HRANB Newsletter

In February, the Canadian Council of Human Resources Associations (CCHRA) and its member provincial HR associations announced updates to the NPPA, which would be effective for the June 2009 exam session. There are two main changes: the addition of five pre-testing questions (increasing the total number of scenarios in the exam from 40 to 45) and a change in the answer format that requires exam writers to identify the solution that effective HR professionals would be the most and the least likely to choose, with each response worth one point.

“What is important to note is that the fundamentals of the NPPA are not changing,” says Dr. Cheryl Lamerson, CHRP, Manager of Professional Standards at CCHRA. “The exam will still measure experiential knowledge in HR, and it will still be based on the same types of scenarios as before.”

The first change, the addition of pre-testing questions, is a common practice used in examinations as an effective and legitimate way to test the validity of questions for future exams. The five pre-testing questions will be randomly placed throughout the examination, and will not affect an exam writer’s score.

The change to the answer format also represents an alignment with common practices in Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs).

“The purpose of Situational Judgment Tests is not just to identify those individuals who have the required competencies, but also those who do not,” explains Dr. Robert Ployhart, an expert in SJTs from the University of South Carolina who was involved in the NPPA Review. Dr. Ployhart also notes that asking exam writers to identify both best and worst answers can help identify writers who “guess” at the correct answer, as well as those who simply have bad judgment.

The move to the “best” and “worst” answer format was also crucial to enhancing the reliability of the NPPA. Exam reliability can be easily improved by increasing the number of items: switching to the “best” and “worst” format effectively doubled the number of responses to the exam without increasing the number of scenarios for exam writers.

“Exam writers should keep in mind that even though the new exam will ask people to now also identify the “worst” scenario, it shouldn’t really impact how candidates prepare for exams,” notes Dr. Lamerson. “Even under the previous format, we know that exam writers went through and identified the worst solutions in order to eliminate them. We are now asking them to identify the “worst” option and record it as an answer.”

The changes were implemented as a result of a periodic review of the NPPA exam, which has been in place in Canada since 2003. Two external organizations, experts in the field of certification and Situational Judgment Testing, reviewed the NPPA and provided some recommendations to enhance the existing exam and to align it with the most recent standards.

The changes to the NPPA are the latest step the CCHRA and its member provincial HR associations have taken in their ongoing efforts to continually enhance the CHRP designation. This year will also mark the launch of a new Professional Practice Analysis that will review the Body of Knowledge of the HR profession.

“The business environment, the HR profession and examination standards continue to evolve,” notes Lynn Palmer, CHRP, CCHRA’s Chief Executive Officer. “Our role is to ensure that the standards of the CHRP continue to meet the needs and expectations for HR professionals and the business community in general.”

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