Mutual-fund marketer loses job by failing Series 7 exam...

[Nords]

... but then:
"In January 2006, 11 months after being told she'd failed, NASD announced that it had mistakenly flunked 1,882 of the 60,500 Series 7 test takers from October 2004 to December 2005. Cutler was among the wrongly failed.
The error cost Cutler her job, months of salary and her employer's retirement plan contributions. 'Plus my reputation,' Cutler says. She's suing NASD and the company that scored the exam, Plano, Texas-based Electronic Data Systems Corp., in federal court in Washington. 'I lost it all because of that scoring error."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=&sid=as63frdoTkuo

 

[Meadbh]

This is SO unfair! And Cutler is not alone. A physician I know who took the ECFMG exam (http://www.ecfmg.org/annuals/2002/examhist.html) had the same experience due to the computer's failure to register half of the answers. He could not start his training program till he had retaken and passed the test at his own expense.

"If you're in the business to provide test results for people, there should be a level of accuracy,'' Cutler says.

She is correct. Where is the accountability?

Meadbh

 

[Alex]

Why even have a test? When states issue licenses to contractors, doctors etc., they are issuing an implied endorsement of the license holder. Consumers are leasd to believe that the license holder is qualified when in reality they are not. They merely passed a test! This leads to laziness by consumers and greater incidences of fraud. IMHO, It is downright unamerican!

 

[soupcxan]

IMHO, It is downright unamerican!

Mr. President, is that you?

 

[FinanceDude]

Why even have a test? When states issue licenses to contractors, doctors etc., they are issuing an implied endorsement of the license holder. Consumers are leasd to believe that the license holder is qualified when in reality they are not. They merely passed a test! This leads to laziness by consumers and greater incidences of fraud. IMHO, It is downright unamerican!

So, a lawyer that passes a state bar exam is unqualified, as is a doctor that takes their boards? Unsure what you mean............

 

[Craig]

Well, if Alex is being serious, I agree government should butt out of licensing. It is usually set up by industry hacks that want to create artificial barriers to entry.

Now, private groups that want to certify members as having some level of competency, that would be fine.


Regarding the point of the thread, a dam* shame, and she should have success in her legal action. NASD and EDS should compensate her for her true losses, and feel the pain enough to be strongly encouraged to right the wrong, and fix their systems.

 

[Alex]

So, a lawyer that passes a state bar exam is unqualified, as is a doctor that takes their boards? Unsure what you mean............

Here is what I mean - I would rather take a guy with no licence (or board exam) and 10 years of 'real world' experience than a young puppy who just passed the bar or boards. Get it? Just because a lawyer passes the bar exam doesn't make him a good lawyer. Experience is what I look for. A state licence is an implied endorsement by the Licensing agency or body. That is dangerous for consumers who assume that just because a person possesses a 'state license' they are qualified.

 

[Texas Proud]

Here is what I mean - I would rather take a guy with no licence (or board exam) and 10 years of 'real world' experience than a young puppy who just passed the bar or boards. Get it? Just because a lawyer passes the bar exam doesn't make him a good lawyer. Experience is what I look for. A state licence is an implied endorsement by the Licensing agency or body. That is dangerous for consumers who assume that just because a person possesses a 'state license' they are qualified.

But you have the opposite problem... assuming that someone that has been doing it for 10 years WAS DOING IT RIGHT!!! If he has NO training what makes you think he was even competent at any time during those 10 years And don't get me started with the people who have a license and STILL don't know what is going on AFTER 10 years...

The license is just 'the minimum'... if you are to stupid to even get that you should not be in the profession....

 

[Alex]

You check his references, and that was my point. The license doesn't mean squat. License laws do nothing but limit competition. They hurt the very people they are intended to protect.