Public Relations

NWACC Testing Center gives 10,000th exam this fiscal year

            BENTONVILLE (Monday, June 23, 2008) – Relocating and expanding the testing center at NorthWest Arkansas Community College was a good move, says Testing Center Coordinator Shannon Siebler.

            Timely, too, she adds, since the center on Tuesday, June 17, gave its 10,000th test this fiscal year.

            “Oh, my gosh, I don’t know how we could have accommodated the students in our old location,” Siebler said. “We opened this center just in time.”

            She expects when the current fiscal year ends on June 30 that almost 10,500 students will have used testing services at NWACC. A year ago, center staff conducted 9,479 tests.

            Jackson Smith, a student, walked into the Testing Center on the third floor of the Student Center to the sound of party horns. He was there to take a calculus test for Pamela Duck’s class, thus becoming the 10,000th student to test this year.

            Smith (pictured right) was presented by Siebler, Director Career Center Lynda Lloyd and Career Advisor Eric Vest with an NWACC shoulder bag, ceramic mug, travel coffee mug and other various prizes.

            “We handed Jackson his prizes and he said, “I thought I would get a free 100,’” Lloyd said. “I said, ‘Jackson, it doesn’t work that way, son.’”

            Siebler said 60 percent of tests given at the center are classroom make-up exams and distance learning, such as was Smith’s test.

            Another 30 percent are COMPASS placement tests and proctored exams.

            A year ago, center staff conducted most of the tests at their former location at Burns Hall. Siebler and Janie Todd staff the center that opened in spring 2007 and are backed up by Student Adviser Nilly Al-Banna.

            About 95 percent of the 10,000 students walked through the Testing Center doors. Some students take COMPASS tests at their high schools, some test at the Washington County Center in Springdale and some at the Regional Technology Center in Fayetteville.

            The center has 25 computer stations to test, 20 paper and pencil stations and eight stations for students needing special accommodations. The former location had 12 computer stations, eight pencil-and-paper stations and three accommodation stations.

            “We could not have done this in our old facility,” Siebler said.

            Note: Lecia Pelphrey won a prize, a shoulder bag with gifts, for guessing closest to the time and date when the 10,000th student would arrive in testing.

For questions/comments on this content, please contact Jim Hall.

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