Essay and verbal examinations are expensive and they are not in vogue right now. The main issue being that it reveals ethnicity, etc to the final gate keepers, which MAY allow a gate keeper to only let people in that are like them in some unwritten way.
I was on the grading and exam development teams for the California State specific exam before it went to multiple choice, computer based (2011 was the last year). I can assure it that the process was such that there was no possibility that could happen or that there was any talk of keeping anyone out of the "club." In general, examinees were at the ends of the spectrum, either shouldn't have been sitting for the exam or well qualified and well prepared. The rigid psychometric analysis that went into calibrating the graders at a very high level of agreement (98%+) on every element before going "live" with the grading ensured consistency. It took about 50 licensed folks three full days to grade an exam that consisted of four problems (most years around 300 exam takers +/-.)
The first year I graded (2004), in the second booklet I opened in live grading, I saw an answer I will never forget. The problem statement included an island off the California Coast as the new project site. The client asked that the project be done in the State Plane Coordinate System. The first question asked what coordinate system was required? The answer was California Coordinate System of 1983 (CCS83) because our law requires that for all new projects started after January 1, 1995, done on State Plane, must be done on CCS83 as opposed to CCS27. The second question asked what zone would the work be done in? In the law, the islands are specifically named as to which zone they are in. If I recall, the correct answer was Zone 5. The response to the question in my second booklet...."Twilight." Just a hunch that person did not pass that exam, or possibly ever.
Here is another viewpoint from Australia regarding this issue...
@john-hamilton?ÿ ?ÿThis crisis is not NEW. It is a problem at all levels. Here is what an article in Life magazine had to say back in 1958 ;?ÿ ?ÿ "Russia is now turning out an estimated 500 new geodesists each year, compared with only three in the U.S."
JOHN NOLTON
Another variation on the theme:
https://www.gps.gov/governance/advisory/meetings/2022-05/hinkley.pdf ?ÿ
