Section 11.7: Administering Exams #

You’ve probably sat on the candidate’s side of an exam session, where a team of volunteers gave the tests and graded them right away. An Amateur Extra license qualifies you to sit on the other side as a Volunteer Examiner (VE) for every license class, once a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC) accredits you. From then on, you answer personally for how candidates are watched and for the results you sign. The VEC supports you, but it doesn’t take over those duties.

Prepare Through a VEC #

A VEC is the group behind each session. Every exam’s questions come from public question pools.

Key Information:

• A VEC is an organization that has entered into an agreement with the FCC to coordinate, prepare, and administer amateur operator license examinations.
• Part 97 tasks the VECs with maintaining the pools of questions for all US amateur license examinations.
• To accredit a VE, a VEC must confirm that the applicant meets FCC requirements to serve as an examiner.

Accreditation doesn’t come automatically with any license class, and the FCC doesn’t grant it directly. Among the requirements, a VE must be at least 18 and hold a license class high enough for the exam being given. Only an Extra-class VE can give the Extra exam.

Running a session costs something, too: printed forms, supplies, and the VEC’s processing work. Many sessions charge candidates a fee to cover those costs.

Key Information: VEs and VECs may be reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses of preparing, processing, administering, and coordinating an examination for an amateur operator license.

Teaching a class or providing study materials falls outside that reimbursement.

Supervise Each Candidate #

An exam requires at least three VEs. Before the session, check that each examiner may give that class of exam. Also check the rule about examining relatives.

Key Information: A VE may not administer an examination to relatives of the VE as listed in the FCC rules.

The list includes a spouse; children, grandchildren, and stepchildren; parents, grandparents, and stepparents; siblings and stepsiblings; aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and in-laws. This rule does not bar a VE from examining a friend or employee. The exam must still be fair and properly supervised.

Every administering VE must watch the candidates for the entire exam; taking turns doesn’t meet that rule. Sometimes a candidate ignores an instruction, for example by checking a phone during the test.

Key Information:

• Each administering VE is responsible for the proper conduct and necessary supervision during an exam session.
• If a candidate fails to comply with the examiner’s instructions, the VE must immediately terminate the candidate’s examination.

Don’t give a warning first, and don’t let the candidate finish with a plan to reject the score later. The other candidates keep going.

Certify and Send the Result #

The VEs grade each test as soon as the candidate turns it in. For many VEs, telling a nervous candidate “You passed” is the best part of the job. Each candidate filled out a license application before testing, and the result decides what happens to it.

Key Information:

• If the examinee does not pass the exam, the VE team must return the application document to the examinee.
• If an examinee passes all elements needed for an upgrade or new license, three VEs must certify that the examinee is qualified for the license grant and that they have complied with the administering VE requirements.
• After a successful examination, the administering VEs must submit the application document to the coordinating VEC according to its instructions.

Tell the candidate the result and issue a Certificate of Successful Completion of Examination (CSCE) for each passed element. That document records the exam credit; it is not the FCC license grant.

Your certification states, in your own name, that the requirements were met. Saying that another examiner handled the details does not excuse a false one. Section 97.509(e) names the penalty for fraud.

Key Information: A VE who fraudulently administers or certifies an examination may face revocation of the VE’s amateur station license grant and suspension of the VE’s amateur operator license grant.

When Upgrade Privileges Begin #

As an upgrading licensee, you can use Extra privileges before the FCC updates your license. You need a current license, an upgrade application properly submitted through the VEs, and a CSCE from the last 365 days. The privileges end when the FCC acts on the application or 365 days after the exam, whichever comes first. While using them, add /AE after your call sign.

A candidate for a first license gets no such head start. With no existing license to build on, that person waits for the FCC’s grant before transmitting as a control operator.