Please tell me how NCEES has an A+ rating with the BBB?

[wilheldp_PE]

Thats fine and dandy for the old method that utilized a written response. But these are scantrons. If your computer cannot compare an electronically recorded scantron with a known answer bank at more than 400 exams per hour, I would say your computer is much worse than mine. That's not a good thing.
But I agree they are well within their time frame. I am patiently waiting as well with little complaint, but a lot of curiosity on the whole process.

Did you choose to ignore the equating process or did you fail to adequately investigate the process before making your misinformed post?

 

[humner]

Hey, we don't know what is happening at NCEES. Any number of things could have happened. Illness with their workforce with a key person(s), problems with their scantron, a new computer program that they wanted to use does not work as promissed...... you can add any number of things. I am sure that at one time or another, we have all been held up from getting something done. Who has not been held up in traffic all because of the rubber necks slowing down to see an accident? Hey, maybe they are deliberating on one question that could mean someone on here getting their PE or not. I say, take their time.

 

[bobbyi11771]

Thats fine and dandy for the old method that utilized a written response. But these are scantrons. If your computer cannot compare an electronically recorded scantron with a known answer bank at more than 400 exams per hour, I would say your computer is much worse than mine. That's not a good thing.
But I agree they are well within their time frame. I am patiently waiting as well with little complaint, but a lot of curiosity on the whole process.

Did you choose to ignore the equating process or did you fail to adequately investigate the process before making your misinformed post?

Call me stupid (others have).... but what "equating process" do you speek of. NCEES knows the correct answers for each test. They feed the answer sheets into the machine, which has all the pertinent info on test takers and submitted answers... then this information is stored in computer database that can then have statistical analysis performed that might bring certain of the test questions into scrutiny if too many people got the same wrong answer. At that point, that question might be removed and the total would be out of 79 instead of 80. That should be the basis of the test grading. So the question still looms, why would that take so long? It's possible that the have commitees that meet and decide on the questions that have statistical issues and this is what takes the time. Or... they just sit around to see how much they can make people sweat in December.

 

[NEED2009]

don't you pay to be a member in BBB...

 

[mpm1732]

I really don't understand the NCEES bashing. 8 to 10 weeks, people. It's not been 9 weeks yet. If it had been 11, then maybe get anxious. So far they are not late, and are doing exactly as they said they would do.

Hey KevinA, how long have you worked for NCEES???

 

[benbo]

Call me stupid (others have).... but what "equating process" do you speek of.

He speeks of this:

Equating - For subsequent administrations of the exam, statistical equating is used to ensure that this level of performance is consistent across multiple administrations of that exam. Essentially, this means that while the numerical passing score may change with each administration, you are not disadvantaged when one administration of a particular exam is more difficult than another. This process accounts for the 8- to 10-week interval between an exam administration and the release of scores to member licensing boards.

http://www.ncees.org/Exams/Pages/Scoring/Scoring_process.php

http://www.ncees.org/Exams/Pages/Scoring.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equating

 

[mpm1732]

The title says it all. I just want to know how this is possible when they are not doing a good job on being transparent on releasing test results.

If at the end of this long wait I find out that I passed, I really could care less.

If I fail, that might be another story...

 

[squrrelco3]

don't you pay to be a member in BBB...

Here you go:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/business-bur...3843&page=2

Now in their defense this was about a year ago and the BBB is allegedly working to clean itself up, but I still see a lot of ratings that make me wonder <_<

 

[ErichB]

Call me stupid (others have).... but what "equating process" do you speek of. NCEES knows the correct answers for each test. They feed the answer sheets into the machine, which has all the pertinent info on test takers and submitted answers... then this information is stored in computer database that can then have statistical analysis performed that might bring certain of the test questions into scrutiny if too many people got the same wrong answer. At that point, that question might be removed and the total would be out of 79 instead of 80. That should be the basis of the test grading. So the question still looms, why would that take so long? It's possible that the have commitees that meet and decide on the questions that have statistical issues and this is what takes the time. Or... they just sit around to see how much they can make people sweat in December.

Keep in mind that the NCEES has 23 specialty discipline exams to verify, grade, and apply the equating process to each one. Which can be quite tedious.

 

[KevinA]

I really don't understand the NCEES bashing. 8 to 10 weeks, people. It's not been 9 weeks yet. If it had been 11, then maybe get anxious. So far they are not late, and are doing exactly as they said they would do.

Hey KevinA, how long have you worked for NCEES???

I'm waiting just like the rest and anxious too, but the whining is getting silly. They are not late. They updated everyone last week and said it would be sometime this week. I just don't get what all the crying is about. Checking the BBB rating, really? Please. That's just silly.

"Why does it take so long to grade a scantron?"

"What happened to streamlining?"

"They need competition..."

Waaa, waaa, waaa.

I keep checking too, but it is what it is.

 

[roadwreck]

I really don't understand the NCEES bashing. 8 to 10 weeks, people. It's not been 9 weeks yet. If it had been 11, then maybe get anxious. So far they are not late, and are doing exactly as they said they would do.

Hey KevinA, how long have you worked for NCEES???

