IAM or RoADAR?

[MrToad]

A bit of thread resurrection - I thought I'd throw out a challenge to the readers. Following my recent Special Assessment experience, I'm still none the wiser about how the marking scheme works. To see if anybody can shed light on it, I'm going to tell you what the score sheet said, and I'd like your guesses of what my percentage score was - should be easy, right?

27 categories, scored from 5 to 1. What would the final mark be for 7 2's and 20 1's?

Over to you...except martine, who knows the answer already.

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

If all categories are equal, about 95%.

However it wouldn't be a challenge if it was that easy, so I assume it was actually rather less?

[MrToad]

[forsyth] Lower! [/forsyth]

[Custom24]

If I've understood the math on the previous page of this thread correctly, 79.4%

[MrToad]

Higher!

[Porker]

87%

P.

[MrToad]

Good Game, good game.

Sorry, enough with the Brucie-isms already.

P.: Close, but not quite.

[Custom24]

87%

P.

Did you go with that because it was mid-way between the previous two guesses?

[crr003]

If I've understood the math on the previous page of this thread correctly, 79.4%

That's what I calculated.
I recently asked my local SE how he works it out and he didn't give a clear answer, except he doesn't give many 1s out!
Specifically, I was wondering how you could get a good "score" for overtaking, if you couldn't get one in, but he said he was looking for overall attitude and application to overtakes.

[MrToad]

Is it possible that the different disciplines have different weightings, or does the examiner ignore the numbers and pick a final mark out of the air?

If no-one has got it by tomorrow night I'll let you know the percentage and we can try to reverse-engineer it.

[ExadiNigel]

If all categories are equally weighted I would have made it 94.8%.

20 x 100% = 2000
7 x 80% = 560

Total 2560

Divide by 27 to give 94.81481

Nigel

[Porker]

87%

P.

Did you go with that because it was mid-way between the previous two guesses?

No, it was just a guess.

regards
Nick

[GS]

There's also the IAM Special Assessment which is not a test but is meant to use similar criteria to a police advanced assessment - although how you go about training for this is not clear...ask Mr. Toad!

I suspect that similar criteria are used but that the standards required are lower in as much as the speeds are typically rather less.

That would be interesting to have confirmed though. For example, would an IAM SA candidate who achieves a 90% pass on the exam be demonstrating the same level of roadcraft, commentary, finesse and so on as someone who passes a Police Advanced Course with the same mark?

Even then I expect it's something of a moot point, since demonstrating skills at higher speeds would I presume be proportionately much more difficult than doing so within the speed limits.

regards
P.

Re the above comments.

I think it's fair to say that the SA marks and the police advanced marks are not comparable. For a police driver to get a mark of 90% or above on an advanced course is, in my experience, VERY rare.

It wouldn't surprise me though if a SA candidate who got a 90% mark would do well on a police standard course, as in the Roadcraft video.

To give you some idea about the differences, on my police advanced course I was marked in the following;

Written test on Roadcraft, Highway Code and internal police procedures.

Slalom reversing and parking tests including reversing into a 'garage' and parallel parking.

Skid pan tests involving both front and rear wheel drive cars.

Blue light run using fully marked patrol car.

High speed drive from A to B using an unmarked automatic car.

Pursuit test in a manual car involving following 'pursuing' an instructor.

These tests were at the end of weeks of instruction using various types of cars and we were rarely in the same car twice. My course also involved familiarisation drives in HGVs and PSVs and an introduction to Anti Hijack driving.

Does this sound like an IAM SA?

[GS]

If all categories are equally weighted I would have made it 94.8%.

20 x 100% = 2000
7 x 80% = 560

Total 2560

Divide by 27 to give 94.81481

Nigel

The marking for the SA is not quite as simple as this.

I'm sure that when the mark is added up it is then multiplied by a set figure to give the final result. That way there is a noticeable difference between marks.


I'm sure that the Fenland Flyer or someone will be along shortly to clarify things better.


(I'm guessing around the 85 to 87% area.)

[MrToad]

Does this sound like an IAM SA?

I think it's fair to say that the SA wasn't quite as comprehensive or demanding as that, although it sounds fun. I suspect it's less enjoyable if your future career path depends on it.

I'm sure that when the mark is added up it is then multiplied by a set figure to give the final result. That way there is a noticeable difference between marks.

(I'm guessing around the 85 to 87% area.)

A calculation which is then multiplied by something sounds plausible - the actual figure was 89%.

Interestingly, two of the comments you made when we drove together last year were repeated during the test (sorry, assessment) - slightly close following position and imprecise operation of the indicator stalk. It appears that the things Police instructors look for are remarkably consistent across the country.