Year 92, Day 60
Dad didn't make it to Emeritus. He's going to be in Tenured Examiner until he can get back to Senior and make another attempt, but I think he really hoped to make this one. I can't even imagine how intensely difficult ρ5 Senior Examiner exams are.
I couldn't even hit that 85% success rate in Examinee 3 exams. Instead I went 26 and 8 so far in my χ3 days. Still good enough to move on, but I think about Georgia. She's barely hanging in there, rigth on the percentage line, as far as making it to Examinee 4.
I encourage her whenever I can, and we work together studying once a week.
They haven't added a new third roommate yet.
Year 92, Day 135
Made Examinee 4! Unfortunately, Georgia is back in Examinee 2. This is a pattern with people around me. ;(
New System Command: Case
New Exam Component: Work Product
>>Help Work Product
Beginning in Examinee 4 and for the rest of your work life you will have cases and ongoing work efforts which form part of your exam results.
Each case is worth one or more Exam-equivalent, subpar results will be counted as a fail.
As an Examinee 4 you will be working in parallel with Examiner Interns on the same cases. Their efforts combined with occasional senior reviews will suffice to grade your own work.
Do not attempt to contact you parallel Examiner. Grade standards will be reduced to what is appropriate for your rank.
This is real work effort, please take it seriously.
>> Help Case
The Case command will show you assigned cases, completion status and any evaluation or notices.
Please read the case description carefully.
>> Case
id: mag734_15109 due: in 7 days 1 ex credit
>> Case mag734_15109
Harvest records for Year 91, Wheat harvest field, by row.
Determine inter-data coherency, signs of artificial modification or theft of harvest product.
Included:
Pack 1 median : sd : distributional assessment of regional harvest results
Pack 2 historical harvests from field in past years.
Pack 3 certified statement of Agricultural Supervisor Technician (anonymized)
Pack 4 Y91 harvest results
Pack 5 Aerial Surveillance (large data)
Provide appropriately formatted analysis,
>> Case Pack 3
(Assume mag734_15109)
Attestation: (anonymized signature Ag. Sup. Technician (Q-4 Archmage rank))
I reviewed the electronic and mechanical logs of the tractors involved in the harvest for {location anonymized}. Nonwithstanding malfeasance, these logs are consistent with the amounts loaded on trains to designated processing facilities.
1,247,XXX lbs grain
391,XXX lbs farm waste separated and removed.
All operators followed appropriate safety protocols and no violations in Agricultural protocol were identified.
>> Case Pack 4
(Assume mag734_15109)
Lot Rows are A, B, C, D, ... on this anonymized grid
Lot Columns are 3200, 3201, 3202, ... on this anonymized grid.
(Results are beyond CLI display limits)
>> Manifest VR InfoData {{ Case mag734_15109 Pack 4 }}
Loading VR representation
Inquiring on Featureset
Wait 34 seconds
Amanda stood up, letting the VR representation enclose her, and the CLI screen receded into the innerworkings of the Computing system.
The VR display showed collection amounts, up harvested grain and farm waste (Weeds, dirt, et cetera) for each map square on the grid. The data was wildly variable. Some grid squares were lifeless, barely providing any yield, while others were incredibly abundant.
She was familiar with many Exam problems with data sets like this, and plenty of VR practice gave her an understanding of how to work with information in VR.
"Computer, give me a virtual command interface.
[VR CLI READY]
>> Calculate {Median, St. Dev, Regression with X&Y coordinates.}
A regression line was drawn for the X axis which pointed North. Higher harvests were found further North. but looking, she found, more specifically that a region in the North was home to on average larger harvests.
It was by no means a perfect distance function type of result, there was a circular region of best growing.
The worst growing was in the four corners.
"Water," she realized. The water sprayers sprayed out a circular area but the fields were square. But why would the best are a being slightly off center, north of the center. Was the sprinkling actually placed north of the center of her map.
>> Lookup Field Data
Command is impossible due to anonymized presentation.
How could she find the right solution if they didn't give her some of the data. It was very difficult to prove the absence of corruption, easier to prove it's presence.
Beyond Analytical Auditing there was Psychological Auditing. Get inside the head of the possible perpetrator.
Modifying harvest data could happen because someone was sending part of the harvest elsewhere. Or it could happen because the harvest was too small and they fudged it.
The latter case required working together with the manufacturing technician who received the product. The former case merely required some place to put the product that was stolen. If you were going to steal product, you needed to down sample the existing square by square harvest data to equal your new fudged total.
An automatic approach might yield certain irregularities based on rounding. A manual approach would show flaws on investigation.
Alternatively, this was a clean operation and it was being checked as a matter of course.
Someone involved in an illegitimate operation would not want to be moved to another location, they would not want to be ranked up.
Stepping back from her Exam based thinking, this was a real situation, anonymized, but still real. Dad always said 99% of audits return nothing, and the 1% with something are 90% small itty bitty things like a person using petty cash a little out of normal bounds.
She had 7 days to do this. It was take time load Agricultural Auditing and Modern Auditing Standards onto her phone and review them for information of note.
Then she would go through all of the packs carefully and write up her report. She should leave herself two and a half days for the report.
Year 92, Day 144
Because of the real case work, she only had an exam every five days instead of every 3. The real cases filled in the rest of her exam points.
She had to hit 55 - 36 now, her target pass percentage was at 60% and would continue to climb, and now will real cases there was new difficulty in her work. The exams weren't getting any easier, either.
