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Minutes of the Symposium on the 2008 National Examination for Registered Engineers in Surveying and Design 2009-03-12 14:49:03 On the morning of February 23, 2009, the secretariat of the National Committee for the Management of Registered Engineers in Surveying and Design held a symposium on the 2008 national examination for such engineers at the Yulong International Hotel in Beijing. Those who attended the meeting included Director Wang Suqing and Section Chief Chen Bo from the Building Market Supervision Department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Deputy Inspector Zhao Qi and Section Chief He Zhifang from the Personnel Department, Director Zhao Chunshan of the Professional Qualification Registration Center, as well as relevant staff from the secretariat of the National Committee for the Management of Registered Engineers in Surveying and Design and the secretariats of various professional committees. The meeting began with each professional committee reporting on the main approaches taken, experience gained, existing problems, and primary reasons behind the examination question-setting work for 2008 ； Suggestions were put forward regarding the security and confidentiality of examinations as well as the standardization of management, along with recommendations to initiate registration and practice-related activities as soon as possible. Tao Jianming, deputy director of the Registration Center, summarized the progress of the 2008 national examination for registered engineers in surveying and design, identified the problems existing in exam management, and put forward specific requirements for work in 2009. Director Wang Suqing pointed out that the various professional committees have done a great deal of work and achieved good results, and in the future they should also focus on the following areas: first, ensuring the quality of question-setting. The passing rates for certain professional exams in 2008 varied significantly compared to previous years; in some cases, this was due to unreasonable passing rates in the previous year, and normal adjustments were made this year. Some are due to an inaccurate assessment of the overall difficulty level of the test paper. The pass rate fluctuates significantly, which affects the fairness of **qualification exams and their credibility in society. At the same time, on the basis of conducting proper examination assessment and analysis, some questionnaire surveys should be carried out to understand the actual work proficiency of those who pass the exam ； It is also necessary to study the integration of basic examinations and educational assessment; for example, it might be possible to allow institutions that pass the assessment to hold basic examinations in the fourth year of their undergraduate program, using educational assessment to guide the education provided by those institutions, with pilot projects being carried out first. Second, great importance must be attached to confidentiality work. Ensuring confidentiality relies on institutional safeguards. After investigating the case of leaks in the architect examination, the Supreme Court issued a set of recommendations regarding the issues we need to pay attention to when maintaining secrecy around exam questions. Some of these issues are common across different fields, so all relevant departments should study them carefully and focus on implementing the necessary measures in detail. To accelerate the development of question banks, each professional committee should treat their creation as an important task to be completed. Thirdly, it is important to ensure a close integration between examination activities and industry practices, in order to avoid the situation where those who are capable of performing certain tasks cannot pass the exams, while those who can pass the exams are not actually capable of carrying out those tasks. Fourth, it is necessary to accelerate the implementation of the professional practice system and clarify the responsibilities of professionals. We plan to promptly initiate the registration process for professionals in various fields, adopt transitional policies and other measures, and conduct research on supporting policies for professional practice management, so as to ensure that the registration process gets underway this year. :Deputy Inspector Zhao Qi suggested that the task of setting questions for exams based on professional case studies requires a high standard; attention should be paid to assessing practical application skills, and it is necessary to ensure that those with sufficient work experience and achievements can pass, while those lacking experience or competence will not succeed ； Care should be taken to include engineers with practical work experience in the question-setting expert group ； Strengthen research on educational assessment, make use of higher education resources to standardize such assessments, and incorporate professional evaluations into the overall process of **professional qualification exams. Director Zhao Chunshan delivered a concluding speech, in which he put forward requirements for improving exam management: (1) Summarize experiences and identify shortcomings. It is emphasized that the core of exam administration lies in “quality and safety”. All professional committees are required to further improve their work procedures and confidentiality systems, innovate their working mechanisms, and ensure the implementation of these systems. (II) Strengthen the professional development of the expert team. Each professional committee should have a long-term plan for the development of its expert group, pay attention to the overall age structure of the experts, avoid major adjustments or complete replacements, and gradually achieve a transition from older to younger experts, while ensuring proper mentorship and guidance. Secondly, attention must be paid to the selection of new experts; strict standards must be applied to ensure that the right people are chosen. (III) Strictly control the quality of test questions and improve their standard. First, conduct thorough research on standard positioning. Examination standards should be aligned with social responsibilities. Second, ensure the achievement of a zero-error target for the test papers. The responsibility for formulating propositions is significant; it is necessary to further improve the procedural mechanisms and ensure that accountability systems are properly implemented. Third, it is necessary to ensure stability in the exam pass rate, with the fluctuation range of the pass rate between consecutive years not exceeding 10%. At the same time, there should also be a roughly equal balance among various subjects to ensure fairness and impartiality in the examination process. All disciplines should make good use of the exam analysis reports, conduct thorough analysis and research, in order to improve the quality of test questions. Fourth is the degree of relevance between exam results and practical skills; the secretariats of various professional committees can organize follow-up visits to gather feedback, striving to ensure that the exam questions are closely linked to practical applications. (IV) Strengthen exam security and confidentiality. It is necessary to conduct a thorough review of the security and confidentiality procedures, the adequacy of arrangements, and the management of confidential materials; check whether all aspects are properly handled and whether the management of confidential information is carried out in a standardized manner. Additionally, confidentiality training should be provided to the team of experts ； This year, each major must prepare two sets of exam papers to meet emergency and confidentiality requirements. (5) It is necessary to actively promote the development of question banks. We will provide the already developed question bank management software for architects to various professional committees, which are responsible for carrying out the research and analysis necessary for building such question banks. (VI) For the five specialties of metallurgy, machinery, mining and minerals, petroleum and natural gas, and roads, for which examinations have not yet been held, the secretariats of the respective professional committees shall carry out the work related to submitting the initial budget as well as all the preliminary preparations for the examinations. Finally, Director Zhao Chunshan put forward several requirements for the work of the National Committee Secretariat: First, it is necessary to strengthen services and guidance ； Second, it is important to focus on facilitating technical exchanges regarding question-setting, so that different fields can complement each other’s strengths in terms of approaches and methods for creating questions ； Third, do a good job in promoting existing experience and achievements, and make full use of certain research results ； Fourth, make efforts to carry out thorough research and investigation work ； Fifth, strive to improve work efficiency. At the same time, it was clarified that in the future, any replacements or additions to the member teams of various professional committees can be approved by the deputy head of the department in charge of the committee. Secretariat of the National Committee for Registered Engineers in Surveying and Design, March 3, 2009