Since early December 2010, the qualification test has been taken 26 times (some twice by the same people) with an average passing grade of 80.69%. The minimum passing grade is 80%. And to date one technician only known as Curtis P., has achieved a perfect 100% on the test. Ironically, Curtis hasn’t signed up into the directory yet but I’m sure he’ll get around to it. As of the date of this post, 9 techs have signed on.
The test has proven to be quite challenging for some. In fact the failure rate is just over 26%. Many will agree that the test questions can all be argued one way or another, but the point of the test questions is to make the tester think of all of the possible scenarios. That’s what a good technician does – think before acting.
One good analogy to drive this point home and that always stuck with me came from a former employer, Len Rickert of Hartsville, PA. While looking for the cause of an internal engine noise in a 300ZX (yep, I’m old), he said “If you are surgeon, you have to know what to find before you operate. You will never find a problem on the way out!” He was right. I didn’t know what the noise was and wanted to tear the engine apart to find it. Instead, he showed me how to find it without the mess. He canceled out cylinders to isolate the noise and determined it was a piston slap on one cylinder. Now that we had something to look for, it made the job that much easier to do.
Too many technicians and mechanics have learned to fix vehicles by throwing parts at it because they think it saves time. In fact, the more readily available the parts are, the more this happens. Very common procedure at some new car dealerships. The best out there know better. Find it first then sell the repair with confidence.
If you’d like to be a member of AutoTechnician.org, you can take the test for free. If you pass, you can register yourself and your shop free. Register for the technician test here.
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