From: Peter Morse <petermorsie@optusnet.com.au>
Date: February 2, 2011 10:23:31 PM EST
To: Gordy <hillshead@comcast.net>
Subject: Thoughts on exams.

Gordy, These are my thoughts on the CCI and MCI examination process. You touched on it briefly and the responses poured in so there’s obviously a great deal of thought going into it within our community.
 
If there is a copy of the written test circulating on the net leave it out there but mix up the questions as currently exists, maybe slip in some new ones to reveal those who might have read and rehearsed it.
Examiners should be able to quiz candidates on any of the tasks to examine whether or not the candidate’s knowledge is reasonably deep seated and broad or just learned through rote.  Having an exam that is so formulated that we can’t go further to test a student’s depth of knowledge (without any shortcomings detracting from what might have been a pass anyway) seems set up to produce ‘hot-housed’ instructors.
For example, the difference between someone relatively new to the sport who has been able to learn everything by rote and gets it perfect first time, opposed to someone who might have been fly fishing and teaching for many years, has some old habits but is generally deeply enthusiastic and passionate as well as knowledgeable but from outside the system. There is a difference and this will be only exposed by questioning that goes beyond the set parameters of the exam. I think of myself when I did my CCI exam, no prep and little understanding of FFF language (or even the FFF) but 30 years of fishing and teaching got me through and I could in my own words explain what I meant to the satisfaction of the examiners. Had the test been utterly rigid I would have failed but the examiners (bless them) were open minded and inquiring.
All examiners should be able to ask questions and the lead examiner should defer to his co-examiner(s) with “Any questions Bob”. After all we’re all MCI’s and it’s just a matter of respect and courtesy to our peers. We all have our pet lines of inquisition that usually emerge from our own Eureka moments.
Examiners and candidates in the Masters exam should be prepared to go down any path. In my view the oral exam should run concurrent to the casting portion. Between tasks why shouldn’t an examiner be able to ask “Just run me through the parts of that rod from the butt to the tip and tell me about its action”? “What would you have to change if we were to load it with one line heavier or 2 lines lighter etc”? This is how I conduct my pre-tests.
Candidates KNOW what to expect, the material is all there, no one keeps secrets within the FFF so anything and everything in the world of fly fishing should be fair game. Saltwater guys need to know about the life-cycle of a mayfly and the difference between the various types of trout waters, how to rig a trout leader for a windy day or a spring creek, and trout guys need to know about rigging an IGFA leader for marlin or for bonefish, or how to spool up a reel for (whatever), or they should know where to look to refer a student.
Before I passed my masters exam on the second attempt I had a student (part of a group) who was in his final year of high school and whose knowledge of physics embarrassed the hell out me.  I never wanted that to happen again so I had to learn up on a subject I had ignored since junior high school. We don’t need Server or Walter’s level of physics but some is required for some students some of the time and that is enough for it to be important knowledge.
In my view by making these exams too formulaic we will produce instructors that are too one dimensional. The system is good. We are trying to produce master instructors after all.
One thing I do really believe in is including MCI candidates as independent and impartial observers for all CCI testing. This is to be an advocate for the examiners or for the candidates should a dispute arise. More importantly it also introduces MCI candidates to the examination process. Its probably more important in a place such as Australia where we all basically know each other, could sometimes be perceived as being in competition and want above all to get it right.
 
I must get to the US again and attend several conclaves and spend some time with you guys learning your examination methodology. Not this year unfortunately, too much fishing happening !!!!
 
All the best, Peter

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Peter Morse - Fly Fisherman, writer, photographer.
Team Sage.
FFF Master Certified Casting Instructor.
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