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August 22nd 03, 11:43 AM

In article ,
(Brian Kelly) writes:

(N2EY) wrote in message
...
In article , "Dan/W4NTI"
writes:

But you know Jim even if they did prepare, A LOT FAILED, it was really
an
exercise in who could overcome the nerves.

My sources tell me that the pass rate has been about 2/3 for years and
years. I
don't know how true that is. I do know that it's a good thing the exam
sessions
are more accessible than in those times.

There was another side to that coin, "access abuse". We had a nitwit
who took the Novice test at least four times. Each time he took the
test his score went up a bit. He figgered that if he took it often
enough he'd eventually pass. Which he did.

Yeah, but he had to space them out. Today he could take a test over and over
the same day.

For my money, the *best* system was that of the late '70s and very early
'80s.
FCC examiners did all the testing and exam preparing, and there were office
sessions. BUT, if a ham group could guarantee a certain number of folks
wanting
tests (I think the quororm/minyan was 10) then FCC would send out an
examiner.
Most big hamfests had the FCC "traveling road show" giving exams.

Reagan's budget cuts ended all that.

Din do any good. There's a piece in one of his autobiographies about
the day he got a report on how, after all his attempts to reduce the
gummint head count, the head count was up 10% from the previous year.

What a dumass. Head count doan matter, it's $$ that matters.

Whereupon he went off on what has been described as probably the most
"colorful" half hour rant to ever originate in the Oval Office.
Followed by an admotion to his successors in that office to not expect
to have any control of the gummint, "It has a #$@!xF# life of it's
own!"

Well, DUH, Ronnie!

Now we have AHHnold, Gary Coleman, and a porn star among the candidates for
governor of the "Golden State" and its ever-rising budget shortfall. They're
doing it for the Gipper.....

73 de Jim, N2EY