My latest One-Day Tech Class took place on Saturday, June 1. There were only 13 in this class, fewer than most classes that I teach. I think the main reason for this is that the university school year had already ended, so there were only a couple of students in this class.
Nine of the thirteen passed the test. This is a little lower than usual, but one of the students was a ten-year-old who seemed more intent on playing with a yo-yo than actually getting a license. Another was a young man who didn’t miss by much. He took the test again on Saturday, at our club’s regularly-scheduled test session, and passed. So, if you don’t count the ten-year-old—and I generally don’t count anyone that young—then the final result is 10/12, which is much closer to my usual pass rate.
I got a kick out of one guy in the class. He was so afraid that he had failed the test. As he was waiting for his exam to be scored, he asked me about one of the questions. Unfortunately, he had chosen the wrong answer, and when I told him this, he got even more anxious. In the end, all of his worrying was for naught, though. He passed with a score of 30/35.
As always, thanks to the VEs who came to administer the test. These included (in alphabetical order by call sign) Dinesh AB3DC, Ed AB8OJ, Don AC8TO, Steve AC8YA, and Mark W8FSA,
I’ll next be teaching at Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) in New York City in July. If you know someone who would like to take the class, have them contact me, and I’ll email them when the date is set. After that, I’ll be teaching at DEFCON in Las Vegas in August.
“but one of the students was a ten-year-old who seemed more intent on playing with a yo-yo than actually getting a license.”
That was my son. He is actually fascinated by radio and is very interested in getting a license. However, he has (diagnosed) ADHD and has a hard time focusing on things for an extended period of time. Sometimes he has to fidget and when he does, it LOOKS like he isn’t paying attention. But he most certainly was. I took him to the class to see if having someone else explain the material to him would work out better than my efforts. I sat down with him ahead of time and explained that it would be a long class and that it would take all of his concentration and effort to get through it. He agreed to it AND managed to get through the whole class AND take the test as well. Given his challenges, he will usually not even try something if he thinks its too hard. Even though he didn’t pass the test, getting all the way through the class at all was still a massive achievement for him. I apologize if his fidgeting was distracting.
Nevertheless, thank you for hosting these classes. The ARROW club VEs were all incredibly kind and patient with him, and I’m very grateful for that. We hope that with some more studying, he will be in a better place to pass the technician test later in the year.
Thanks for letting me know. I knew it was going to be tough for him. It’s tough for any child that age. I hope he does stick with it and gets his license.