Virtual Ratings are Here!

On the heels of the success of our first ever Virtual Summit, we are launching our inaugural virtual ratings site on July 17-19 (formerly planned to be in Irvine, CA)! We are excited to provide this great service opportunity for our members as well as make education more affordable for coaches. In addition, the master ratings site originally scheduled for September 25-27 in Minneapolis will also now be a virtual ratings site.

Members of the Ratings Committee and other volunteers went through a lengthy pilot virtual rating mock exam program in the months of March, April, and May on Zoom. The three disciplines that were first piloted were free skate, group and moves in the field. We had wonderful (and brave) candidate volunteers as well as an amazing group of volunteer examiners. This gave us an opportunity to work through any glitches we came upon. Fortunately, what we found is that the process of a virtual rating exam is similar (and in some aspects even better) than an in-person rating process—more so than we expected. Good... no... great news!

The requirements and process for a virtual rating exam are the same as an in-person exam:

1. Must be a current FULL PSA member

2. Have four education credits recorded in the past year

3. Successful completion of the Basic Accreditation or Foundations of Coaching course

4. Successful completion of the corresponding Sport Science exam (ex. to take a registered rating exam you must have passed the registered sport science written exam)

5. Register online for rating exam

6. Submit all required paperwork (test verification, resume, etc. – you will be notified of deadline date)

Additional requirements as of May 1, 2020 for all disciplines include:

• Registered rating candidates: current concussion training certificate

• Certified rating candidates: current First Aid certificate

• Senior and Master rating candidates: current First Aid certificate and CPR certificate

So how does a virtual exam work? Once the exam schedule has been set, you will receive your exam time and Zoom log in information. At your scheduled time, log in to Zoom where you will be placed in the waiting room until examiners are ready for you. You will take your exam during which you will demonstrate, draw, and answer both the traditionally written and oral exam questions. Then you will be placed back in the waiting room during the examiner deliberation, then brought back into the room for feedback and results. Upon passing, your certificate and ratings pin (for first time candidates) will be mailed to you.

Through the pilot program we learned how to streamline the process as well as worked to digitize all the paperwork. We have worked diligently to make the process easy for the candidates, examiners, and the office staff.

A very special thanks to our exceptional examiners for giving their time to the Pilot Virtual Rating Mock Exam Program: Jeff DiGregorio, Jason Dilworth, Cheryl Faust, Doug Haw, Diane Miller, Kelley Morris-Adair, Patrick O’Neil, Carol Rossignol, Kris Shakarjian, Roxanne Tyler, Denise Williamson, and Barb Yackel.

Thank you also to the PSA office staff who immediately jumped into action as soon as virtual ratings were passed by the Executive Committee and the Board of Governors on May 17, 2020 in order to launch our first virtual site for July.

We are always here to help you through the process of preparing, signing up, and taking PSA rating exams. As a reminder, you can download the study guide for each rating discipline for free at any time on the PSA website. The Ratings Committee is continuing to work on virtual mock exams to include all disciplines.

Being a new program we welcome any and all feedback to make the ratings process even better! Please do not hesitate to contact me at any time.