Proem

Before the Senator Trillanes caper, there was a brewing controversy in the Civil Engineering Board Examination. The results were not released for being "Statistically Improbable."

No Anomaly

The Civil Engineering Licensure Examination was held last November 17-18, 2007 at seven (7) different places in the Philippines. The Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) did not found any anomaly. The discrepancy they could find were two cell phones with 21 correct answers out of the 30 questions. It was a local incident. It could not explain why many obtained perfect scores in two subjects - Design and Hydraulics.

More than one hundred names are within the top-10 examinees. "Statistically Improbable," says PRC and orders a re-take of these two subjects (Design and Hydraulics) scheduled on January 12, 2008. No re-take is ordered for Mathematics.

More than one hundred names are within the top-10 examinees. "Statistically Improbable," says PRC and orders a re-take of these two subjects (Design and Hydraulics) scheduled on January 12, 2008. No re-take is ordered for Mathematics.

But what is meant by statistically improbable? If an examinee could obtain a score of 100% it is still statistically probable because that is the objective. What is statistically improbable or statistically impossible is a score of 110%.

Is It Fair and Morally Right?

The examinees have spent money, time, and effort to prepare for the Board Examination. Is it their fault if they encountered a very easy examination? If the computer and the examiners goof, is it fair and morally right to put the burden on the examinees and their parents?

Murphy's Law and Computerization

Thousands of questions are stored in a computer. The computer randomly selects 30 questions for the Board Examination.

Murphy's Law states, "If it is possible for anything to go wrong, it will go wrong." It is possible that the computer will select very similar questions that are easy and a rehash of previous examinations. During the November 17-18 Board Examination, Murphy's Law did occur.

The PRC could not believe the results. Very many got perfect scores. Instead of being happy that the examinees were well prepared and the schools were teaching well, the PRC chose to be the Devil's Advocate. PRC ordered a re-take even without any anomaly. Is "fairness" no longer part of today's vocabulary?

Warning Signs

In recent Civil Engineering Board Examination results, the First Placer usually obtained a rating of 98% and above. Within the top-10 places will be from twenty to forty names.

Now it is supposed to be more than one hundred names. PRC now calls it improbable.

It is already a warning sign that computerized examination in engineering courses are not good. Previously it was all written examination. Its defect was it took too long to release the results. A compromise was made, 40% written and 60% computerized. It was a good combination. (Note: The Bar Examination is all written and not computerized.)

Now that everything is computerized, even if you do not know how to solve the problem you can still guess the answer. A slight clue or "hearing" can give you the correct answer whether A, B, C, or D.

In my opinion it is time to go back to the combined written and computerized examination. A 30% written and 70% computerized examination is still alright.