APICS Certification Administration in France
MGCM is licensed by APICS to administer the APICS Certifications in France and to provide you with the best service. So the exam procedures have been customized and will slightly differ from the standard APICS procedures as described on its site and on the International Registration Booklet. Please read carefully these procedures in order to make the best out of your exams.
A – Registering for BASICS, CPIM or CSCP Paper & Pencil exams Administrative and test center fees are included in the registration fee charged to all international candidates registering for exams. The fees, which cover costs incurred by APICS Certification Administrators, must be paid to MGCM prior to the registration. The APICS Certification Administrator has the right to withhold the registration confirmation or the exam results from any candidate whose registration fees are not paid in full. Hereafter, you will get the current locations, dates of exam administrations and registration deadlines. Please note that the exam dates are fixed by APICS 6 to 18 months in advance and cannot be changed. For additional information contact MGCM who will provide you with information on registration fees, accepted forms of payment, and general procedures. Photocopy and complete the registration order form provided by MGCM. You must have an APICS ID Number to register. If you do not have an APICS ID Number, contact MGCM at least two weeks before the registration deadline to obtain one. It is important that you use the same ID number to register for each exam throughout the certification process. The use of a single ID number allows APICS and ASI to accurately merge your testing information into your APICS records. Forward your completed registration form and registration payment directly to MGCM.
B – Nice to know before the exams 1 – Location of the Test centers The Paris Test Center will be open for all these dates. Le RIVA CIG Petite Couronne is located 157 avenue jean Lolive 93698 PANTIN, métro: Eglise de Pantin Please note that the Test Center may be changed. You are strongly advised to check the address of the test center of each session on our website http://www.mgcm.com/tel_plans.htm. The Annecy test center is only open when the number of registrations is sufficient. To access these Test Centers, please refer to the maps and driving directions at the end of this booklet. Other test centers may be open at certain dates. Contact MGCM or further information. 2 – Exams daily schedule Morning exams (8h30-12h00 except CSCP: Exam from 8h30 to 13h00) CPIM BASICS
DSP
EMF
Green Belt
Afternoon exams (13h30 – 17h00) MPR
CPIM ECO
SMR
CSCP CSCP
C – After you have registered 1 – Registration Confirmation Notice Please note that this information is different from the one given by APICS. After your registration has been processed, MGCM will receive your registration confirmation one to two weeks before the scheduled exam date. After checking that all registrations have been processed for the right test center and that the addresses are correctly labeled, MGCM will send your registration confirmation. If your registration has not been taken into account, MGCM will contact APICS to solve the problem and get you registered. If this cannot be done, MGCM will contact you directly to look for alternatives. Please note that due to postal delays you may not receive your confirmation on time. But, since your registration has been checked by MGCM, you must sit for the exam. Each confirmation lists the candidate's name, address, and APICS ID number; the test location; exam(s) to be taken; reporting time; and other important information. Candidates should verify that the information on the confirmation is correct. If any information is not correct, candidates should contact MGCM. 2 – Registration Cancellations and Changes To change your selection of the exam you want to take, send a written request to MGCM no later than 35 days before the scheduled exam date or no later than the deadline for the next registration, whichever comes first. To reschedule your registration to the next available paper-and-pencil administration in France (if the registration deadline for the next administration has not already passed), send a written request to MGCM no later than 35 days before the scheduled exam date. You may reschedule an exam registration for the next available administration only once during the year. To cancel your registration, send a written request to the Certification Administrator no later than 2 weeks before the scheduled exam date. Candidates will be charged a €50 cancellation fees. 3 – Medical or other Emergencies on your test day Only the following documented excuses are acceptable reasons for missing your scheduled exam: - a serious illness (either yourself or an immediate family member) - a death in the immediate family - a disabling traffic accident - a court appearance or jury duty - unexpected military duty If you miss an exam for one of the reasons listed above send a written explanation to MGCM within 10 days following your exam date. One of the following original documents should accompany your written explanation: - a letter from a physician or other professional on letterhead (which includes the title, address, and telephone number of the professional) giving the reason for your absence, - the appropriate death notice, - documentation from the court or military. If the emergency explanation and documentation are approved by APICS, you may choose to receive a refund of your registration fees (minus the administrative costs) or to reschedule your exam for the next available paperand-pencil administration in the same country.
