Presbyteries’ Cooperative Committee on Examinations
Bible Exegesis Examination – August 2010
The canonical books from which the periscopes will be taken for the August 2010 Open Book Exegesis Examination are:
Old Testament Amos
New Testament Luke
The particular periscopes from the above referenced books will be announced August 28, 2010 by the proctors at the conclusion of the Church Polity examination and NOT before noon on that date.
New Exam Structure
Open Book Bible Exegesis examination has new structure effective August 2010
The Presbyteries’ Cooperative Committee on Examinations for Candidates (PCCEC) is a permanent committee of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The committee is responsible for:
- composing the five standard examinations for ordination, administering the exams
- organizing and working with reading groups to grade exams,
- recording the scores,
- distributing the scores to the student’s proctor for exams, seminary, and presbytery.
All of the above is done on behalf of the presbyteries. (See Book of Order, G-14.0430 — 14.0432)
Examination prep tools launched
The Office of Preparation for Ministry/Exams is launching a series of online training opportunities for CPMs, inquirers and candidates. Among the first of these “web-ucation” modules to be released is a series designed to help inquirers and candidates to prepare for the standard ordination examinations.
The series begins with “Cycles of Discernment.” The process leading to ordination to the ministry of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church can sometimes seem a bewildering and endless sequence of disconnected tasks. This workshop will give you insight into essential rhythms of discernment and preparation that not only bring order to this process but underlie the life of ministry itself.
“Tips for Writing the Ords” presents a step-by-step method for analyzing the kinds of questions that appear in the senior ordination examinations in the areas of Theological Competence, Worship and Sacraments, Church Polity and Bible Exegesis. This method follows the same system used by the PCCEC to train the readers who evaluate the exams. The module includes opportunities to try out the method using interactive reviews of questions from recent ordination exams in all subject areas.
“Practicing the Tips” provides access to just the practice exercises from the “Tips for Writing the Ords.” It is designed for those who would like either to review the exercises or to complete the practice sections on specific exam subject areas that may have been bypassed the first time one used the “Tips” web-ucation module. If you have completed the training portion of “Tips for Writing the Ords,” then revisit the practice sections.
“Understanding the Structure of the Ords” (coming in May 2010) is a companion piece to “Tips for Writing the Ords.” This web-ucation module provides a brief overview of the organization and all the types of questions that appear in each subject area of the senior ords. It is designed so that you can either review all four subject areas, or navigate to specific subject areas that are of particular interest to you.
Plans are underway for a similar training module dealing with the Bible Content Examination.
Self-Study report for PCCEC
Report of the Presbyteries’ Cooperative Committee on Examinations for Candidates, to the 218th General Assembly (2008)