Mandatory Assessment

One of the methods that regulatory bodies and associations use to measure their registrants’ competence is through a jurisprudence examination. A jurisprudence exam ensures members have the required knowledge to practise their profession within the industry’s provincial and federal laws. When professionals are knowledgeable and educated about the legislation and regulatory policies in their province, it provides the organization with another way to protect the public.

The Exam

Jurisprudence exams are usually open book, online, and once a registrant passes, it is valid for a certain amount of years. Some Colleges allow members to only write the jurisprudence once in a lifetime, while some require it every five years to even every year. The frequency is up to the College. In order to be a licensed professional, the jurisprudence exam must be passed.

Creating the exam

Each College or association creates their own questions that comply with their provinces’ health and safety laws, for example the Health Professions Act or Regulated Health Professions Act (Manitoba). Questions are under different domains, such as professionalism, communication, etc. The questions usually have a case, a reference link, and four multiple choice answers to select from with multiple attempts (usually). There are hundreds of questions created, but every question is not on every exam. This means every time somebody writes the exam, it’s going to be different. This is to protect the College from having it’s questions shared between members or online, and having members possibly cheat. An example of this happening in the past: one regulatory body in Alberta shared a discipline case where a member had to be sanctioned for selling jurisprudence questions and the correct answers online. The solution to this is creating a large pool of random questions to draw from when generating each registrants exam.

After the exam has been taken, the College looks at the questions and the ones that seem to have been answered the poorest are analyzed and possibly rewritten. Some Colleges use a psychometrician. This is an expert on measuring  psychometrics, which is the measurement of an individual’s psychological attributes. This person checks how questions are written, making sure they are written fairly and that they aren’t leading the person writing the exam in the wrong direction.

Results from the exam also let the College know if the members have any weak spots, meaning that they understand one area over another. With this information, the College can provide more information or hold seminars to help members understand that area up to par with the rest.

How members write it

Colleges and regulatory bodies provide access to this exam, as well as rules that exam takers must follow (i.e. cheating is forbidden) and their consequences for breaking the rules. The jurisprudence exam is written on a computer, and the member is sent the link from the College through a secure email. Most Colleges do not provide the link on the website to secure their questions. The exam is timed, and after that time is over, whether the exam is complete or not, it must be submitted.

How can your College help?

A College, other than wanting to protect the public, wants to engage with members and create positive change in the industry they are apart of. The jurisprudence exam gives Colleges the opportunity to be there for members and guide them into passing the exam. This can be done by providing them with a study resource, handbooks, example questions, letting them know what to expect on the exam, providing supplementary links, and just about any information that can help them pass the exam (that is allowed, of course!).

Pass or fail?

The exam is marked as a pass or fail. Members, like students, want to know if they’ve passed an exam right away. Association management software allows your College or association to post exam results on members’ private profile pages immediately. This lets members log in and easily check if they’ve passed or failed. If they’ve passed, they’re one step closer to being licensed (or staying licensed), and if they’ve failed, they need to do it again.

If a member fails, they can re-write the exam, or take remediation steps. This means they can take a course, attend a seminar, or even write a research essay. With Colleges and associations being self-regulated, the substitute for the jurisprudence exam is, again, up to the organization.

Association Management Software

Alinity’s cloud-based association management software lets members check their jurisprudence exam marks from any device with an internet connection. This lets members quickly refer to their profile if they ever need to show proof of passing the exam for whatever reason. If you’re looking into getting new association management software, and are still filtering through your potential choices, check out our software procurement checklist. Our checklist can be used for any association management or license management software. Click on the button below to download! Have a great day!