Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
2017 Exam Guidelines Released...
#1
Please read them... here
Le coureur
Reply
#2
(06-02-2017, 09:22 AM)Jerry1237 Wrote: Please read them... here
WOW, I wasn't quite expecting that.

Not so much the initial sit down but the fact that they want sponsor to sign that someone is likely to be ready to sit the exam by the end of APRIL!
Seems very early to me.
OK there is a "defer decision option" that allows postponement for a month, but even so......

I start my Study Groups early (before Christmas) and even on this basis I only work up to attempting real IRSE questions in April, so frankly it is really too early for me to say by then; I'd be staggered if anyone were likely to be in a better position than me.  
So any decision would have to be based on what I thought they could probably achieve by October rather than how they were currently doing.  The margin of error when asking that assessment to be made in April rather than in June as last year must be so much higher, that I fear the whole thing is going to be counter-productive.

With the exam results not likely to be out until end Feb and the likelihood of the 2016 Exam Review not until end March, then most people will hardly have begun to get stuck in by the time the end of April arrives.  

The IRSE is going to have to bring the exam results back to be before Christmas; there will be people now who won't know whether or not they passed the module(s) they attempted last year and by the time they find out that they didn't it will almost be too late to attempt again this year.  It is going to be a brave sponsor who finds out that their candidate didn't pass last year and within 6-8 weeks is signing in them off to have another attempt.

Wonder what made them set those deadlines?
PJW
Reply
#3
Having heard a rumour that at least one of the examiners didn't start marking until Christmas perhaps all the dates need a review. If that were true then almost 3 months wait between the exam and starting to mark is unreasonable, and the results have to wait until the last paper has been marked and invigilated.

Either the results need to be before Christmas, or the exam needs to be early December with the deadlines in June and April also going back 2 months. That would mean committing to the exam at the end of August - after the summer break in the UK - which might be a good thing as candidates would have an idea whether they actually managed to get more studying in over the summer.
Reply
#4
Think we all can accept the institution is small and run mostly by volunteers. Time is precious, the Institution works hard.

However, many of the timescales seem ludicrously long. Need to apply by January to gain membership to sit an exam in October! Potentially, can we see benefit in putting a short white paper together where exam candidates have a special membership committee that also vets exam applications far closer to a "reasonable" deadline, i.e. end of July? Accept expression of interest before then to get an idea of scale and to be considered for inclusion in the "special" meeting and be given the full application pack. Also, a prescriptive set of dates of what/when candidates need to do as well as when the IRSE will notify, i.e. acceptance onto the exam, results being issued...

Some of this is in place. Some not. Comments?

Jerry
Le coureur
Reply
#5
(07-02-2017, 10:44 AM)Jerry1237 Wrote: Think we all can accept the institution is small and run mostly by volunteers. Time is precious, the Institution works hard.

However, many of the timescales seem ludicrously long. Need to apply by January to gain membership to sit an exam in October! Potentially, can we see benefit in putting a short white paper together where exam candidates have a special membership committee that also vets exam applications far closer to a "reasonable" deadline, i.e. end of July? Accept expression of interest before then to get an idea of scale and to be considered for inclusion in the "special" meeting and be given the full application pack. Also, a prescriptive set of dates of what/when candidates need to do as well as when the IRSE will notify, i.e. acceptance onto the exam, results being issued...

Some of this is in place. Some not. Comments?

Jerry

Personally I don't have an issue about needing to have applied for membership at the beginning of the year to sit an exam in October- hardly seems an imposition and given that access to study material becomes available makes a lot of sense.

Neither does a June exam registration.
  
It is the SDF deadline that seems both 
  • an excessive time before the end of June deadline (I can't see why it shouldn't be 2 weeks rather than 2 months- we are only talking about say 100 people doing an average of 2 modules each and that would mean only having to process around 10 forms a day and even at a generous 30mins each it is less than one person's workload and anyway could be planned for as it won't be unexpected), and
  • an insufficient time after the results are published and the previous year's exam review held.
I do agree that, volunteer organisation or not, there ought to be some committment from the IRSE to the candidates. It is not just the speed of the exam results, it is the notice given of the time and place for the exam; it is often very late.  Certainly for those needing accommodation or hopeful of getting reasonably priced rail tickets, or even knowing whether they will be free to do something else that day to fit in with friends and family, finding out those details only one or two weeks prior to the day when the committment to to sit was nearly 3 months earlier doesn't seem fair.  There are a huge number of organisations largely or totally dependent on volunteers that are able to commit to provide some sort of service, be it religious, scout troop, sports club, charity, National Trust, heritage railway.....
PJW
Reply
#6
It's all put out of kilter by the long timescale between exam and results. I understand the volunteer nature of both the exam committee and the institution as a whole, but 4 to 5 months is unreasonable. Ultimately the move to have candidates sponsored is an attempt to fix this so I'll give it some time to see how it works.

I think if I were asked to be a sponsor I'd be looking at the candidate's preparation plan - that there is one, that it is realistic - plus their general level of knowledge, competence and reasoning. Not whether they can answer a paper at that point.
I would probably want to see a past paper attempt prior to the end of June so we could review what is realistic again.
Reply
#7
(09-02-2017, 08:27 PM)dorothy.pipet Wrote: I think if I were asked to be a sponsor I'd be looking at the candidate's preparation plan - that there is one, that it is realistic - plus their general level of knowledge, competence and reasoning. Not whether they can answer a paper at that point.
I would probably want to see a past paper attempt prior to the end of June so we could review what is realistic again.
Agreed.
It may well be some people will be coming to me in the next few weeks with their Study Plan and I would do similarly at that time. However I think that any SDF that I sign in April will be only as the, supposedly exceptional, defer decision type. Pre-registration at end of April isn't too much of an issue, but expecting the sponsor to say whether likely to pass exam is the problem; I think could even be counter-productive as a screening measure.


The exception would have been someone like yourself who already had an excellent exam record and frankly was writing answers for the next exam not long after having sat the previous year- that most certainly is exceptional.
PJW
Reply
#8
I am sad that it is exceptional. It's a professional, degree level exam. I'd never expect to prepare in less than 6 months, plus spreading it out results in not needing to cram (futile for me at least) and is a mitigation against future increased workload.
As a side effect, the IRSE study guide can stave off the boredom of Christmas DO cover shifts.

Last year I became CRE on a huge project, I found it increasingly hard to fit in anything except while commuting by train. I survived because I had started at Christmas, not waited until previous results were issued.
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)