July 6, 2022—CCO is excited to announce that as part of its technology initiative to improve efficiencies, administration of the practical exam is set for a major improvement. Those who administer practical exams will record candidate performance via a tablet rather than on a paper score sheet. This will result in exam results being available shortly after the exam is taken as well as heightened testing integrity.
The current system uses paper score sheets that must then be scanned and sent back to CCO for manual processing to determine a candidate’s score. Since exam results are not required to be submitted for up to 10 days after the exam has occurred (to allow for examinations where the examiner is traveling), this means that the results for the candidate are sometimes significantly delayed from the test date. Under the new system, the scores will become available after the examiner connects to the CCO system via the internet. CCO expects that this change will result in candidates receiving scores shortly after the exams are uploaded to CCO.
In addition to being cumbersome, the current practical process doesn’t allow for real-time authentication of credentials for those administering the exams, practical test sites’ registration status, or candidate’s authorization codes for testing. This results in candidates being unable to confirm with CCO that the test was an authorized and approved event. Under the tablet-based testing model, candidates will be able to confirm that the test is authorized by CCO.
CCO will begin field testing the fall of 2022 and anticipates introducing tablet-based practical exams to the community by the end of the year. There will be a one-year transitional period for Practical Examiners to migrate to the new administration platform before paper score sheets are phased out by the conclusion of 2023.
More information about the transition will be made available in the coming months.