I have mentioned before that I’ve taken the HR certification exams five times. (And again, my ego whispers in my ear that I should clarify that I re-took the exams to re-certify, not because I didn’t pass them.) When I took the SPHR exam last spring, it was my first time taking the exam in its current, computer-based format. The previous three times that I took the SPHR exam (2003, 2000, & 1997), and when I took the PHR exam (in time immemorial), it was administered by an exam proctor on a specified date in a group setting.
It was miserable.
We were required to report at the specified location at dark-thirty in the morning. The building resembled a prison; all the interior walls were windowless, solid concrete (I picture metal rebar protruding from the walls, but that might just be a trick of my memory). Thirty or so SPHR and PHR candidates lined up to have our ID verified, our admission ticket scrutinized, and our blood drawn. The prison guard, er, proctor, checked that we had nothing more dangerous than our sharpened No. 2 pencils. We were assigned to seats and given our exam booklets and answer sheets, aka bubble sheets. The proctor read the tediously detailed instructions explaining how to fill in the selected bubble on the bubble sheet completely, without making any extraneous marks on the page. We were also given elaborate directions on restroom-break procedures: one at a time, turn in exam booklet and bubble sheet to proctor, sign out, return promptly, show ID to proctor (who isn’t expected to remember me even though I (and only I) left the room two and a half minutes ago), sign in, retrieve exam materials from proctor, return to seat. And then the clock began ticking (audibly). The desk surface was too small to spread out my booklet and bubble sheet comfortably. The chair was so hard I began squirming after about 20 minutes (only 220 minutes to go). But the worst thing of all was the tension in the room. The proctor scanning the room with her x-ray vision, vigilantly watching for cheaters. The PHR candidates scratching their heads and trying to remember how to calculate overtime when the employee is payed on a piece-rate. The SPHR candidates trying to remember if they’ve ever even heard of the Systems Model. I would have gladly volunteered for solitary confinement.
The computer-based testing procedure is ever so much better. I’ll talk more about that next time.