Below are the general policies regarding testing at the STARFLEET Marine Corps Academy. Most of the information below has been taken from the “2006 SFMC Tracom Policies and Procedures Manual.”

General
To request a course from the SFMCA, go to the TRACOM website at sfmca.sfi-sfmc.org and click on “Student” in the menu, then select “Course Request” to request the desired course. If a Marine does not have access to a computer with Internet access, they can request the courses directly from the School/Branch Director at their snail mail address. A hard copy of the Manual for that course can also be requested from the Director and the Student will be required to pay the cost of printing/copying and mailing the Manual to the Marine as requested.

In order to take a course, you must complete the prerequisites for that course prior to submitting the course request. PD-10 (Marine Basic Training) is required before the Marine can request any other course from the SFMCA. A Marine will have ten (10) weeks to complete the course and return it as instructed for grading. Failure to meet this ten (10) week deadline will require the student to re-request the course and begin the process anew. Each Marine may request only one (1) test from each of the various Branches/Academies/Schools within TRACOM at any one time, and the practice of requesting/taking more than one test at a time, regardless of Branch, is strongly discouraged by TRACOM. The reasoning behind this is that a Marine may not be able to devote the proper time and effort required by each course to pass it in a timely fashion and with a strong score due to unforeseen problems; for instance, the test may be more difficult than originally thought by the Marine and would require his full attention.

Test Grading
When a Marine returns tests, the appropriate staff member scores them. The grading scale is:
100%+     Distinction
96%-99%     Honors
70%-95%     Passing
0%-69%     Fail

The pertinent Branch Director, except in cases where the exam has been proctored by another TRACOM staff member, in the case of all –10/-20 level courses, will grade tests for their particular Branch. The only person(s) authorized to score a particular –10/-20 level courses is the Branch Director for that Branch or a person who is proctoring the course as explained below. COTRACOM and DCOTRACOM are authorized to score the exams of any Branch if the Branch Director is going to be away for extended periods or has other difficulties that prevent them from fulfilling their role in this manner.

The –30 level tests will be graded by the pertinent Branch Director if they have also passed their Branches –30 course. If the Branch Director has not passed their particular -30 level courses, the topic will be approved (and the paper will be scored) by COTRACOM or DCOTRACOM, depending upon availability.

A Marine who does not pass a course will be permitted to retake the course, but must wait a minimum of six (6) months before requesting a retake of the course.

Every effort is made by TRACOM staff to get the test out to the requesting Marine within one week of the request. In this same vein, every effort is made to get the scores to the Marine within one week of their submission and the Ecerts to them within one week of the scores being sent out. However, please remember that all TRACOM staff members are volunteers and may have other problems or commitments in their personal lives that prevent them from meeting this goal. Please allow a maximum of 4 weeks for turnaround time at each phase of testing from the SFMCA. If you have not received your test/score/Ecert within four (4) weeks of submission, please contact COTRACOM or DCOTRACOM for assistance in resolving the problem.

Test Proctoring
It is possible for SFMC units (MSG, BN, BDE) to hold “testing days” and administer a test from the SFMCA to groups of Marines at the same time. To do this, the organizer (OIC or other coordinator) must contact a member of the TRACOM staff who has passed the test to be administered and arrange for them to attend the event in person. The organizer will need to provide the names of the marines to take the course and the dates those Marines met the requirements to be able to sit for the exam. This is a particularly good tool for BDE/BN musters or for MSG’s that are just getting started and large numbers of Marines need to take a test and get the results back quicker than normal.

Only TRACOM staff that has passed the course in question can proctor the test. However, there are enough TRACOM staff members, in various locations around the U.S., that it should not be a real problem finding one in your area. If you do not know if a particular TRACOM staff member has passed the test, you can submit an email to the COTRACOM or DCOTRACOM to determine the location of the nearest staff member authorized to proctor the course. The staff member will be authorized to administer and grade the test so the Marines in attendance will know that day if they have passed the course. This information will then be forwarded to TRACOM’s Data Warfare section for the creation of Ecerts for those Marines passing the course.