D – The day of the exam 1 – What you must bring to the exam Identification: Before you take an exam, you must present two forms of identification bearing your name and signature; one of these must include a recent photograph. Examples of acceptable photo identification include a driver's license with a photograph, a valid passport, a nation identification card, and a company identification card with a photograph. For candidates without one of these, a notarized passport photograph will be accepted Acceptable secondary identification which must bear the candidate's signature, include a credit card, debit card, check cashing card, or APICS membership card. If you do not have the required identification, contact the Certification Administrator for further information. If you do not have the required identification the day of the
exam, you will be denied access to the examination. You will be considered absent or failing to appear for the exam and you will forfeit the full exam fee. Three or four No.2 (or HB) pencils with erasers, 2 – What you may bring to the exam A simple, non programmable calculator. You may bring a standard English-foreign language dictionary. The Test Center Manager will inspect the dictionary before you are admitted to the testing room. 3 – What not to bring to the exam The APICS Dictionary in any language may not be brought into the exam room. You may not bring books or papers of any kind into the exam room. Scratch paper is provided at the test center. Protractors, compasses, rulers, stencils, digital assistants, and other aids are not permitted. You may not eat, drink, or use tobacco during an exam. 4 – APICS Code of Ethics When you fill the exam identification form, you are asked to pledge to abide by the APICS Code of Ethics. Once certified, you will pledge to continue your education to increase your contribution to the P&IM profession. After achieving the higher level of certification (CFPIM), you will pledge also to share your knowledge with others by participating in APICS research and educational activities at local, regional, and national levels. • To maintain and improve sound business practices and foster high standards of professional conduct. • To hold in professional confidence any information gained of the business of a fellow member's company, and to refrain from using such information in an unethical manner. • To seek success without taking unfair advantage or utilizing questionable acts that would compromise one's self-respect. • To neither engage in nor sanction any exploitation of one's membership, company, or profession. • To encourage and cooperate in the interchange of knowledge and techniques for the mutual benefit of the profession. • To be careful with one's criticisms and liberal with one's praise; to build and not to destroy. • Whenever a doubt arises as to the right or ethics of one's position or action, to resolve such doubt according to generally accepted standards of truth, fair dealing, and good taste. • To maintain high personal standards of moral responsibility, character, and business integrity. • To uphold the high ideals of the society as outlined in the by laws.
E – Taking the exam 1 – Exam Formats The CPIM exams are administered using a linear testing approach. The Basics of Supply Chain Management exam consists of 105 multiple-choice questions (80 operational and 25 pre-test). The other four CPIM exams consist of 75 multiple-choice questions (60 operational and 15 pre-test). You will mark your responses for these paper-and-pencil exams on answer sheets, which are separate from the exam booklet. The CSCP exams are administered using a linear testing approach. The exams consist of 175 multiple-choice questions to be answered in 4 hours. You will mark your responses for these paper-and-pencil exams on answer sheets, which are separate from the exam booklet. 2 – Time limits Candidates have three hours to complete each CPIM exam and four hours for the CSCP exam. Candidates who finish early may leave whenever they are ready. 3 – Breaks No breaks are scheduled during any CPIM or CSCP exam. A candidate who needs to leave the room during an exam must notify a test center manager before doing so. Session timing will not stop during a break.
4 – Problems with exam booklets or questions If the exam booklet is not the one requested, or if it is incomplete (page missing), a candidate must raise his hand immediately in order to get a new one. But if a question seems to be incorrectly formulated, a candidate may not call for a supervisor. He has to fill out a special form to inform APICS of any anomalies. If the claim is valid, the candidate will automatically get one point for the corresponding question. 5 – Misconduct The test center manager is authorized to dismiss you from a test session for • creating a disturbance, • giving or receiving help, • using notes, books, wristwatch calculators, digital assistants, or other aids, • attempting to remove scratch paper from the testing room, • attempting to remove test questions (in any format) from the testing room, • failing to follow the test center manager's directions. If you engage in any of the above forms of misconduct, your exam will not be scored and your fees will not be refunded. Furthermore, acts of misconduct will be brought to the attention of the APICS Curricula and Certification Council and the APICS Ethics Committee and may result in cancellation of your prior exam scores, revocation of your certification, discontinuance of your membership. In addition, because the entire question data bank, each form of exam, and all exam materials are copyrighted and are the legal property of APICS, legal action will be taken against anyone who violates the copyright laws by distributing examination content or materials through any form of reproduction. Oral or written communication of examination information is strictly prohibited and punishable by law.
