Re: The H. P. Profession

[Lester.Slaback@nist.gov]

>Sandy:  In regard to your Item 2, you might want to walk in the shoes of
>members of the Part  I and Part II panel around exam grading time before
>suggesting that unquallified or unprepared candidates wouldn't tax the
>system.  Speaking from experience on the Part II side only, each (unpaid)
>grader is given two (or sometimes three) questions to grade, and it is
>not untypical for a couple hundred candidates to submit answers for each
>qusetion.  Believe me, many MANY hours go into the process.  It is
>immensely frustrating to spend even one hour trying to understand what an
>unqualfied or unprepared candidate was trying to communicate on a
>particular question, only to eventually conclude that they had absolutely
>no idea what the answer was, much less how to approach or present a
>solution.  Just a little food for thought on this nice Friday.  Have a
>good weekend!

>C. D. Berger - BergerIEM@aol.com 

A bit of an understatement.  Many forget this is a volunteer process. A
few assumptions.....
    an average of 100 responders per question.
    an hour per grader per question  (probably on the low side)
   3 graders per question
   $30/hr  (HPs work cheap)

That would only add $630 to the current exam fee and might attract more
volunteer graders.  Of course then we would have to add the secretariat
overhead for managing and paying these contract services.  The total fee
for the exam should not be more than $3-4k.

But hey, getting the the certification is worth the big bucks, isn't it? I
most professions the more you charge the more desireable it is. Clearly
the ABHP should be criticized for not taking the proper financial approach
to the problem.

P.S.
While the above was intended to be humorous, perhaps on second thought it
ought to be given some half-serious thought.  Maybe the job is getting too
big to continue as a volunteer effort.
P.P.S.  Please direct all flak to the Board chairman.
-- 
the above are the personal musing of the author,
and do not represent any past, current, or future
position of NIST, the U.S. Government, or anyone else
who might think that they are in a position of authority.
NBSR Health Physics
NIST
Gaithersburg, MD 20899
301 975-5810
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Lester.Slaback@nist.gov
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