Course Examinations

Course Examination Policies

Individual course examinations will be provided online. Instructions about accessing the exam will be provided in your course materials. All examinations are multiple choice.

•  A passing grade is 85% in accordance with accepted graduate school grading scales. 
•  Web Seminar exams have 10 questions and participants have one hour to complete the exam.
•  Half-day courses have 15 questions and participants have 90 minutes to complete the exam.
•  One-day courses have 20 questions and participants have two hours to complete the exam.
• Two-day course have 30 questions and participants have four hours to complete the exam.

• The first exam is included with your course registration fee.
•  If failed, you may re-take the exam for free within 2 weeks.
•  If failed a second time, you may re-take the exam at a $35-member/$55 non-member retake fee.
•  If failed a third time, you must re-take the course (at a reduced rate).

Examination Options

Option 1:  Take a course and, upon verification of your attendance, you’ll receive the link to the online examination.  The test is available for one week.  Once you’ve logged in, you'll have two hours (one-day course), or four hours (two-day course) to complete the test.  You’ll receive immediate notification of your pass/fail status, as well as which questions you answered incorrectly.

Option 2:  More knowledgeable students may choose to test out of the four required Foundational Courses by purchasing the exam via SAA's Bookstore. Use the keyword "DAS" to find the test out/challenge exams. Upon payment, SAA will provide you with a link to the Foundational course examination you requested within five business days.  For each exam, there is a $35 administrative fee for members, $55 for nonmembers.  The test is available for one week, starting on the day you receive the link via email.  Once logged in, you have two hours to complete the test for face-to-face courses and one hour for web seminars.  You’ll receive immediate notification of your pass/fail status, as well as which questions you answered incorrectly. Please be sure to print the page with your exam results for your records. SAA will record your results internally, but won't send out an email confirmation of your results.

Option 3:  Purchase an online on demand webinar site license to watch the webinar (you'll have access to this link for two months) and SAA will provide you with a link to the course examination within one month of your purchase date.  The link is available to you until the day your site license expires.  Once logged in, you have one hour to complete the test.  You’ll receive immediate notification of your pass/fail status, as well as which questions you answered incorrectly. Please be sure to print the page with your exam results for your records. SAA will record your results internally, but won't send out an email confirmation of your results.

If you invite other participants to watch the webinar with you, we ask that you verify their attendance by emailing education@archivists.org.  The email must include the name of the webinar, when you purchased it, as well as the full name and email address of these participants.  SAA will then send the individuals instruction for purchasing ($35/members; $55/nonmembers) the specific DAS exam.  Once you've ordered the exam, you'll receive the exam link within five business days of purchase.

Comprehensive Examination

The comprehensive examination is a standard test consisting of multiple choice questions that cover the seven Core Competencies of the DAS Curriculum.   Each DAS course addresses and tests at least two of these competencies, and any combination of the required number of  Foundational, Tactical and Strategic, Tools and Services, and Transformational courses will provide the  knowledge tested in the comprehensive examination.

The comprehensive examination will be administered at various sites across the country on a schedule that will be available in August 2012.