Update July 11, 2019:
The GIS Certification Institute (GISCI) recently announced that it has revised the blueprint for its Geospatial Core Technical Knowledge Exam. Â
The exam is a required component for those wishing to qualify for the institute’s GISP certification.  Starting with the December 2019 exam,  about 8% of the blueprint will be new, while 92% of the blueprint transferred over. Â
The original blueprint was developed in 2015 and has served as the basis for exam administered by the GISCI. The new blueprint was developed based on input from 2,400 GISPs and reflects changes in the GIS industry.
More:
- Announcement from GISCI
- The 2019 exam blueprint
- 2019 revised Exam Candidate Manual
- AÂ cross-reference between the Revised Blueprint and the original Blueprint
The GIS Certification Institute (GISCI) exam explained
The GIS Certification Institute (GISCI) now requires that applicants pass an exam as part of the over Geographic Information Systems Professional (GISP) certification process. The exam is made up of 192 questions out of which 100 are actually scored (the remaining questions are test questions designed to collect information about possible inclusion in future exams).
To pass the exam, the applicant must answer at least 75 of the questions correctly.
The exam focuses on testing Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities (KSAs) six areas:
- Conceptual Foundations (12%)
- Cartography & Visualization (14%)
- GIS Design Aspects & Data Modeling (29%)
- GIS Analytical Methods (17%)
- Data Manipulation (15%)
- Geospatial Data (13%)
Now potential test takers can get a sense of what the questions on the exam are like. A practice exam has been release which contains 50 questions broken down in the six knowledge categories.
- Practice Exam 1 – Geospatial Core Technical Knowledge Exam [PDF]
- GISP Practice Exam (fee based)
- GISP Exam Preparation
This article was originally written on August 3, 2017 and has since been updated.
