We continually respond to the COVID-19 effects on the exam calendar. Our best wishes to all administrators, proctors and participants while navigating local circumstances. Currently, we expect the back half of 2020 to remain full.
In anticipation of returning to typical exam activities, we’ll take a moment to highlight one aspect of exam administration: collecting participant information. It’s an important component of exam administration that when done incorrectly, can have significant impacts on administrators, proctors and examinees.
Both the BJCP and individual examinees rely on exam administrators to accurately record participant information. The information is used for numerous BJCP functions after the exam is administered. Errors that occur at the beginning of the process inevitably cause obstacles for BJCP members in later stages of data administration.
Exam materials refer to a form titled Examinee Data Capture (EDC) Form. Many exam administrators are familiar with this form as the tool used to collect participant information. The form is used to record participant data that are used to create an individual judge record and to connect to other data like exam results and reports, BJCP electronic communications, and postal mailings. A similar form titled Staff Data Capture Form is used to record proctor and administrator participation. That mechanism is used to update applicable data such as non-judging and judging points for credit to one’s judge record.
While members may be familiar with the EDC form’s existence, they may be less familiar with the form’s functions. The file includes instructions of how to accurately complete the forms. Column headers provide prompts to guide you through elements such as ISO country codes, area codes, and how to correctly use the Goes By column. Using those prompts can reduce input errors that later affect exam administration.
Members are often surprised to learn how many critical communication functions begin with the Participant Information step of exam participation. Similarly, exam administrators sometimes abbreviate the time spent on this step without realizing its impact. A lot of important services rely on good data including, but not limited to: receiving BJCP member account information including ID numbers and account passwords, receiving exam results, receiving BJCP emails and postal mailings, updating judge records, and searching for retroactive competition points.
When data in the capture forms are incomplete, or in serious disrepair, another volunteer has to come behind the originator to correct it. Outside of that being unnecessary and inconsiderate, it’s not the best strategy to accurately reflect the participant’s intent. Exam participants communicate with the exam administrator, not the exam staff, so it’s likely the local administrator has better information than another volunteer about what should appear in the forms. Additionally, participant data management as well as general communication are expected responsibilities of exam administrators. It’s not worth jeopardizing either eligible credit, the exam’s integrity, or future exam approvals by shortcutting this step.
Individual examinees and proctors share responsibility in data accuracy. If an exam administrator sends you a data form as a participating proctor or examinee, please reciprocate the respect of providing accurate and complete data. It’s in everyone’s interest to follow through with these critical functions to receive accurate credit.
If you have questions as an exam administrator about how best to complete data capture forms, contact your supervising Exam Director for guidance. The Exam Procedures document provided to your site will outline additional detail and examples of form mechanics and outputs. Reducing errors in the data forms will increase our ability to accurately update participant records and to successfully process exam results.