Subject Matter Experts (SME) and practitioners in collaboration with NICET staff completed the Job Task Review (JTR) in December 2022. The NICET BoG approved the JTR Report in April. Level IV item (question) review in was completed in March 2023. Standard (score) setting is underway. Levels III item review is underway. Levels II and I item review is scheduled to begin in July and October respectively.
The new exam content will be based on the 2022 edition of NFPA 72 and several other updated references. The updated exams are expected be available in early 2024. NICET will seek accreditation to the ISO/IEC 17024 standard following the release of the new exams. Most, if not all, of the process will be virtual.
We began the same process for Water-Based Systems Layout (WBSL) in September.
The primary standards for FAS and WBSL (NFPA 72 and NFPA 13 respectively) are on the same 3-year revision cycle with the latest edition being 2022. NICET’s exams for these programs are based on the 2016 edition. To meet industry expectation, NICET will update these exams directly to the 2022 editions skipping the update to the 2019 editions that was originally scheduled to begin in 2020.
NICET completed the JTR for Water-Based Systems Layout (WBSL) in December and the validation survey is complete. Next is item writing, item edits, item review, item approval, test assembly, a passing score study, standard setting, and publishing in sequence. Work on Level I began in April. Level II is scheduled for July, Level III in October, and Level IV in January 2024.
In addition, the test development schedule includes: