Last weekend, I held my first one-day Tech class using the new question pool. This was a big class. 20 people actually took the test, and a couple of them were accompanied by friends or family that were already licensed. All told, there were 24 people in the room with me.
Of the 20 who took the test, only 16 passed. I’m disappointed in the result, but what can I do? I asked three of them why they thought they failed, and they all said that they hadn’t really studied before the class–in spite of my repeated pleas to do so. <sighs>
A couple of observations:
- Having fewer figures made the class a bit easier to teach. I didn’t have to try to explain the block diagrams.
- There are still a couple of questions about mixers and oscillators. I’m going to need to explain those a little bit better.
- One of those who passed actually had a Novice license. This was a first for me.
Here are the callsigns they were issued:
- Kim KD8ZNW
- Gavin KD8ZNX
- Hozhen KD8ZNY
- Rodney KD8ZNZ
- Eric KD8ZOA
- Griffin KD8ZOB
- Dennis KD8ZOC
- Paul KD8ZOD
- Nicholas KD8ZOE
- Justin KD8ZOF
- Jeffrey KD8ZOG
- Rashad KD8ZOY
- John KD9CFG
- Errin KD9CFF
John and Errin came all the way from Indiana to take my class. I know I’m missing one here. I’ll have to contact the VEs to see who it is.
Speaking of the VEs, thanks to the VEs who showed up: Mark W8FSA, Sam K8NOS, Dinesh AB3DC, and George, K9TRV.
Bob K0NR says
Dan,
We do a two-day class for the Technician License with a 90% pass rate. Pretty much everyone that fails admits that they did not read/study the material (even though we pound that message home). Sometimes it is for good reason…unexpected events that took priority…but mostly they just choose not to do it.
73, Bob K0NR
W1AC says
OM,
Don’t beat yourself up over an 80% success rate. For voluntary students, that’s a very good achievement.
W1AC