Certificate of Merit

[Matthew Turner]

Michele,
One of the good things about the CoM website is that you can have a practice. Try it yourself, what score do you get? Some of the questions are quite tricky, so I would suggest that a student would want to be a 'good beginner' before taking the test, otherwise they could be paying quite a few £6's.
If you look at the chesskids.com website the lessons are split into 9 courses, each of which it suggests might take 10 weeks to cover. Level 1 of the Certificate of Merit roughly covers the first three or four of these.

[Matthew Turner]

John,
I had a go at the practise test today, just to see if the questions had changed. I felt I had got the same question twice - Is this possible? in order to check I tried to go back, but this stopped it working. Had I paid £6 would I lose this if I pressed the back arrow?

[Ian Thompson]

John,
I had a go at the practise test today, just to see if the questions had changed. I felt I had got the same question twice - Is this possible? in order to check I tried to go back, but this stopped it working. Had I paid £6 would I lose this if I pressed the back arrow?

It definitely was possible for this to happen because it happened to me. Apparently the problem was that the same question was in the database twice, so it was a data problem rather than a software problem. The position I got twice asked whether castling was possible -queenside castling was and kingside castling wasn't.

You could check whether you got the same position twice or not by looking in your Internet Explorer temporary files folder - all the diagrams are saved in there. Even if you did get the same position twice, the associated question may have been different. I also got the same position twice, but one question asked how many squares a white rook controlled and the other asked how many a black rook controlled.

[John Upham]

John,
I had a go at the practise test today, just to see if the questions had changed. I felt I had got the same question twice - Is this possible? in order to check I tried to go back, but this stopped it working. Had I paid £6 would I lose this if I pressed the back arrow?

We are adding another large batch of Q&As over the next few days.

More than one author is creating them.

The Q&As are being added to the DB by the ECF CfS administrator who has the required MySQL skills and is also learning quickly how to play chess.

I am acting as back stop on all of the Q&As. There is no question of loosing a credit for practise test since they are free.

I will audit your Q&As and see if there were any repeats. Each Q asked is time stamped as is each answer given.

Thanks for the feedback as always.

[Matthew Turner]

John,
Thanks for the response, but I am not sure that it quite addresses the issue. When I pressed the back arrow I was unable to continue the test. I have now logged back on and when I go to practise test it starts me back at question 1. Obviously, I should not have pressed the back arrow, but it is easy to do in all innocence. Had this been a real test would I have lost my £6?
If want to audit my answers it is in the name of Michael Tanner and I think I have given you details of this account in the past.

[Matthew Turner]

John has failed to address my last question, but he has obviously been busy with the CoM level 2. This announcement has appeared on the ECF website

"The English Chess Federation is pleased to announce the launch of the new Certificate of Merit Level 2 proudly sponsored by LV=

If Level 2 is here, can level 3 be far behind? The tests for Level 1 have now been available for a few weeks. As we expected the tests are gathering momentum as more people learn about the project, take the course and sit the test. The test is multiple choice where the candidate has to choose one of five possibilities. Such tests are notoriously much more difficult to prepare than essay-type questions. The main designers of the questions are: Ken Coates, Andrew Martin (architect of the whole COM), Stewart Reuben (director now responsible for the scheme) and John Upham (programmer of the software for the scheme). Kirstie Lapworth of the ECF Office is providing valuable insights as a person new to chess – after all the system is designed for such people.
Having a number of people involved means that there are differing takes on how questions should be structured. Many have been designed specifically for this course. You will find some are so recent that positions have been taken from the Anand – Topalov World Championship Match. Other sources of inspiration are chess columns in newspapers, particularly the Daily Telegraph, London Evening Standard and the Times. All three are excellent for honing your tactical skills. Yet all the questions are aimed at beginners being able to find the right answer.
So do go to www.certificateofmerit.org.uk for further information"

It seems to emphasise how difficult it is to set the tests. I am sure this is true, but it seems strange to stress this in the launch statement. Possibly getting your excuses in pre-emptively?