F – After taking the exam 1 – Exam score information After receiving the BASICS, CPIM or CSCP exam results (approximately 8 to 10 weeks after the exam date) MGCM will check and dispatch them in the following days. If you have not received your results after 11 weeks, contact MGCM. Score reports indicate the CPIM or CIRM exam(s) taken and the results: "pass" or "fail". Candidates also will receive information on area(s) of weakness. As part of ACT's quality assurance policy, ACT manually rescores paper-and-pencil exams for candidates who score below 25 percent of the total number of operational items. It is also ACT's general policy to randomly rescore exams for candidates who score just below the pass/fail cut-off point. These measures are in place as additional quality assurance steps to ensure that the scoring process is working accurately. Exam results and all personal information collected are confidential. Sensitive information will not be disclosed to parties other than APICS, ACT, and without your written consent. The APICS Certification Administrator is responsible for the security of candidate information. CPIM SCORE RANGE
CSCP SCORE RANGE
Fail
260-299
260-299
Pass
300-330
300-340
Comments
There is no longer a difference between a PASS and FPASS (pass with distinction)
2 – CPIM qualifications Candidates must pass all five CPIM exams and receive a total scaled score of 300 or higher on each exam to earn the CPIM designation. CPIM Reconfiguration Note: An exam taken from the former CPIM program will continue to count toward certification. Please see the CPIM Reconfiguration Transition Mapping information on apics.org for more details. 3 – CFPIM qualifications The distinguishing characteristic of a Certified Fellow in Production and Inventory Management is the willingness to share acquired knowledge with others through presenting, teaching, publishing, and participating in APICS educational activities. This knowledge sharing must be performed above and beyond a candidate's normal job duties. To obtain the CFPIM distinction, an application form must be completed and submitted to APICS headquarters. Points are awarded based on the following criteria: CPIM exams, presentations, published works, classroom teaching, and various volunteer/practitioner activities. To receive a CFPIM application and detailed instructions, contact MGCM. 4 – BASICS, CPIM, and CFPIM Certificates A candidate who passes the Basics of Supply Chain Management exam will receive a Recognition of Achievement certificate approximately six weeks after receiving a passing score on the exam. A candidate who attains CPIM status will receive a personalized certificate approximately six weeks after receiving a passing score on the fifth exam. A CFPIM candidate will receive a personalized certificate approximately eight weeks after receipt and approval of the CFPIM application. 5 – CPIM and CFPIM Certification Maintenance To promote professional growth and lifelong learning, CPIM and CFPIM designees must complete the Certification Maintenance program every five years. Complete details on how to maintain the CPIM and CFPIM designations will be mailed to candidates upon successful completion of the certification requirements. Questions regarding the Certification Maintenance program should be e-mailed to
[email protected] or can be directed to CPIM de France.
Understanding a Scaled Score What is a scale? A scale is an arbitrarily established set of numbers used for measurement according to a rate or standard. Let’s look at a familiar example. We all know we measure temperature with a thermometer. If the thermometer indicates 38 degrees, we do not have sufficient information to interpret the reading. Our immediate question is whether the thermometer is set in Celsius, Fahrenheit, or another scale. By learning that the thermometer is Celsius, we know the scale between water freezing and water boiling is 0-100. Had the thermometer been set for Fahrenheit, we know the 32 to 212 scale was used. In testing, such as for the CPIM and CSCP programs, a scale is a way to report test performance. Why use a scale? As a score-reporting technique, a scale provides a standard range for test takers and permits direct comparisons of results from one administration of the examination to another. (An administration is the combination of the specific test and date it was taken.). Scores on different tests that use the same scale may also be compared. Such comparisons would be difficult to make using raw scores (number correct), because the tests may have different numbers of questions and the number of correct answers required to pass may be different. First, a single scale is used to provide candidates with a convenient, single referent for all the modules in the program. The minimum passing score on a CPIM or a BASICS or a CSCP examination is 300 on the scale of 265 to 330 for CPIM and 340 for CSCP. The minimum raw score, the value associated with correct responses, required to pass the APICS “X” test is not necessarily the same as the minimum raw score required for the APICS “Y” test, because some tests are more difficult than others. However, passing on each of these two tests is reported as the same number. It is very important to note that the content and the difficulty of each of these modules are independent of each other. For example, while the most difficult question on the APICS “X” test may require several levels of thought and multiple calculations, the most difficult question on the APICS “Y” test may only require a simple calculation. Second, it is important to report scores in such a way that candidates can compare their level of success from one administration of the examination to another. Candidates want to know how they performed the second time relative to the first. If they fail the first time, they want to know by how much. If they fail a second time, they need to be encouraged by at least seeing an improvement in their scores. A reporting scale that remains constant across test forms enables candidates to make these comparisons. Remember, some administrations, due to the random nature of test question selection, are slightly more or less difficult than others. The