Year 92, Day 147
I found a very small violation in my first auditing case. Hopefully the Intern and his superiors catch it and agree with me. The data's regional distribution was a red herring, except for one grid square which showed no data. It could have been a data fault, but reviewing the survillance I found peculiarities in the same area. There was something growing there before, but after it had been harvested no record was made.
Year 92, Day 177
I had an error on my third case. It was in my writeup, I was write but I didn't investigate an appropriate part of the situation so I got 2 fails for that one. 10 - 2 so far. Learning lesson.
Year 92, Day 237
I haven't made any more mistakes on my cases, at least none marked by my counterparts. I did fail one exam. 29 and 3 is pretty good though.
Year 92, Day 327
It's been a lonelier year without Georgia to talk with. Sadly, Sue struggled with burnout and she has to make a has to make a heroic effort to make it on to Examinee 5. It's weird to not see Sue ahead of me on the unofficial progress charts. On I go to Examinee 5 though.
Examinee 5 Notes
Your case load is increased, and instead of only being assigned the simple cases that Intern get, you will be paralleling a Junior Examiner. A P-3 Examiner or P-4 Tenured Examiner will be reviewing your work alongside the Junior Examiner's work. Regular exams will be taken every 7 days, and we will assign 3 cases at a time which are all due in 15 days.
Examinee 5s are entitled to attend two Examiner social functions per year. We recommend that you use this time to become familiar with the broader Examiner social scene, and grow comfortable with interaction with your senior Examinees and Examiners.
Year 92, Day 360
The end of the year is relatively light for auditing. It's actually the beginning of the year, and especially the first 3 months which are busiest. Coming through the end of the year, she followed her parrallel in doing some broad analysis of auditing trends and statistics. Actually 0.86% of audits bring up problems. Dad was close but it might have got better since then.
She sent him a note. He wasn't coming up to the capital, but he had written to her telling her it was a good idea to socialize and get to know more people at these events. Without her dad, she felt more exposed, it was only her own record who people could react to and she was still just an Examinee 5.
Before dinner, they had Full Examiners and higher meeting in one area, Intern and Junior Examiners in another and the Examinees 5, 6, and 7 in a third area.
Theirs was a quiet bunch. They had all been locked in study, away from their group houses for long enough to feel lonely, but not experienced with going up to people anymore.
One of the men in Examinee 6 introduced himself, "Second generation?" he asked.
"Third. But my dad and me are it. My grandpa was the one who rose up from Technician."
"My mom made it. It's frustrating that Mom had to move out with me. I was just a few months from starting first form when she moved up. I'm James," he said.
"I don't know my mom. Dad's never said anything, I don't ask, I guess," she said. "I didn't realize they would split a family because of stratum. That's weird."
"Unless there was some major behavioral incident, I can't see any way someone with child credits gets moved down a stratum," he said.
"Unpleasant. Well anyway, Dad works in a Monastery town, working on Agricultural and Mining auditing in the community. So I don't see him as often as I wish I could."
"Don't they say that auditing's the easiest division?" he said, blockheadedly.
"I don't know. It's still challenging for me," she said. "My Dad is struggling, trying to get out of the cycle between Tenured and Senior Examiner and make Emeritus."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be offensive. OF course it's hard, we're examiners, easiest or hardest division notwithstanding. I'm in Science myself."
Beside James, who seemed blunt she met a few other Examinees, but overall wasn't having a great time. She hadn't received any word about what happened next.
They were seated at many tables for dinner. She had managed to sit with Sue's family, and was watching as they announced some rewards. She had considered the fact that there were thousands of Examinee 5s, she never thought about receiving any awards, since her exam marks were not the very top perfection.
She didn't even pay much attention as the other divisions' Rising Stars.
"In the auditing division, 3rd star Amanda Mercer, daughter of Tenured Examiner Sam Mercer. She's rising to Examinee 5 in just over two years, and done so quietly in the background. We have been watching."
Sue's family applauded, while she sat their shocked. She assumed she was middle of the group, since the exams and cases all challenged her.
"Most people have a setback on the way to becoming an Examiner, Amanda," Sue said. "Mom told me how my grandpa was stuck between Examinee 7 and Intern for a few years!"
"You were always my target, my goal was keeping you in sight," she said to Sue.
"Now you're my bullseye, you better run hard and fast!" she grinned.
"Congratulations, Amanda," said the Moderno patriarch, Sue's grandpa.
She needed new targets. The #1 star in Auditing was an Intern, the #2 star was an Examinee 7: Jason Wertham.
>> Bookmark Jason Wertham
jewertham bookmarked: χ7 Examinee 7
Year 93, Day 90
She started her new year on a bad path, failing multiple exams and messing up a few of the cases, so that it took a run at the end of the 90 days to pull her record back to 20 and 10.
Year 93, Day 180
She pulled herself together in the next 90, going 25-5 to total 45-15 for her Examinee 5 days.
James made a point of saying high at the Summer social. She had been lonely, despite texting Dad and Sue frequently. He wasn't bad for a blockhead. He was appropriate the penultimate Examinee rank, and she was approaching Examinee 6 herself.
Year 93, Day 237
She turned 20 a few days before she completed her Examinee 5 program with an overall of 60 - 19.
As expected she would now be paralleling a full Examiner under the supervision of a Senior Examiner.
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