Post by Stephanie on Mar 6, 2015 11:50:28 GMT -8
Written tests have been online for a few weeks now. Your team leadership has the links, and they are also posted on our Facebook page. Take the test soon! If you don't pass it you're required to take the Safety class on May 31st, or you will be de-certified. Though if you pass the Practice, fail the Tournament, and don't take the class, you'll only be tournament de-certified. You can still steer during practices.
EVERYONE needs to take it again. Steers who only want to be Practice certified only need to take the Practice test. Those who want to be Tournament certified, please take both.
Why does everyone need to take the test?
1. About half the Safety and Steering Committee who voted last year want all steers to attend an annual Safety Class. The other half think that's too much. The compromise was that veteran steers only need to take it if they fail either written test. New steers have to take the class either way.
2. The current pass rate is 95% on practice and only 66% on tourney. Of the failures, it's mostly veteran steers with 5+ years of experience.
- As an aside, since the tests were released, both have had questions rewritten for clarity and additional answers have been added to the manual. So hopefully our pass rate will go up.
Certifiers and I have wondered about why it's mostly the vets who are failing the test. Even though not all answers are in the manual and you need 80% to pass, it's still absolutely passable. I had a never been to Long Beach steer with less than two years of steering experience and no formal training take the test and he passed both. He missed only two on the tournament test. He also never read our Safety and Steering manual.
I asked a few of the not-passed if they took the test while consulting the manual. Most said no. We stated that if you failed the test, you were required to take the class, and yet these steers didn't use the manual and didn't email me for answers. In other words, they were pretty confident they already knew the answers. Clearly, a lot of our vets don't know as much as they think.
But why? I think it's a couple reasons:
1. They've been steering so long and without accidents that they think they're great steerspeople.
- We go to practice every weekend, but are we really practicing or just going through the motions? I think a lot of us confuse the two. You generally won't get better at something unless you actually make the effort to improve. How many of us are actively seeking to improve our steering skills each week?
2. They are objectively good and safe steerspeople so they think they can pass the test.
- I was really surprised a couple of these steers who failed. I've been on their boats and *know* they're good at steering. But practical knowledge is pretty different from safety and procedural knowledge. A lot of the questions on the tests (especially the tournament test) aren't even about safety; they're about procedures. We need to know that our steers are proficient in all three.
I hope scores go up. I kind of feel like if you still fail now (with the clearer questions and answer packed manual) you maybe just don't care enough, and that's not a good attitude to have, especially if you're in charge of the safety of everyone aboard your boat. Worse still is if you didn't consult the manual because you think you know everything. We always say that the worst steer (or paddler, captain, boss, employee, anything!) is one that's over-confident. There's always room for improvement, even if you're already the best.
All this being said, I encourage everyone to take the safety class, even if you perfected both tests. We go over the tests, but we talk about a lot of other stuff too and there's always more to learn. I'm super happy / impressed that half of the students at our last class weren't required to be there, but came because they were interested to learn more.
EVERYONE needs to take it again. Steers who only want to be Practice certified only need to take the Practice test. Those who want to be Tournament certified, please take both.
Why does everyone need to take the test?
1. About half the Safety and Steering Committee who voted last year want all steers to attend an annual Safety Class. The other half think that's too much. The compromise was that veteran steers only need to take it if they fail either written test. New steers have to take the class either way.
2. The current pass rate is 95% on practice and only 66% on tourney. Of the failures, it's mostly veteran steers with 5+ years of experience.
- As an aside, since the tests were released, both have had questions rewritten for clarity and additional answers have been added to the manual. So hopefully our pass rate will go up.
Certifiers and I have wondered about why it's mostly the vets who are failing the test. Even though not all answers are in the manual and you need 80% to pass, it's still absolutely passable. I had a never been to Long Beach steer with less than two years of steering experience and no formal training take the test and he passed both. He missed only two on the tournament test. He also never read our Safety and Steering manual.
I asked a few of the not-passed if they took the test while consulting the manual. Most said no. We stated that if you failed the test, you were required to take the class, and yet these steers didn't use the manual and didn't email me for answers. In other words, they were pretty confident they already knew the answers. Clearly, a lot of our vets don't know as much as they think.
But why? I think it's a couple reasons:
1. They've been steering so long and without accidents that they think they're great steerspeople.
- We go to practice every weekend, but are we really practicing or just going through the motions? I think a lot of us confuse the two. You generally won't get better at something unless you actually make the effort to improve. How many of us are actively seeking to improve our steering skills each week?
2. They are objectively good and safe steerspeople so they think they can pass the test.
- I was really surprised a couple of these steers who failed. I've been on their boats and *know* they're good at steering. But practical knowledge is pretty different from safety and procedural knowledge. A lot of the questions on the tests (especially the tournament test) aren't even about safety; they're about procedures. We need to know that our steers are proficient in all three.
I hope scores go up. I kind of feel like if you still fail now (with the clearer questions and answer packed manual) you maybe just don't care enough, and that's not a good attitude to have, especially if you're in charge of the safety of everyone aboard your boat. Worse still is if you didn't consult the manual because you think you know everything. We always say that the worst steer (or paddler, captain, boss, employee, anything!) is one that's over-confident. There's always room for improvement, even if you're already the best.
All this being said, I encourage everyone to take the safety class, even if you perfected both tests. We go over the tests, but we talk about a lot of other stuff too and there's always more to learn. I'm super happy / impressed that half of the students at our last class weren't required to be there, but came because they were interested to learn more.
