5J-17.034. Grading

(1) The Department shall use any national examination which is available and approved by the Board.

(2) A national examination is an examination developed by or for a national or multi-state professional association, board, council, or society (hereinafter referred to as organization) and administered for the purpose of assessing entry level skills necessary to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public from the incompetent practice of surveying and mapping and meets the following standards:

(a) The purpose of the examination shall be to establish entry level standards of practice that shall be common to all practitioners of surveying and mapping;

(b) The practice of the profession at the national level must be defined through an occupational survey with a representative sample of all practitioners and professional practices; and,

(c) The examination for licensure must assess the scope of practice and the entry skills defined by the national survey.

(3) The organization must be generally recognized by practitioners across the nation in the form of representatives from the State Boards or shall have membership representing a majority of the nation’s or states’ practitioners who have been licensed through the national examination.

(4) The organization shall be the responsible body for overseeing the development and scoring of the national examination.

(5) The organization shall provide security guidelines for the development and grading of the national examination and shall oversee the enforcement of these guidelines.

(6) Grading Criteria and Passing Scores:

(a) The Principles and Practice Examination and the Fundamentals Examination contain machine graded, questions developed by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) based upon the results of National Task Analysis Surveys performed periodically. Grades shall be determined by the applicant’s ability to choose the correct answer from several given choices. The passing score shall be established by NCEES.

(b) The Florida Jurisdictional Examination consists of 100 questions developed by the Department, or the Department’s contracted vendor. The questions will be weighted equally and machine graded. A passing grade on the Florida Jurisdictional Examination is defined as 70% of the total possible points.

(c) Scores on each examination shall be reported in a pass/fail format as follows: the Principles and Practice Examination, the Fundamentals Examination, the Florida Jurisdictional Examination shall have separate scores. A passing score must be achieved on each examination in order to obtain licensure, however the three passing scores need not be obtained in one sitting.

(7) Examinations shall be graded solely and exclusively by the Department or the Department’s designee, national examination provider or its designee.

(8) Departmentally developed objective, examinations shall be graded by the Department or contracted vendor. The Department or the Department’s contracted vendor shall review the item analysis and any statistically questionable items after the examination has been administered. Based upon this review, the Department or the Department’s contracted vendor shall adjust the scoring key by totally disregarding the questionable items for grading purposes or by multi-keying, giving credit for more than one correct answer per item. All items which do not adequately and reliably measure the applicant’s ability to practice the profession shall be rejected. The Department or its contracted vendor shall calculate each candidate’s grade utilizing the scoring key or adjusted scoring key, if applicable, and shall provide each candidate with a grade report. The only paper that shall be graded is the official answer sheet. No credit shall be given for answers written in a candidate’s examination booklet.

(9) If after the distribution of grades for a particular administration there are adjustments to the scoring, amended grade reports shall be mailed to all failing candidates whose scores are increased and to all candidates whose pass/fail status changes due to the adjustment unless the candidate has taken and passed a subsequent administration of the examination.

(10) The Department shall notify the candidate of the results of the candidate’s examination no later than sixty (60) days after the examination date, except when the grades, or portions thereof, are computed by the national board, council, association, or society responsible for a national examination in Florida. The grades for an examination containing a national portion shall be sent to the candidate no later than thirty (30) days after the receipt of the grades by the Department from the national board, council, association, or society responsible for the national examination in Florida.

(11) The Department or contracted vendor shall inform each passing candidate of the candidate’s status and provide necessary instructions for obtaining a license.

(12) Any candidate who does not receive a passing score on a licensure or certification examination will be notified of the test(s) failed, the requirements for re-examination, and review and appeal rights and procedures.

Rulemaking Authority 472.0131 FS. Law Implemented 472.0131 FS. History–New 1-3-80, Amended 6-9-80, 8-27-81, 1-25-84, Formerly 21HH-4.04, Amended 8-30-92, Formerly 21HH-4.004, Amended 5-30-95, 11-15-95, 7-27-00, 10-31-08, Formerly 61G17-4.004, Amended 10-17-12, 11-13-17.