How CBA assesses

1. The blueprint is published in full

   Every discipline publishes its assessment domains and the exact share of the paper each one accounts for. Each blueprint covers at least three domains, its weightings total 100 per cent, and they are fixed for the life of the scheme version.

   The 13 discipline standards

2. Specimen papers, with a rationale for every option

   Each of the 13 specimen papers is twelve items written to that discipline’s examination specification, with the answer and a written rationale for every option, including why each incorrect option is incorrect. Specimen items are kept out of the live bank, so none of them can appear in an examination.

   Open a specimen paper

3. The cut score is set by an expert panel

   A panel of at least three subject-matter experts sets the cut score from the items themselves, using a documented method. Nobody with responsibility for revenue sits on or attends a panel. The rounding rule is fixed in advance, a wide divergence between panellists is referred rather than averaged, and the full two-round record is kept and is supplied to any candidate on request, without charge.

   How cut scores are set

4. Three levels, each defined by the evidence collected before award

   Certificate is assessed by examination. Practitioner adds assessed applied work. Professional adds professional experience confirmed by a named referee and a signed undertaking to the Code of Professional Conduct. Each certification states the evidence its level requires, and no credential is issued at that level until the evidence has been collected from the candidate.

   The Competency Framework

5. Every certification has a published scheme

   One document per certification setting out what it assesses, how the paper is assembled from the blueprint, the arithmetic that turns a weighting into a number of items, how items are written and reviewed, what happens when one is found defective, and what a change to the scheme means for credentials already awarded.

   Read a certification scheme

6. Every credential is recorded in a public register

   Each award resolves to a public register entry showing the holder, the discipline, the level, the scheme version assessed against, the dates and the status. There is no index of the register; a lookup answers only a credential ID, and every ID ends in six random characters. An expired, suspended or withdrawn credential is never deleted: its status changes and the entry remains.

   Check a credential

7. The examination is unsupervised, and the integrity measures are published

   CBA examinations are sat online without a proctor and without an identity check. The measures in place are a randomly assembled paper, a timer kept on CBA’s servers, one attempt per voucher, an answer key never sent to the candidate’s browser, and per-domain cueing audits. The examination integrity policy sets them out, together with what they do not prevent.

   Examination integrity

8. A defective question is corrected for everybody it touched

   Where an appeal or a review establishes that an item was defective, every paper it appeared in is re-marked without it, including papers that passed and candidates who did not appeal. Every sitting is kept in full for ten years and no item is deleted, so the affected papers remain identifiable. There is no fee to appeal, and an appeal is decided by somebody who took no part in the original decision.

   Complaints and appeals

9. Credentials expire and are renewed against professional development

   A credential is valid for three years and is renewed against sixty hours of evidenced continuing professional development across the cycle, submitted as a record that is reviewed before any fee is taken.

   CPD and renewal

The documents

Fifteen published policies covering assessment, conduct, records and commercial terms, and 13 certification schemes, one per certification.