Stefan Wolfe wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...
Mike Coslo wrote:
wrote in
ups.com:
Want to see a summary of the old study guides, and some sample
questions? I'll post them if you are interested.
Always am.
Here's a sample - lots more to come.
From the 1976 ARRL License Manual:
Study Question #31:
Draw a schematic diagram of a circuit having the following components:
(a) battery with internal resistance,
(b) resistive load,
(c) voltmeter,
(d) ammeter
.
Study Question #32:
From the values indicated by the meters in the above circuit, how can
the value of the resistive load be determined? How can the power
consumed by the load be determined?
Study Question #33:
In the above circuit, what must the value of the resistive load be in
order for the maximum power to be delivered from the battery?
Study Question #34:
Draw the schematic diagram of an RF power amplifier circuit having the
following components:
(a) triode vacuum tube,
(b) pi-network output tank
(c) high voltage source
(d) plate-current meter
(e) plate-voltage meter,
(f) rf chokes,
(g) bypass capacitors, coupling capacitor.
Study Question #35:
What is the proper tune-up procedure for the above circuit?
These are just a sample. They're not the exact questions that
were on the old exams.
The actual exam was multiple choice, and would show a schematic of the
amplifier circuit - close, but not exactly like the one shown inthe
license manual - and had 5 of the components labelled "a" thru "e".
The question would be something like,
"which is the coupling capacitor?"
"which is an rf choke?"
"what is the function of the capacitor labelled ''d' in the circuit
above?"
So you would have to learn the circuit, the components in it, and their
names
and functions. Then the actual exam would use a completely different
format
from the study guide.
The above questions and accompanying diagrams took up just a small part
of one page in the study guide. But look how much material was covered!
How they compare to the current exams is a matter of opinion. IMHO
the old exams covered fewer subjects but covered them in much more
detail.
This is the first time I have ever seen the old format but I must admit I
prefer the old format to the new, without the answers published in advance.
Actually the new extra class format asks the same sort of questions but
being able to answer the old format seems to more accurately measure one's
basic understanding of an amplifier circuit.
The questions I listed above were from the 1976 *Novice* study guide...
I vote for the old. Why did
they change it to multiple guess?
It's a bit of a story:
From the first days of amateur licensing to 1950, all US amateur
license written exams were a mixture of essay questions, draw-a-diagram
questions, show-your-work calculation questions, and multiple choice
questions. Test preparation and grading were all done by FCC or other
government officials (FCC did not exist until the early 1930s).
When the Novice license was created in 1951, its test was all
multiple-choice. But the test preparation and grading were all still
done by FCC. Through the 1950s the other license classes remained as
they had been.
All this time, the license exams were considered almost government
secrets. The actual tests were not public knowledge. Instead, FCC
published "study guides" in essay format that indicated the areas the
tests covered.
About 1961, FCC decided to "modernize" the license tests. They were all
converted to multiple choice format, with a new answer sheet that could
be machine-graded. This transition did not take place overnight, though
- the field offices first used up their supply of old tests before
going to the new ones.
Still, the tests themselves remained secret, and the study guides
stayed in essay format even though the tests themselves were multiple
choice.
By changing the written tests to multiple-choice, the person grading
them did not need to know anything about the test content. This greatly
reduced the FCC's workload in administering the tests. That was the
main reason for the change - to reduce FCC's workload.
In the 1970s, there was a fellow on the West Coast named Dick Bash who
published a series of books whose contents were reportedly almost
identical to the actual tests. He reportedly did this by stationing
himself or a helper outside FCC offices, questioning people who had
just taken the tests, and paying them for each question they could
remember. He also reportedly sent people to FCC to take the tests - not
to pass them, but to remember what was on them.
This caused a lot of outcry and protest in both the amateur community
and FCC. But the top brass at FCC refused to go after Bash, and his
books stayed on the market. Although the rules said that the contents
of the exam were not to be divulged to others, FCC did not stop Bash at
all.
This system continued until about 1983, when FCC created the VE/QPC
system. The VE/QPC system turned over most of the testing work to
unpaid volunteers. The Question Pool Committee prepared and maintained
the questions used on the tests, and the Volunteer Examiners
administered them. VE fees went to pay the direct expenses of the
system - duplicating, facility rental, postage, etc. FCC retained
ultimate control, approving all the questions and setting guidelines,
but leaving the grunt work to unpaid amateur volunteers.
The VE/QPC system meant that the tests could no longer even keep up the
appearance of being secret. The question pools were made public, and
there were no more study guides, since the actual exam was available.
It also relieved FCC of an enormous amount of administrative work,
which was the main reason for the change.
The idea was that the number of questions in the pools would be much
larger than the number on the actual test, and that individual tests
would be made by a random choice of questions from the pools.
That's how we got the system we have now.
73 de Jim, N2EY