How to fail the exam.
Are there obvious things a candidate can do that are likely to bias the examiners before or during their examination? Some of them are obvious such as poor loop control or inability to cast beyond 50 feet. Performance requirements for the test are described in the exam booklet I won’t be talking about them at this time. This article captures some of the things I’ve heard over the years from examiners that give an all important first and ongoing impression during your exam.
As usual, you are invited to submit comments to this post. Your comments will be moderated by me for possible inclusion in the archive of this post. If your comment isn’t approved it doesn’t mean the comment was not worthy of being included. It is more likely that a similar comment was made prior to yours and already approved.
- Be late. The later the better.
- If you are going to be late do not attempt to call or notify the examiner.
- Don’t worry about your appearance. Cutoffs and muscle shirts are a refreshing change from the clean and pressed fishing attire that most candidates wear.
- Forget to bring your rod or other piece of gear needed to take the exam.
- Use a line that is virtually invisible in the air so that the examiners can’t see your faults.
- Take all the time you need to warm up and don’t worry about style or loop control while warming up.
- Be assertive. Argue with the examiners at every opportunity and complain as much as possible, especially about the exam and the organization.
- Do not try to establish a rapport with the examiners or look them in the eye when talking to them.
- Make sure you prepare very long answers to very short questions.
- Show off. The examiners are always impressed when a task requires you to false cast to a distance of 45 feet and you show them 75 feet of uncontrolled spaghetti in the air.
- Do not ask for clarification if you don’t understand something.
- If you are struggling with one of the performance tasks hand your rod to an examiner and ask them to prove they can do it.
As usual, you are encourage to submit comments to this post. Your comments will be moderated by me for possible inclusion in the archive of this post. If your comment isn’t approved it doesn’t mean the comment was not worthy of being included. It is more likely that a similar comment was made prior to yours and already approved.
Next week’s topic:
Muscle memory, motor learning and skill learning.
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