Yesterday, on the ICQPodcast, we discussed a report released by the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) Examination Standards Committee (ESC). It shows that the number of people who passed a Foundation Class (similar to our Technician Class) amateur radio exam in 2017 fell to its lowest level in recent years. The number of those passing RSGB Foundation, Intermediate or Advanced exams are:
- 2017 – F:1310 I:592 A:250
- 2016 – F:1438 I:661 A:290
- 2015 – F:1475 I:632 A:300
One of the panelists, Chris Howard, M0TCH, was more interested in the pass rates, so he dug up that data:
- 2017 – F:81.5% I:91.6% A: 64.9%
- 2016 – F:81.4% I:95.2% A: 67.9%
- 2015 – F:84.9% I:92.5% A: 68.2%
Of course, I was interested in how that compares to pass rates here in the U.S. I emailed the ARRL just before we recorded the episode, but didn’t expect to get an answer right away. Maria Somma, AB1FM, ARRL VEC Manager, did, however reply this afternoon. She wrote:
Our VEC handles approximately 74% of all Amateur Radio examinations in the US. I do not have stats for the other 13 FCC sanctioned Amateur Radio testing organizations. The ARRL VEC pass rate over the past 5 years:
License Level Pass Rate % Technician (entry level license) 81% General (intermediate level license) 61% Amateur Extra (highest level license) 58% Additional analysis pertaining to our statistics:
- The Technician level pass rate is accurate.
- The General level pass rate is skewed. A large number of entry level Technician examinees are encouraged to try the next level for free. Most do not expect to take the General test and are ill-prepared for this exam. Therefore this pass rate should be much higher. If we were to disallow the free try, I would estimate that the percentage rate would jump to approxmately 75%.
- The Extra level pass rate is slightly skewed. The same thing happens with the highest level exam (examinees try for free even though they are not prepared) although not as frequently since this exam is so daunting. I would place this pass rate at 62%.
I’m not sure if this means anything, but it’s interesting to compare the numbers, don’t you?
“Foundation Class (similar to our Technician Class) ”
Hi Dan,
I actually have both Extra class and British Foundation class licences. Foundation is a lot easier than Technician. Technician is somewhere between Foundation and Intermediate, but a bit closer to Foundation. The systems are very different and not easily compared.
Foundation was really easy, but you have to do a practical assessment. That is tuning a dipole, having some QSOs, do some soldering work and maybe one or to things I can’t think of right now. Foundation has 26 questions. Mock exams can be found at the RSGB’s website: https://rsgb.org/main/clubs-training/training-resources/foundation-mock-exams/
73 Joshua KK4RVI and M6KIQ (home call DC7IA)
With the small number of Advanced licences awarded, the variations in percentage aren’t really meaningful. A 3% difference is ten licences or fewer. That is a couple of exam sessions that did or didn’t happen, or maybe a cricket match that was just too exciting to miss.
I think all three exams are more difficult than they have to be. At least 30% to 40% of the questions on all three USA exams have zero to do with operating a radio station.
Explain to me why anyone needs to know college level algebra and calculus in order to operate their transceiver.
In my world there would be one operating class, one exam of 50 questions with 30% of it basic “high school” radio and electronic theory and 70% of it FCC rules, regulations, including “customary” operating procedures (i.e. “don’t quick-key.”)
An argument can be made that both the General and Extra exams are designed to be hard so as to keep ham radio a “good old boy’s network.”
The corollary to the above is that the exams are designed to be difficult so that the “good old boys” like the ARRL and others (i.e. you?) can sell how-to-pass books.
“Follow the money.”