scale adjusts for the difference in difficulty to provide the same standard score for the same level of performance. What is the effect of having different forms of the same test? Each time a test is given different questions in different combinations are presented. The body of knowledge being tested is larger than the individual set of questions. When a test is developed, it is a sampling of that body of knowledge. It is not possible to ask each candidate all the potential questions about the topic. Instead, a stratified sample is drawn from a large pool of possible questions to create each test form. Within each area of specified area of content and difficulty level, every question in the pool has an equal chance of being included in a new test form. This helps to ensure that the exam is fair to all candidates. Regardless of which form they take, all candidates have an equal chance to show what they know. Because each test session is made up of different combinations of questions, the test a candidate takes the first time is different from the test he or she takes the next time. Although significant care is taken to make each form perfectly parallel in content and difficulty, there may be variations from one form to the next. How are differences between test forms handled? The careful selection of questions ensures different forms sample the same content areas. Candidates are protected from the possible effects of differences in form difficulty by a statistical process called equating. Equating procedures measure the difficulty of each form and adjust the passing score as needed so the same level of candidate performance is reflected in the passing score regardless of the difficulty of the form. Imagine two forms of a test with 133 total raw score points for each form. Form 1 has a raw passing score of 96. A candidate has a raw score of 95, which is below the necessary score to pass. That same candidate later takes form 2 and again receives a raw score of 95. Because form 2 is slightly more difficult than form 1, the required passing score on form 2 is 94. This time, the candidate passes, even though the raw score is the same. The candidate has actually performed better on the second exam. More knowledge is required to answer 95 questions
correctly on a hard form than on an easier one. Because equating procedures were used to determine the passing score, the candidate was not penalized for being given the slightly harder form the second time. On the APICS tests, the statistical work has been completed before the tests are given. Operational tests are developed using previously “tried” questions, that is, questions that have been taken by previous APICS test takers. By using equating procedures, an equivalent passing standard for each form is maintained. Candidates who happen to take the slightly more difficult form are not penalized. Likewise, candidates who take the slightly easier form are not given an advantage over those who have had the slightly more difficult form. How is the scaled score for CPIM/CSCP created? The following graph illustrates how the scaled score is defined. The minimum raw score required to pass is determined through a cut-score study or through equating. This score is then set equal to the passing standard on the reporting scale. For CPIM and CSCP, the reporting scale goes from 265 to 330 or 340, and the passing standard is 300. Next, the highest and lowest possible raw scores are set equal to the top (330 or 340) and bottom (265) of the reporting scale. All other raw scores are mathematically transformed to fit the graph formed by these points. Therefore, a score of 297 may not mean that the candidate is three questions away from passing the examination. The point on the bottom of each graph represents the required passing standard for the program on the raw score scale. These values were established by the APICS Curricula and Certification Council through the cut-score process. This cut-score process is a close examination of a test in light of the defined minimal qualifications. The CPIM and CSCP Examination Content Manuals explain what the definition of minimal qualifications is for each module. Each question in the base-test form is evaluated by a panel of subject matter experts who have been trained to apply the definition of these qualifications appropriately. No fixed percentage of successful candidates is desired nor is there a fixed percentage of correct answers that influences the standard. Each cut-score study participant estimates the difficulty of each question. The estimates are averaged and summed to determine the raw cut score, which becomes the standard. As new test forms are created, equating procedures adjust the raw cut score as needed to account for any differences in form difficulty. How should a scale be used? The purpose of a scale is to aid the interpretation of results. How close or how far away from the standard did the candidate perform? How did the candidate perform this time compared to the time before? Did the candidate pass APICS “X” test with flying colors but just barely pass the APICS “Y” test? To answer such questions, you need to know the passing score and the top and the bottom points of the reporting scale. CPIM and CSCP are a scale of 265 to 330 or 340 with 300 as the minimum passing score. How should the scale be interpreted to avoid relating the scale to other types of scales? Let’s return to the example of temperature taking. When the temperature of 38 degrees is stated, it is simply referred to as degrees. People do not talk about 38 degrees as being 38 percent of the Celsius scale even though the Celsius scale and percentage share the same 0-100. Worse yet, it is extremely inappropriate to talk about 38 degrees Fahrenheit as being a calculated 18 percent of a possible temperature. Instead, CPIM candidates should understand that if they obtain a scaled score of 300 on a CPIM examination, they pass. If they score 270, they did poorly. If they score 290, they still need to study. They should focus on the material presented in the references listed in the CPIM Exam Content Manual and in the score interpretive information provided with the score report.
