Ariz. Admin. Code § R13-5-302 - Examinations

A. Examination plan. Human Resources shall develop an examination plan for each selection process. The business manager shall review and approve each examination plan. An applicant for the examination shall be notified of the examination plan. Once an examination begins, changes will not be made to the plan. If an examination plan needs to be altered, Human Resources shall terminate the current examination and initiate a new examination.

B. Examination guidelines. Human Resources shall obtain or develop a valid examination for each classification, and establish a weight and minimum qualifying requirement for each phase of the exam. The business manager shall review and approve each examination before the examination is administered. A competitor shall achieve the minimum requirements on each phase of an examination before progressing to the next phase. A competitor shall achieve a passing score on each phase before qualifying for a classification.

C. Notifying an applicant. Human Resources shall notify a qualified applicant of the following information:

1. The date, time, and location of each examination;

2. The number of phases included in the examination;

3. Other pre-employment requirements; and

4. How to request special accommodations for persons with a disability.

D. Type and content of examination. Human Resources shall ensure that each examination is valid, non-discriminatory, and fairly and accurately measures an applicant's ability to perform the functions and duties listed in the classification specifications.

E. Conducting an examination.

1. Human Resources, or a person designated by Human Resources, shall administer the examination.

2. The business manager shall oversee all elements of, but not actively participate in, the examination process to ensure that each component is administered, scored, evaluated, and interpreted fairly and accurately.

3. Human Resources shall permanently disqualify an applicant from taking any employment or promotional examination if it has been established that the applicant is guilty of copying, collusion, unauthorized access, or other acts of dishonesty relating to an official examination.

F. Scoring an examination. Human Resources shall oversee the scoring of the examination.

1. Human Resources may use a rater for a qualifications appraisal board from within or outside of an agency to score an examination. Human Resources shall select an examination rater who is qualified to appraise the education, experience, and personal qualifications of a competitor.

2. Human Resources shall provide a rater with scoring guidelines and exam answer keys to ensure consistency of scoring, evaluation, and interpretation of test results. All phases of an examination shall have predetermined and clearly defined scoring criteria.

3. If a majority of the raters on a qualifications appraisal board give the competitor a passing score, the competitor shall receive a minimum rating of "pass" even if the competitor's average score is below the passing level. If a majority of the raters on a qualifications appraisal board gives the competitor a score below the passing level, the competitor shall be disqualified, even if the competitor's average score is above the passing level.

4. Human Resources shall apply standardized scoring to a multi-phased examination when the number of competitors is five or more.

G. Validating an examination result. If Human Resources finds that an examination is incorrectly scored or that a portion of an examination is defective, Human Resources shall:

1. Correct all scoring errors, or

2. Eliminate the defective portion of an examination and revise the score of each competitor.

H. Examination results notification. Human Resources shall mail notification of examination results to each competitor.

I. Review of examinations. Any employee who has tested for promotion may request an examination review under R13-5-305(G).

J. Retaining test scores. Human Resources shall retain all examination materials and test scores under a records retention and disposition schedule approved by the Department of Library, Archives, and Public Records.

Notes

Ariz. Admin. Code § R13-5-302

New Section adopted by final rulemaking at 6 A.A.R. 2090, effective May 10, 2000 (Supp. 00-2). Amended by final rulemaking at 7 A.A.R. 5373, effective November 6, 2001 (Supp. 01-4). Amended by final rulemaking at 9 A.A.R. 1619, effective July 5, 2003 (Supp. 03-2). Amended by final rulemaking at 12 A.A.R. 1756, effective July 2, 2006 (Supp. 06-2).