[Magdalen] A reflection on "certification"; was Just got accepted for the exam.

[Jay Weigel]

S/O has to be certfied in any number of things in order to do what he does
for his company. He sometimes jokes about how many initials he could put
after his name if he really wanted to. But the stress and headaches he goes
through before each exam are no joke, and there are several exams each
year. IMNSHO, it's a money-making scheme for the testing companies, akin to
"No Child Left Behind" only worse.

At least I only had to have CPR and ACLS...although I never could
understand why I had to have both, since CPR is included in ACLS. There
were other certifications I could have gone after, but they were one-time
things--once you had them, you had them for life--and I didn't do any of
them. In retrospect, I should have gone for the CCRN. It would have made my
life easier.

On Wednesday, August 24, 2016, Lynn Ronkainen <houstonklr at gmail.com> wrote:

> Yikes!
> Reminds me of college gossip about those who aspired to get into medical
> school (many of whom cheated on exams and labs) - it was said : remember
> there are always those doctors who graduate at the bottom of their class...
>
> Sadly I think today that the standard you mentioned is common across a
> number of certifications and is reflected in many areas in our common life.
> Lynn
>
>
>
> www.ichthysdesigns.com
>
> When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would
> not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you
> gave me'. attributed to Erma Bombeck
>
>
> On Aug 24, 2016, at 10:48 AM, M J _Mike_ Logsdon <mjl at ix.netcom.com
> <javascript:;>> wrote:
>
> I totally understand the world in which such certifications are required,
> and how they come about.  But I'm honestly a bit amazed that in order to
> become "certified" to assist a municipality in enforcing actual laws on the
> books, the exam is "pass/fail", with the minimum requirement being a "C"
> (70%, to mix exam types just for emphasis).  Pass/fail makes sense (who
> wants "levels" of certification in a scenario where only two at a
> particular agency are so certified?), but you'd almost think the bar should
> be higher, at least to Keillor's "children are above average".
>
> (A little secret, that maybe she shouldn't have told me.  My boss, years
> ago when she passed it, failed the first time, and the second time failed
> again by only one percentage point.  The proctor just said "Pass! Go home!")
>