scores Pass Rates

We welcome your questions about RETA’s credentialing exams and activities. Send your questions by email to the Certification Department at certification@reta.com. Dr. Ron Rodgers, RETA’s Psychometrician (testing expert) and Accreditation Manager, has guided development of all RETA credentialing exams since 2002. RETA Testing Corner provides information and answers questions from RETA members, candidates and others to help them earn and benefit from RETA credentials.

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