Basic Controller Exam and choice of ARTCC

Merik Nanish · « **on:** October 17, 2011, 10:27:52 PM »

Hi. In the "Become an ATC" part of the website, it is stated that one has to pass the Basic Controller Exam and then choose the home ARTCC and report to them. What is not clear is:

(1) The required score to pass the test
(2) How long should one wait to re-take the exam
(3) How to chose the ARTCC, and how to report them.

Please advise.

Don Desfosse · « **Reply #1 on:** October 17, 2011, 11:07:41 PM »

1. All VATUSA exams are passed if one earns an 80% score or better. That is clearly stated with the email that you receive when you are assigned the exam ("Please remember that you must score 80% on the exam to pass, and if you do not pass, there will be a waiting period before you can re-take the exam.")
2. Seven days. You are eligible for your retake no earlier than 24 Oct 2011. http://www.vatusa.net/training/tiki-view_faq.php?faqId=1#q7
3. You will receive that information once you have passed your Basic ATC exam.

Suggest you use the seven days to review the material in the VATUSA - Training Resource Center, particularly the Basic ATC section (http://www.vatusa.net/training/tiki-index.php?page=Basic%20ATC), which has all the information you need to pass the exam (with a 100%).

Isak Moebius · « **Reply #2 on:** November 26, 2011, 05:02:43 PM »

Yeah about the 7 day waiting period. I could easily study the material and be ready to retest in 24 hours. 7 days is excessive to say the least. There is no way I need 7 days to re read through the material and understand it especially since I have spent the last 4 weeks working on S3 live and going through all the procedures. A little bit a reading would suffice as a refresher.

Harold Rutila · « **Reply #3 on:** November 26, 2011, 09:39:19 PM »

Isak,

On what basis do you feel it is appropriate to lecture us about the VATUSA test center policies? Just curious.

Rahul Parkar · « **Reply #4 on:** November 26, 2011, 09:50:38 PM »

Isak,

I'd love to privately discuss via PMs on the forums which questions have C1 material and / or RW material that would not apply here, I haven't taken that exam in a long while but I'm pretty sure that there was never that issue before.

If we find issues then I'd be happy to take this up further and help push it along.

But until then, please stop trying to lecture us about VATUSA test center policies, and what does and doesn't apply, as people who have gone through and seen it all have created these exams to test against GRP competencies and against things that will actually happen on the network.

Cheers!
Rahul

Isak Moebius · « **Reply #5 on:** November 27, 2011, 11:10:17 AM »

Its not a lecture the 7 days is a long time which does give us quite a while to study. However the point is I could complete some more reading and freshen up again and be ready for the exam again in 24 hours. Don't take it personal. This is not a lecture aimed at staff.

Jon Stoops · « **Reply #6 on:** November 27, 2011, 09:59:06 PM »

Quote from: Isak Moebius

I went to look at the questions I got wrong and I figured out how and why I got them wrong in 5 minutes.

Isak,
When you are assigned the test an email clearly explains you would need to wait 7 days to retake the exam. In my opinion this is designed to avoid students from rushing through the exam. If we only required a 24 hour waiting period there would be many students you would rush through the exam without reading the material knowing that if they fail they can just retake the exam the following day. The statement that you said it only took you five minutes to find the answers to the questions that you missed makes me wonder why you didn't get the answers right the first time.

Julio Elizalde · « **Reply #7 on:** December 15, 2011, 06:25:59 PM »

I remember failing my initial exam for VATSIM. The seven day wait felt like an eternity, but it made me really value the standard of training that VATSIM strives for. I very much support the waiting period. If a student fails (which means you really didn't understand a substantial portion of the exam) it is crucial that they take the time to review mistakes and prepare for another try, especially since many of the questions will change.

Anyone can figure out what they got wrong in 5 minutes. With the amount of exams that we have to take throughout the GRP certification, the open book privileges should be enough of an advantage to pass the exam. People regularly complain to me that the questions in an exam were misleading. Usually the student misleads themselves by not correctly understanding the question and triple checking their work. I can usually walk them through it and they'll find the right answer without me telling them. Laziness is the culprit most of the time in my experience.

Michael Mund-Hoym · « **Reply #8 on:** December 16, 2011, 05:36:09 AM »

Julio is very right. Its not about the S1, S2, S3 or C1 exam per se that there is a 7 day wait if one fails one of them. VATUSA staff knows that no one is 100% perfect, hence allows for 20% of the questions to be marked incorrectly before one fails, meaning 5/25 of the rating exam questions are allowed to be marked wrong.

These questions represent only a minor fraction of the required knowledge the controller needs to posses to earn the rank sought. And yes the open book thing allows all controllers to look up answers to the questions, may it be in the VATUSA Training Resource Center, the 7110.65 or other applicable documentation.

This is not a Half-Life game that you can finish and be an expert in a week or two. Everyone is always learning, regardless of seniority, rank or staff position. Thats what we need to respect and value.