Quote:
Originally Posted by SRW
Up here in airport code SEA, we give the test twice - once to only first and second year umpires, and again to the veterans. Both are open book, open note, open neighbor. If you're able to talk to partners on the field, why not on the test? Testing how someone takes a test isn't the goal here. We are testing how well they know the rules, and how well they can refer to the book and find it.
And yes, even with this method, we managed to have a few people fail the test (less than 70%). When that happens, they know which questions they missed, so we make them go back and write every rule reference to every question (even the ones they got right) and turn it back in for grading.
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So many things wrong with that philosophy.
A test is a way to evaluate an individuals knowledge of the subject matter. An open book, open neighbor.... test would be fine if being able to look at a rule book or phone a knowledgeable ump during the game were permissible.
So what happens if 5 umpires meet to take the test, and 4 dont know the answer to a few questions but the 5th does, he says the answer is ....... so the other 4 umps just right down ........Now 2 of the 4 that didnt know the answer are umping a game, the same situation occurs, only this time the 5th ump who knows the rule isnt there to instruct them.
"Testing how someone takes a test isn't the goal here" might be the biggest pet peeve of mine whether talking about umpire or schooling or whatever. Dont use the excuse, "im not a good test taker" either you know the subject matter, or you dont. Its not like theyre asking you to take the test while you are fighting off raging lions. Im assuming one would be given a quite test taking environment where there are minimal distractions.