Board appointed examiners produce first examination drafts aligned to the competencies published in the appropriate Gazette Notices and the scope given in the relevant guidance documents.
Examiners also produce alternative questions and answers in each topic/subject should the ones contained in the proposed drafts be regarded as not suitable by the moderation panels.
These draft papers are reviewed by a Board appointed examination expert who:
The suggestions and comments from this review are forwarded to the appropriate examiner(s) for approval or modification.
A second draft is compiled from the results of this review and sent to a graphic designer for pagination and formatting into an examination format draft. While several minor changes to questions may be made, the examiners’ technical knowledge is important to avoid distortion of the trade-knowledge content.
Moderation meetings are convened as necessary. These meetings are attended by examiners, representatives of all training providers and the PGDRITO, the Board appointed examination expert and industry representatives.
The purpose of the moderation meeting is to consider examination questions and answers for publication in Board’s examination papers.
The draft examination papers are sent to all attendees in advance of the meeting.
Industry representatives are required to “sit” the examinations prior to the meeting and bring their completed scripts. This process aims at identifying any possible misinterpretation of questions and proofing the examination papers as such.
Training provider representatives are required to research their training packages to ensure that the following criterion applies:
Industry representatives provide their feedback on:
Questions and answers moderated and agreed to are compiled and sent for amendments to the graphic designer.
The examinations are sent to the Board appointed examiners for final review and comment.
The result of this review is compiled and changes, if any, are included in examination papers.
Final versions are sent to the printers for proof-printing and then presented for final sign off by the Board appointed examiners.
The week prior to the first examination marking schedules and the candidate code lists allocated to each marker are couriered to the examiners.
A meeting of markers and the Board appointed examinations expert is convened for two weeks after the last examination date of the cycle. Representatives from all training providers and the PGDR ITO are invited to attend to provide moderation to the marking processes.
Each marker brings ten marked question and answer booklets (or 10% of the total assigned for marking, whichever is greater) per examination category to be discussed.
During this meeting, the Board appointed examinations expert will remind the markers and attendees of the standard practice procedures for marking examination papers and will go through examples of what must be avoided in the marking process.
Training provider representatives and markers discuss and agree on marking approaches to specific questions that may cause concerns; alternative answers are considered for the markers’ benefit and additional answers are considered for inclusion in marking schedules.
If agreement is not reached on the marking approach to a specific question, the disagreement is noted and submitted for the Registrar’s consideration and determination.
Within the two weeks prior to the release date of examination results for each examination cycle, a meeting is convened with the markers. The markers will bring all the question and answer booklets they have marked.
All booklets with a result between 55 and 59 marks are re-checked to see if any further marks could be awarded.
All examination papers are checked to ensure marks have been added correctly.
The back pages of all examination booklets are stamped ‘Marks checked and verified.’
The examiners approve any additions or alterations to the marking schedules following the check marking meetings. These schedules are sent to the graphic designer for the final version of the answer schedule.
Examination results are entered into the examinations’ database, result notices are issued and posted out to the individual candidates together with their question and answer booklets.
All candidates with pass marks will also receive a flow chart with information on the registration process relevant to the examination they have passed.
All candidates not achieving a pass mark will also receive an ‘Application for re mark or reconsideration’.
Candidates finding mechanical errors in the addition of the marks on their question and answer booklets or unmarked questions should return their booklets to the Board by the date advised in the application for remark. The booklet is checked and, if needed, sent back to the original marker for the appropriate correction of the final mark. The result is entered in the examinations database and a new results slip issued.
Candidates wishing to have their examination papers completely re-marked by a different marker should send their question and answer booklets together with application and payment for reconsideration.
Payment is processed and the papers received for reconsideration are sent to a different marker for marking.
After having the papers reconsidered by the new marker the results are compared to the original marking; whichever final mark is greater is entered into the examinations database as a final result of the examination paper and a new result slip is issued if needed.
This result is final.
