My brain that is. As per 10 CFR 835, all Health Physics Technician's(and their supervisor's, which would be me) are required to perform a bi-annual requalification. The most arduous task of this requalification is a written examination.
In the Shipyard, requalification was required every 30 months, and each person's qualification date was tracked seperatly, so there was always SOMEONE coming up for requal. Out at Hanford, they just say everyones requal cycle falls every two years, which means that sometimes, people like me who have only been qualified 1 year get to do their quals early.
The other major difference is the test themselves. The Shipyard, being part of the Navy's Nuclear Power Program, doesn't believe in 'multiple choice', so the test is fill in the blank, short answer, and essay. The coup d' grace is a 'complex casualty' that usually requires somewhere between 8-12 handwritten pages to answer. It's 4-8 hours of wrist cramping goodness.
The test at Hanford is longer(170ish questions), but multiple choice(well, not all of it...about 20% of the test is math, and you actually need to write that answer down). After taking the Navy/Shipyard test, multiple choice feels like cheating.
I'm not trying to run it down...I mean, these folks out here KNOW what they are doing(that's all I need to is get quoted as saying things at Hanford are broken). It's just that the knowledge base required(the key words and tricky phrases as we used to call them) to answer a question, is different than what's what's required to pick the right answer out of 4 possibilities. For me, after 17 years of doing it the other way, it just feels strange. Like most things, the best answer probably lays somewhere in the middle...some multiple choice, and some short answer.
I do know I like the results better here...I got a 96 on my test today, after three or 4 days of pretty intense cramming. Plus, my hand never cramped up during the test!
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