From the ARRL VE Newsletter, May 2015
“On July 1, 2015 a new Element 3 General class question pool will take effect for examinations. VECs and VEs will have new test designs available for use at exam sessions effective that date.
The newly revised pool released in December 2014 (updated February 11, 2015) by the Question Pool Committee (QPC) of the National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (NCVEC) must be in use starting July 1st. There is one graphic required for this pool and 462 questions in this pool, up slightly from 456 in the previous pool. Questions G1E10 and G5B08 have been formally withdrawn from use and should not appear on exams. To view the new General class pool, visit the NCVEC web site at http://ncvec.org/page.php?id=364.
ARRL VEC VE Exam Maker Software will be updated around mid-June with the new General pool and will be available for generating new exam versions. ARRL VEC will supply officially appointed Field Stocked VE teams with new test booklet designs also around mid-June. Teams that hold on to the exam package after their exam session are NOT officially stocked. Non-stocked VE Teams should be returning their exam packages and supplies to ARRL VEC after the session is completed. The officially stocked VE Teams receive their exam supplies in a large box which is a 6 month to year supply depending on the team’s activity levels. To see if your team qualifies to be field-stocked with a bulk quantity of our test materials visit http://www.arrl.org/field-stocked-ve-teams.
With the General class exam questions changing July 1st, new test designs must be used effective that day. Previous ARRL VEC supplied General class test booklets versions (2011 series) and computer generated General class tests created from the 2011 question pool are only valid until midnight June 30, 2015. At that time VE Team leaders may destroy the old versions of the General exams.
The question pools review is part of a regular process and each question pool is reviewed and updated on a four year rotation. The Extra pool is scheduled for an update in 2016. No question pools are scheduled to be updated or released in 2017. All current question pools and useful information pertaining to the pools can be viewed on the ARRL Web at www.arrl.org/question-pools. “
