NCEES Absorbs Financial Impact due to April '20 Cancellations

[schedengr]

I've learned from an inside source that the NCEES examination board laid-off more than 100 employees which included judges, proctors, and management level employees. Quite frankly I couldn't care less about this organization and its deceptive grading practices. Many of you on this board can proudly disagree with me but let me give some food for thought. I have spent the last 10 years of my career managing licensed structural engineers in the Bay Area. I have failed the exam twice now but I have seen a growing trend in our industry that should throw caution to the wind. I can't tell you the number of times I have had to redline steel detail drawings, STAAD models, and engineering calculations performed by licensed engineers due to a lack of critical thinking and engineering knowledge. I may not stamp drawings but if these drawings were released for IFC to the general contractor there would be devastating consequences structurally. I've seen too many licensed engineers go through our office and have since been fired for poor performance. As our office has been impacted by the COVID virus I have stayed on working with the engineering director on a $400 million office renovation where I perform most of the calculations and detail drawings with my director stamping my work. My director agrees with me in that many engineers passing this flawed exam do not come out confident nor fully understand best practices in the industry. The direction this board has taken cannot be justified in making better engineers for society, in fact it has done the opposite and I won't continue to waste my hard earned money to a group that selects irrelevant exam questions most engineers will never encounter in their careers. My request for the exam board is this, either go back to the original exam structure or start selecting germane questions that are practical to society. Sadly I've seen too many excellent test takers pass this exam and fail miserably in day to day engineering practices. My request to the board is make the exam more practical or come up with a better way in measuring an engineer's knowledge, particularly with key design elements necessary in engineering.

 

[CAPLS]

Couple of things...first of all, NCEES is not a "board".  Second, not now nor anytime in their 100 year history has NCEES ever had "100 employees" total!  Not sure who your "inside source" is but they are sadly misinformed.

Edit:  Now there are Proctors that work for NCEES administering the paper/pencil exams and they probably only work during those few days, twice a year, when the exams are administered.  Not sure exactly what the working relationship is between the Proctors and NCEES, nor is it any of my business, but its reasonable to understand that none of them worked in April when the exams were canceled.  Duh!  Those may be what your "inside source" were referring to.

 

[Violator]

 (Original Post)  :BS:

 

[Tiger15]

I've learned from an inside source that the NCEES examination board laid-off more than 100 employees which included judges, proctors, and management level employees. Quite frankly I couldn't care less about this organization and its deceptive grading practices. Many of you on this board can proudly disagree with me but let me give some food for thought. I have spent the last 10 years of my career managing licensed structural engineers in the Bay Area. I have failed the exam twice now but I have seen a growing trend in our industry that should throw caution to the wind. I can't tell you the number of times I have had to redline steel detail drawings, STAAD models, and engineering calculations performed by licensed engineers due to a lack of critical thinking and engineering knowledge. I may not stamp drawings but if these drawings were released for IFC to the general contractor there would be devastating consequences structurally. I've seen too many licensed engineers go through our office and have since been fired for poor performance. As our office has been impacted by the COVID virus I have stayed on working with the engineering director on a $400 million office renovation where I perform most of the calculations and detail drawings with my director stamping my work. My director agrees with me in that many engineers passing this flawed exam do not come out confident nor fully understand best practices in the industry. The direction this board has taken cannot be justified in making better engineers for society, in fact it has done the opposite and I won't continue to waste my hard earned money to a group that selects irrelevant exam questions most engineers will never encounter in their careers. My request for the exam board is this, either go back to the original exam structure or start selecting germane questions that are practical to society. Sadly I've seen too many excellent test takers pass this exam and fail miserably in day to day engineering practices. My request to the board is make the exam more practical or come up with a better way in measuring an engineer's knowledge, particularly with key design elements necessary in engineering.

If you're a licensed civil engineer and have constructive feedback to share. You have an opportunity.

... otherwise I'm not sure how much benefit there is to ranting online.