Originally posted by Trey Cizek:
Alright. I basically just wanted to know that if I have an L1 candidate who had a question about something that he saw on his RA exam, that he could privately discuss that question with me, and the answer to that appears to be that that's not a problem. It was a little unclear because some of the discussion has been about creating RA exams for L0's you're mentoring for the purpose of then being allowed to discuss that content.
Well, my earlier point was a bit broader about where the Rules Advisor exam fits with judge certification. Specifically, it is not intended as a Practice exam, nor is it a prerequisite for actual judge certification. It exists separately from the Level 1 or Level 2 exams as something of its own entity. (The majority of new Level 1s even don't matriculate via the Rules Advisor exam at all. It exists for people to verify their rules knowledge and that's it.)
So while you have to be a Rules Advisor to create the L1 Practice exam for yourself, but even that's not really required for Level 1. Highly recommended? Certainly, but that's why I took the time to give all current Level 2+s the ability to create the L1 Practice exam for mentoring purposes. And the L1 Practice exam and Easy Practice exams are far more practical and appropriate for helping someone get the necessary rules and policy knowledge to pass the Level 1 exam. (Even then, the focus should be on the Level 1 exam's subject areas that I've previously published.)
I would put far more emphasis on a candidate's relative performance on either the Easy Practice or L1 Practice exams they've taken. The material on those exams is far closer in relative difficulty.