[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Members of my local IAABO board have to take (and often pass) the open book IAABO Refresher Exam every year to get game assignments.

Early in my career, members were encouraged to individually take the open book exam at home and then attend an "informal" study group (often with pizza and beer) to compare answers. I often attended two different groups, my hometown group, and my Catholic middle school group. While such groups were officially encouraged, it seems that there was often one in each group that had access to the answer sheet, which some might consider to be cheating. Once the internet and email came along this "cheating" became much more common, and literally everybody always passed the test.

Knowing how much "cheating" was occurring, we tried something different. Dozens of board sponsored "official" study groups were formed, the leader had the answer sheet, and we went over all the questions and answers together in each group. One had to individually take the open book test and attend (sign in sheets) one of these study groups to get game assignments. The was no requirement to pass the test. Not attending a study group meant no game assignments.

Very recently we've tried a new model. Take the open book test individually at home, send one's answers to our local board website, test is corrected, and if one passes the test, one gets game assignments.

Fail the test and one has to attend a special "remedial" meeting to go over all the question and answers. Attend that "remedial" meeting and one gets game assignments.

Fail the test and not attend the "remedial" meeting means that one doesn't get any game assignments.

Certainly not a difficult path to get game assignments.

Billy:

I edited my initial response to elaborate on the CBOA Exam: It was a closed book exam.

MTD, Sr.