I'm waiting just like the rest and anxious too, but the whining is getting silly. They are not late. They updated everyone last week and said it would be sometime this week. I just don't get what all the crying is about. Checking the BBB rating, really? Please. That's just silly.

"Why does it take so long to grade a scantron?"

"What happened to streamlining?"

"They need competition..."

Waaa, waaa, waaa.

I keep checking too, but it is what it is.

lusone:

 

[aucivileng]

I really don't understand the NCEES bashing. 8 to 10 weeks, people. It's not been 9 weeks yet. If it had been 11, then maybe get anxious. So far they are not late, and are doing exactly as they said they would do.

Hey KevinA, how long have you worked for NCEES???

I'm waiting just like the rest and anxious too, but the whining is getting silly. They are not late. They updated everyone last week and said it would be sometime this week. I just don't get what all the crying is about. Checking the BBB rating, really? Please. That's just silly.

"Why does it take so long to grade a scantron?"

"What happened to streamlining?"

"They need competition..."

Waaa, waaa, waaa.

I keep checking too, but it is what it is.

Relax Francis, he just started a thread to be funny. I wouldn't think that the ncees has bbb rating and frankly I don't care enough to look. It's just venting and passing the time.

 

[Engineer Okesola]

The title says it all. I just want to know how this is possible when they are not doing a good job on being transparent on releasing test results.

If at the end of this long wait I find out that I passed, I really could care less.

If I fail, that might be another story...

Truer words haven't been spoken.

 

[wilheldp_PE]

Call me stupid (others have).... but what "equating process" do you speek of. NCEES knows the correct answers for each test. They feed the answer sheets into the machine, which has all the pertinent info on test takers and submitted answers... then this information is stored in computer database that can then have statistical analysis performed that might bring certain of the test questions into scrutiny if too many people got the same wrong answer. At that point, that question might be removed and the total would be out of 79 instead of 80. That should be the basis of the test grading. So the question still looms, why would that take so long? It's possible that the have commitees that meet and decide on the questions that have statistical issues and this is what takes the time. Or... they just sit around to see how much they can make people sweat in December.

You're probably not stupid, but you are ignorant of the grading procedures used by the NCEES. Benbo provided links from the NCEES website that clearly explains why grading PE exams involves far more than "running some scantrons through a computer."

 

[Eddierizzle]

This is awesome that I got so many different responses so quickly. What's funny about it is that they are not even a member.

 

[cableguy]

Yeah Eddie, between here and the Texas Yahoo group, you're gettin' things stirred up pretty well. :Locolaugh:

 

[jlwjbw]

Call me stupid (others have).... but what "equating process" do you speek of. NCEES knows the correct answers for each test. They feed the answer sheets into the machine, which has all the pertinent info on test takers and submitted answers... then this information is stored in computer database that can then have statistical analysis performed that might bring certain of the test questions into scrutiny if too many people got the same wrong answer. At that point, that question might be removed and the total would be out of 79 instead of 80. That should be the basis of the test grading. So the question still looms, why would that take so long? It's possible that the have commitees that meet and decide on the questions that have statistical issues and this is what takes the time. Or... they just sit around to see how much they can make people sweat in December.

You're probably not stupid, but you are ignorant of the grading procedures used by the NCEES. Benbo provided links from the NCEES website that clearly explains why grading PE exams involves far more than "running some scantrons through a computer."

Problem here is that it should be as simple as running the scantron through a computer. The only additional time should be to only verify some of the scantrons to make sure they are graded correctly. All this time for the equating/statistical analysis stuff should be done when the exam is created.

 

[gnicely]

Wow, 200,000 test takers (conservatively) x $300.00 (TX fee) comes to...... dang.... 60 million clams. Oh, forgot...x 2 times per year ...(Ka-freakin-Ching) 120 million. Wonder how this is divvied up between the board and NCEES.

 

[KevinA]

This is awesome that I got so many different responses so quickly. What's funny about it is that they are not even a member.

Thank God! I was losing my faith in humanity, lol. :brickwall:

Nice one, man.

 

[cydcarter]

Did you choose to ignore the equating process or did you fail to adequately investigate the process before making your misinformed post?

Wilheldp_PE,

I'm sorry if my post offended you or the others, but my curiosity (note, not my frustration, as I mentioned in my earlier post) has been peaked now that I am going through the process.

Per the NCEES website itself, on the scoring explanation:



All answer sheets for multiple-choice exams are machine graded; a percentage of answer sheets are also manually verified
to ensure accuracy. The essays for Structural II PE exams are scored by teams of subject-matter experts.
The original intent of my post was to imply that the grading portion of the process should be fairly negligible in the 8-10 week waiting period. My post was in reply to someone that "logically" outlined a process that did not agree with the NCEES published scoring process.

Sorry if it was misinterpreted as a complaint or suggestion on how it should all be done, but I agree that the analysis and verification is the hefty part of the process and takes the lion's share of the waiting period.

If I knew a better way, I would have recommended it by now and would hopefully have a job with NCEES proving my method is faster and more accurate. Hence I'm on here like everyone else instead playing the waiting game.