Allow an applicant to take exams in any order

7 votes

This could be at the discretion of the VE TL as each VEC has different policies re this. I don't know about others but Laurel does allow applicants to take the exams in any order.

Planned Suggested by: Nick AA0NM (07 Jun, '20) • Upvoted: 22 Mar, '24 • Comments: 6

Comments: 6

09 Jun, '20
Neil K6NCX
I can't see the point of taking exams out of order. If you have no license and pass Extra and General you still have no license.
09 Jun, '20
Grant
In the documentation of Laurel VEC, they let the candidate take the exam any order they choose.
09 Jun, '20
Richard Bateman
As a note here, I will never consider the fact that someone else does something to be a valid reason that we should do it =] The trade-off here is that the more flexibility you add the more room there is for applicants to get confused.

That said, I do expect it is likely we will support this in the future in some way, but it's not high on my priority list. Being able to record exam credit absolutely is, though.
09 Jun, '20
Michael, WT9V
Then Laurel can use another method to give the exams out of order... *Shrug*
16 Jun, '20
Nick AA0NM
We've had this happen 3 times since we resumed testing. For some reason wherever they got their initial information they seemed to think they could take General or Extra and get licensed w/o taking Tech. So they come in prepared to take General or Extra and in both cases aced them. Then took the Tech. The only way we can accomodate this is give paper exams. When we get our own laptops and can provide to those who don't have and therefore all computer exams with e-sign we can go paperless.
1
26 Jan, '24
Kent Petty, Chairman, Anchorage ARC VEC
I agree with Nick. Part 97 makes no prohibition for a candidate to take the exams in order. We have experienced the exact scenario he describes....an individual doesn't fully understand that they need credit for all 3 elements to be awarded Extra Class.

We are in the business of helping people and if someone has studied and is ready to pass any element, we sure want to administer the exam and get them the credit. Give them the exam, give them a CSCE properly filled out, provide guidance to them on a way forward (to prepare for and take needed exams), and send them on their way.

While rare, this just seems like the right thing to do.

What would your mother tell you to do? ;)