The Sanford Berenberg Experience: Message of the Day

Good Morning,

Yesterday morning when talking to my wife, Karen, she told me about a test which is required for people to maintain their positions at their place of employment. This test is very hard, and in fact, the powers that be actually expect that most people taking the certification testing will, in fact, fail on their first attempt at the test. They do, though, have a policy to allow several years and several attempts to pass.

I am all about second chances, but I have a real problem with a bar raised so high that even with ample study and preparation a majority of applicants are EXPECTED to fail.

What does this say about the test and the certification? It is exclusive, sure, but it also puts up barriers to those who may actually do well in that field but due to the high bar are scared away from going into that field.

Having high standards is one thing, but having standards that are so high that they start scaring away potential future stars is a shame. When I originally went to college in the 80’s, I entered the Engineering program in a class of 700 or so students. I was told that after four years of classes that they needed 700 students starting the program for some 150 to graduate with their Bachelors in Engineering. This means they EXPECT 550 of the original 700 to be ‘weeded out’ over the next four years. Pretty steep…

Some organizations have recognized these barriers and have worked to remove them. University of Phoenix, for example, did not ask me to take the GMAT test for enrollment in my MBA. Their studies showed no real correlation between students who scored well on the GMAT and those who did well in their MBA program.

I did well on my MBA, scoring a 3.93 GPA, but that would never had happened if I went to a school which held the barrier to entry of some test, that I may have failed.

This is not to say that tests are bad in and of themselves, but they should be geared toward learning, and helping people succeed and enter the field instead of acting as a wall or bouncer to keep people out.

One organization I encountered had a great idea with their tests. When you took a test on a subject, you still had passing and failing grades like most tests, but they have an added caveat. After you finish your test, any answers that you got wrong were then reviewed with you and you were re-trained on them. You then retook the test questions you missed originally and then were allowed to get a 100 on the test. It may take several attempts, but the end result, so long as the applicant does not quit, is a 100.

This means that everyone who enters comes out with 100% of the knowledge being tested. Sure a 66% score is passing in most schools, but wouldn’t you rather have the knowledge to score 100%?

If you are going to have a high barrier of entry, maybe put along with it a support feature which helps people succeed. Sure more people will pass the entry requirements, but at the same time, you will have more qualified people around.

We can set the bar very high and keep high expectations and still have a lot of successful applicants if we support them in learning what is necessary to reach our standard.

Then we would EXPECT many more people to PASS and then SUCCEED!

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net