Originally Posted by
BigPapi
The CASA PIRC exam, like all exams, is worthless as a tool to impart knowledge. It'll assess you the same whether you've rote learnt or developed understanding or correlation.
Sorry mate I got all caught up in the excitement and forgot.
Are exams designed to be tools to impart knowledge? I thought the reference material did that. The exam is supposed to test your knowledge and insight of said topic. Do the CASA exams do that well? Up for argument I suppose? From my experience doing CASA exams, it has been my opinion that they generally cover the syllabus. Do I agree with that syllabus? Sometimes yes, often times no.
How do exams distinguish between those who have rote learned and those who have true insight? I think that is a very challenging goal to set any exam. I certainly don't have an answer. If you could design an exam to achieve that goal I'd wager there is a fair reward in it for yourself.
Originally Posted by Bigpapi
It's a great motivator however to actually READ the FAA Handbook which is an awesome tool and educational resource for anyone teaching and assessing.
Could you not then argue that at least in part the exam has achieved its goal? If we get young instructors reading the handbook, then maybe a few of them learn something about how people learn, how to effectively communicate their meaning (ahem, not mentioning names here..) et al.
Every exam could be better but I never saw a huge issue with the PMI exam. Has some good bits in it, is relatively easy to cover the breadth of the material and provides next to no hurdle for someone looking to attain the grade.