[John Upham]

but he has obviously been busy with the CoM level 2.

It seems to emphasise how difficult it is to set the tests. I am sure this is true, but it seems strange to stress this in the launch statement. Possibly getting your excuses in pre-emptively?

Agree with your first point and your second : launch statements are authored by the DoM rather than myself.

[Carl Hibbard]

Agree with your first point and your second : launch statements are authored by the DoM rather than myself.

DoM, marketing? do we have one?

[Alex Holowczak]

Agree with your first point and your second : launch statements are authored by the DoM rather than myself.

DoM, marketing? do we have one?

Director of Marketing is Stewart Reuben.

[John Upham]

With Level Two now on stream we have a Q&A pool of :

51 Practise
66 Level One
115 Level Two
104 Level Three (currently being double checked)
55 General Knowledge

I'd like to thank the various authors for creating the Q&As and for Kirstie for extracting them from ChessBase and uploading into the MySQL database.

This part of the project has been no mean feat!

The scalability of CoM allows for any number of Q&As to be added / revised / removed as time goes by as does the number of levels.

This is a living, breathing solution that I hope will grow and grow.

If you would like to contribute Q&As then please pm me.

The author of each Q&A is recorded in the DB and will be in future displayed as the Q is asked. I hope that this is a nice touch rather like sponsoring a roundabout!

[Adam Raoof]

Thanks John - this is a great idea. In case the readers of this Forum are inspired to submit their own selection of test positions to us can you post a (simple) explanation of how to extract the positions from ChessBase for use in the CoM? What kind of output do you need?

[John Upham]

Thanks John - this is a great idea. In case the readers of this Forum are inspired to submit their own selection of test positions to us can you post a (simple) explanation of how to extract the positions from ChessBase for use in the CoM? What kind of output do you need?

Thanks Adam.

I would prefer the author to send a ChessBase archive (.cbv type file) to me at [email protected]

Each question requires one correct answer and four incorrect ones.

There is one major prerequisite : The author must have studied the CoM DVD and the Level one, two or three booklets. It is crucial that we retain the integrity of the CoM syllabus!

As I've stated previously, the CoM platform can be used to deliver accreditation for other chess related areas such as coaching, arbiting, organising, league administration or anything that you might wish to accredit and raise the standard of. I realise volunteers do not wish to be accredited so I merely make a dangerous suggestion.

[Matthew Turner]

Just noticed this on the CoM website.

Question : When will I receive my Certificate of Merit?
Answer : Assuming you have passed the test then you should receive your Certificate in a few days. It will be electronically posted to you from the ECF Office via email.

Question : Where will my CoM certificate be sent?
Answer : If you are a student of a school or organisation then it will be sent to the CoM coordinator for your school or organisation.

Obviously this significantly reduces costs, but in my opinion it makes the scheme much less attractive and also makes it less differentiated from other chess tests.

[John Upham]

Just noticed this on the CoM website.

Question : When will I receive my Certificate of Merit?
Answer : Assuming you have passed the test then you should receive your Certificate in a few days. It will be electronically posted to you from the ECF Office via email.

Question : Where will my CoM certificate be sent?
Answer : If you are a student of a school or organisation then it will be sent to the CoM coordinator for your school or organisation.

Obviously this significantly reduces costs, but in my opinion it makes the scheme much less attractive and also makes it less differentiated from other chess tests.

I altered the FAQ when I was informed that the Office is no longer posting certs by snail mail. However, badges will still be posted.

It is my intention to allow the self-printing of certs which will be auto generated at the time of passing the test. They will be created server side and then emailed to the student instantly.

Of course, the Office version was printed on proper cert paper and laminated.

It was not my decision.

[John Upham]

There has been an ECF Office handover today of CoM adminstration from Kirstie Lapworth to Andrew Walker.

Any emails to [email protected] will be handled by Andrew.