From: dube@cpdvax.CSc.ti.COM
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.misc
Subject: Format of Code Exams?
Date: 5 Jan 93 21:56:42 GMT
Organization: UCSD Usenet Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: ucsd.edu
Originator: daemon@ucsd.edu

Subj:	Format of Code Exams?

No matter what kind of question is asked, the question writer can make it hard
or easy.  I happen to like multiple-choice more than fill-ins if I'm taking;
but if I'm testing I like essay-type ('cause I like to find what out not only
how much has been learned, but how the "student" is thinking about the subject).
Questions can be designed so as to impose the maximum difficulty.  Example:
"The QTH of the sending station is:  (a) Beakmon, MT  (b) Bankson, MO  
(c) Burlson, NH  (d) Dayton, MS."  A "guesser" might have a hard time choosing 
the correct answer, especially if the call sign number didn't match the area.

Fill-ins can be made tougher by requiring word answers that aren't commonly usedor are hard to spell, so that the "guesser" would have to copy THAT WORD 
exactly to get it right (even though he or she may have copied several words 
before and after it correctly).

I've heard it mentioned that tests should include real-life information.  This
is OK, except that it gives the person with an excellent knowledge of geography a decided edge (in the QTH case) over those who can't find Nebraska on a US
map.  Copying "MA___ON, WI" would allow the knowledgeable testee to reasonable
conclude that the town is MADISON, although three of the 7 letters were missed.

No doubt about it, the 10-question test is, to me, far easier to pass than
the one-minute solid copy.  This is especially true when ordinary QSO-type
messages are being copied.  I once took Morse Code class as a requirement for
an Army communications course.  It was an 80-classroom-hour course and the
minimum passing grade was 16 WPM.  Five-letter groups, mixed letters, numbers
and symbols.  One-minute solid copy in a five-minute run.  No guesswork
here, folks!  Knowledge of QSO content or geography or any other subject would
have been absolutely no help.  However, there was no way for the test-givers
to steer the exam in any direction because they had no input at all.  They
simply compared your copy against the master.

I don't advocate going back to this kind of testing.  I believe that Morse
Code is an integral part of Ham Radio and should be learned; but not past
the ability to meet international requirements.  In the Army, a comm
person might easily be assigned to a duty requiring the send/receive of
Morse Code on a daily basis.  Not so in this hobby.  Those who get a lot
of fun with it (as I do) can go on up to as fast as they want.  So let's
not confuse incentive stuff with exam requirements.  

What should happen is for VEs to not let their feelings about the requirements to color their testing or grading criteria.  This will only make matters worse
than they already are.  Such things as allowing the writing down of dots and
dashes to count toward "copy" is just one example.  Too bad there can't be a
standard code message that everyone has to copy, and standard set of questions
that everyone has to take.  Then it all could be included in the back of the
license manual and the testee could just memorize the whole message and 
just regurgitate it at the session.  :)

73,
Dube                      AB5AP                    <dube@cpdvax.csc.ti.com>
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.misc