Exam Item Costs
(From the NCEES publication LICENSURE EXCHANGE, December 2009, ISSN NO. 1093-541X, VOLUME 13, ISSUE 6 – PAGE 12)
Board of Directors approves exam item costs
The NCEES Board of Directors has approved the following amounts as reasonable valuations of each exam item for 2009–10:
FE Exam Item Cost $2,068 PE Exam Item Cost—Group I $2,820 PE Exam Item Cost—Group II $2,234 FS/PS Exam Item Cost $2,022 Structural II Exam Item Cost $34,656
Each year, NCEES assesses the financial damages associated with an exam breach to protect the organization from losses associated with a potential theft of intellectual property. NCEES considers travel expenses, subject-matter experts’ time, psychometric costs, and office and personnel costs when establishing the dollar value for each exam item. Item costs for Group II exams do not include travel expenses borne by the sponsoring technical societies for their volunteers, who write items and assemble these exams.
The updated exam item costs are in effect for fiscal year 2009–10, which began October 1. At the 2009 Annual Meeting, the practice of annually reviewing item costs was formalized by the Council when it voted to adopt Financial Policy 13, which states, “The Board of Directors shall at least annually review and approve costs for exam item replacement in the event of an exam breach.”
