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VHSL to give FED test online?


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I honeslty don't know all the details yet, but will find out next week at the state clinic, but I've heard from numerous sources that the VHSL will be giving the FED exam online this year.

IF this is accurate; what a crock. I have been a fan of the exam as it helps to keep people without at least a slight grasp of the rules off the field. Now how easy is it going to be for those people who have struggled to now sit in the comfort of their home with the book at their side and ace the test. Why even have the test at all.

While I've been a fan of testing officials knowledge. The FED test has never been that difficult. 100 true false questions, its not that hard you have a 50/50 chance of guessing if you have no clue. This damages the credibility of the test. I would like to see the test be more difficult keeping the higher quality of people working these games, how can you judge when everybody is going to get great scores.

Bad move VHSL.

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My Association gives a take home test to returning members. Open book is fine and 86 is passing. Cadets must take the test in class. If you fail the test or don't hand it in on time, you have to take it in class with the cadets.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I can confirm that the test is not only online, but open book and no time limit. This blows my mind. There is no excuse for anybody to get below a 90. And I'm giving points because of the NFHS's history of poorly written questions and not double checking themselves (like the wonderful NFHS bulletin confusing dead-ball and delayed dead-ball).

This is a travesty of the game IMHO. How will the umpires who have worked hard over the years and not only know the rules through rote memory, but know the rules and can apply them correctly be able to stand apart. While I don't believe this will be a problem in my association, there will undoubtedly be associations, which have difficulty finding umpires, putting guys out there who don't even belong on a coach pitch field because they cant even guess well enough to get the minimum passing score on a true false test.

I'll post again after I take the test.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I took the test this weekend and I took a bit of a different approach to the test than I was originally thinking. Here is what I did. I tried to make sure I would have 2 hours of uninterrupted time. While I was taking the test, I cut and copied the question into a Word document as it originally appeared. Then if the answer was true I would mark it true and cite the rule by looking it up. If the answer was false I would cite the rule, and then re-write the statement to be true. I wanted to try to stimulate my mind while making something out of the test which has lost significant value to me.

This was working well for the first half hour, and then my son woke up from his nap. Not a big problem but it did slow me down a bit. About an hour into it my daughter brings some friends over who were very loud. Unfortunately my computer is in the play room and I was stuck, but I didn't want to pause and come back to the test. Please don't think I'm making excuses, because I still did well. After 1.5 hours I was only in the 50-something questions due to all of the distractions, and admittedly, my process was more time consuming than I had planned for. After about question 65 I stopped at my way of doing things and just answered the question only turning to the book when I was stumped, (once or twice). Though looking back I wish I had continued as my way was working very well and was proving to be a learning experience.

Long story short, I did well scoring in the 90's, but only 1 point higher than my previous high score 2 years ago in a book-free proctored environment. I am a bit disappointed that I didn't score higher, but I'm not really excited about my score either. 2 years ago when I scored in the 90's I felt I had earned something and was really proud, not so much now.

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I know what you are saying but this does guarantee that people will use their rules books. By using them they are also reading them. I did not do as well as in the years past as I got in a hurry and did not pay attention to wording. My bad. I do feel this is the way to go at least in part. There will never be a way to stop bad umpires from working so at least make sure they have read the book to take a test.

I feel or at least it was intimated, that the unlimited time will eventually go away. When you do something for the first time there has to be allowances made. The current format allows for ease of grading, instantaneous results and reading the book.

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  • 1 month later...

I know this late (I just joined) but the test was on line here in Arkansas (paper for the last year for those without access). Here we are required to make a certain score depending on level (division). As i took the test I copied and pasted the test to word and at the end when I received my score (92 minimum of 90) I could go back and it would tell me which ones were wrong. If you did not score the minimum you could take it a 2nd time. The same questions are on the test just in a different order. For example on my test the question #1 was #54 on the next with the questions in the same order. (#1-2-3-4 was # 54-55-56-57 on the next)

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Here in CT it's open book and no time limit. Whats more is that there is no minimum score... you just need to hand in a test and you can start collecting you're $78 varsity game fees!

Even better is that there are still umpires scoring below 70%... I really don't know how that's possible!

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This year NJ decide to do the online test, but they made the decision too late, so it was left to the associations. My association decided they couldn't turn it around so the test was waived this year. A couple of weeks later the paper tests were made available in case anyone wanted to practice.:eek::eek:

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  • 4 months later...

About an hour into it my daughter brings some friends over who were very loud. Unfortunately my computer is in the play room and I was stuck, but I didn't want to pause and come back to the test.

This is why you need WiFi and a laptop.

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Did anyone else get this email recently?

**********************************

Good morning.

This email is to inform you that an update to the NFHS exam site will be done today between 2PM and 8PM this evening. Normally we would not apply an update during a peak usage time but the circumstances require that we make this change a priority.

Please be assured that there is no risk of data loss or results being lost during this time. When the update is applied, anyone currently taking an exam will be forced to login again and resume the exam at the same point they left. We will attempt to make sure that everyone is out prior to the update, but it cannot be guaranteed.

Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve this issue.

Sincerely,

Thanks,

Mike Meenan

Director of Information Services

NFHS

mmeenan@nfhs.org

317.822.5760

************************************

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UIC:

I have been the proctor for the test for the last five or six years in our HS group. As a board we decided to let the guys do it in groups this year, open book. It made a marked difference with some guys and not so much with others. I still take it closed book at home before I give it to the group. I got a 99% this year.

Edited to add: We based our decision on VA's giving it's test online. There are several states that either do it online or open book, so we decided we would follow suit.

Edited by mstaylor
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I didn't have a big problem with the guys doing it in groups, that is basically what you do on the field. If you aren't sure, you get together and decide a course of action.

It's funny, I did my soccer test in a group this year and my score went down.

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This is why you need WiFi and a laptop.

Well I bit the bullet yesterday and bought a laptop. I got what I feel was an incredible deal at Bestbuy. I've been really impressed so far and as I type I've got one eye on the kids, I'm watching Pittsburgh abuse Houston. Much easier than before.

I haven't started using it to update and work on the site as I'm investigating virus protection which is not as available for this new Vista 64 bit system.

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