[ETSList] New Technician Question Pool

[Drew_Moore]

==>NEW TECHNICIAN CLASS QUESTION POOL RELEASED

The Question Pool Committee (QPC) of the National Conference of Volunteer
Examiner Coordinators has released a revised and expanded Amateur
Technician class (Element 2) question pool into the public domain. The new
question pool becomes effective July 1, 2003, and must be used to generate
all Technician written examinations administered on or after that date.

"The newly revised pool released this week by the QPC includes significant
efforts to present the pool in a more friendly and understandable fashion
for beginners while maintaining appropriate emphasis on safety, rules and
operating procedures," said ARRL VEC Manager Bart Jahnke, W9JJ. "The
Technician syllabus was completely revised during 2002 to allow for the
revamping of the new question pool."

The new Element 2 question pool contains 511 questions--up from 385 in the
April 2000 release that occurred around the time of Amateur Radio
restructuring.

The new question pool, available on the Amateur Exam Question Pools Web
page www. arrl.org/arrlvec/pools.html>, includes all questions and
answers as well as graphics related to the questions for Element 2.

The FCC rules (�97.523) require each question pool to contain at least 10
times the number of questions required to appear on any examination drawn
from that pool. QPC Chairman Scotty Neustadter, W4WW, says the QPC has
attempted to apply that same "10 times" principle to each subelement.

Neustadter said "insignificant changes" to the Element 2 syllabus were
made as they became obvious, although they were not specifically
highlighted in this week's release.

VECs have a certain amount of flexibility with the format of their
examinations. Outside of the fact that questions, answers, distracters and
related graphics must appear as they do in the question pool itself, "the
manner of presentation is not interpreted to be of impact to Amateur Radio
as long as clarity of presentation is preserved," Neustadter said.

On behalf of the QPC, he also thanked all amateurs who assisted in the
effort to revise Element 2. In addition to Neustadter and Jahnke, members
of the Question Pool Committee are Fred Maia, W5YI, and John Johnston,
W3BE.

The Question Pool Committee now will turn its attention to developing an
outline for the General class (Element 3) question pool, which will be
revised during the fall of 2003. The QPC has put out a call for input by
January 31, 2003, to the Element 3 syllabus and question pool. Commenters
may address specific Element 2 questions as well as inputs to the Element
3 syllabus and question pool to the Question Pool Committee via e-mail
<qpc@arrl.org>.