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Post by peanutfancy on Feb 2, 2017 18:51:44 GMT -5
I meant the Embassy Suites in Alexandria where the interviews were held (sorry - not sure if it is the convention center location, as I'm not very familiar with the area). Good luck!! It's the Embassy Suites in Old Town, Diagonal Road, Alexandria, Virginia. Very convenient place to stay. Every time I see Diagonal Road, it translates to Diagon Alley in my head, and I start to wonder if there's a Platform 9 and 3/4 somewhere on the Metro...I can't be the only one who goes there.
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Post by lucy on Feb 2, 2017 19:11:43 GMT -5
It's the Embassy Suites in Old Town, Diagonal Road, Alexandria, Virginia. Very convenient place to stay. Every time I see Diagonal Road, it translates to Diagon Alley in my head, and I start to wonder if there's a Platform 9 and 3/4 somewhere on the Metro...I can't be the only one who goes there. You're not.
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Post by christina on Feb 2, 2017 19:33:17 GMT -5
Over in the 2016/2017 DC Testing Stats Thread, franperirose posted that only 3 people tested on Jan. 31 and just 8 tested on Feb. 1. Judgymcjudgypants pondered whether the severe downturn in testers was the result of the hiring freeze. Were people giving up? Good question. I don't have an answer except to postulate that maybe people did not schedule testing in February because of the weather. The drop from 28 to 3 is pretty amazing. Whoa
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Post by judgymcjudgypants on Feb 2, 2017 20:20:47 GMT -5
If it were weather, the drop would have started in January. And, we did see a consistent drop from 30 to 32 testers at that time to 25 to 28 testers per day. I think this new drop is entirely due to the hiring freeze. I was quietly expecting a downward trend because of the freeze. I just didn't think it would be so dramatic. It makes sense. Why throw away $1,500.00 and use "vacation" (for out-of-towners) to test for a job that is "not hiring." So, just crafty Board members and those within driving distance keep their hat in the ring by testing. I'm no mathlete but, quick and dirty, if the trend continues then about 20% of the total group invited to DC won't test. If you use 2300 as an estimate of the total group then you can reduce it by the 460 who stay home. And the 1% who opt to leave at lunch. So now this group is within two or three hundred of original 2013 test group. This improves the odds for us newbies AND those already on the register, who won't be buried quite so deep. So, good news for The Board, all the way 'round! J
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Post by goldenretrievermom on Feb 2, 2017 21:04:37 GMT -5
Maybe they found this board and thought, "I can't compete with these people."
Good One! That made me chuckle. And especially with those people who actually read the OPM announcements that the SI would occur in Alexandria, VA. Or those who inquired out of an abundance of caution.
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Post by gary on Feb 2, 2017 21:09:00 GMT -5
Maybe they found this board and thought, "I can't compete with these people."
Good One! That made me chuckle. And especially with those people who actually read the OPM announcements that the SI would occur in Alexandria, VA. Or those who inquired out of an abundance of caution. I'll never understand you guys correcting the misapprehension of people as to the site of the SI. The more that go to the wrong site, the fewer to compete with later.
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Post by goldenretrievermom on Feb 2, 2017 21:13:12 GMT -5
Maybe they found this board and thought, "I can't compete with these people."
Good One! That made me chuckle. And especially with those people who actually read the OPM announcements that the SI would occur in Alexandria, VA. Or those who inquired out of an abundance of caution. I'll never understand you guys correcting the misapprehension of people as to the site of the SI. The more that go to the wrong site, the fewer to compete with later. It's always better to win on the merits than by default.
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Post by gary on Feb 2, 2017 21:15:10 GMT -5
I'll never understand you guys correcting the misapprehension of people as to the site of the SI. The more that go to the wrong site, the fewer to compete with later. It's always better to win on the merits than by default. True. But isn't it better to win by default than not at all?
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Post by goldenretrievermom on Feb 2, 2017 21:49:11 GMT -5
It's always better to win on the merits than by default. True. But isn't it better to win by default than not at all? Depends. Certainly true if one is playing the lottery (to which, admittedly, the journey to "The ALJ Corps" is very much akin). However, if I were a claimant, I'd want an ALJ who had more going for her than the fact that she showed up in the right place at the right time. Although it is true that paying attention to detail, careful perusing of documents, following law/instructions, and being prepared etc. are qualifications for a successful adjudicator. At the end of the day, though, you're correct. Anyone graced with the good fortune to ultimately receive The Call shouldn't care how TPTB got to them. I know I won't!
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Post by Reverend Geek on Feb 2, 2017 23:36:19 GMT -5
If I have already paid for my airline ticket, I am pretty sure I would continue to DC regardless of the hiring freeze. If anything, it's a tax-deductible vacation in our nation's capital. Just what is the difference between Jan. 30 (28 test-takers) and Jan. 31 (3 test-takers)? The hiring freeze was announced Mon. Jan. 23, one full week before Jan. 30. A week would make a difference only to frequent flyers on Allegiant and US Airways because those are the only two airlines that permit cancellations up to 7 days prior to the flight. I can't think of another reason why the drop occurred on Jan. 31. Maybe the answer lies in the facts that Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 are in the middle of the week and that we don't have data from the other Tuesdays and Wednesdays in January. I hypothesize that the numbers for Tuesday and Wednesday have been low for a month. Most people who have to travel to DC would prefer testing on a Monday or Thursday because they can take advantage of a weekend. A glimpse at our DC 2016-2017 OPM Testing poll indicates that far fewer Board members signed up for DC between Christmas and March. Assuming our low numbers reflect the general population's, then those who signed up for January or February had the opportunity to select a Monday or Thursday. In contrast, those who signed up for a fall date were more concerned with getting the preferred month than a particular day of the week. Thus, the Tuesday & Wednesday numbers were high in the fall but could have dropped significantly in January and February without us knowing. That is, until franperirose showed up last Wednesday. Or Gary hacked the system and sent out a mass email giving people the wrong testing location.
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Post by Pixie on Feb 2, 2017 23:48:13 GMT -5
If I have already paid for my airline ticket, I am pretty sure I would continue to DC regardless of the hiring freeze. If anything, it's a tax-deductible vacation in our nation's capital. Just what is the difference between Jan. 30 (28 test-takers) and Jan. 31 (3 test-takers)? The hiring freeze was announced Mon. Jan. 23, one full week before Jan. 30. A week would make a difference only to frequent flyers on Allegiant and US Airways because those are the only two airlines that permit cancellations up to 7 days prior to the flight. I can't think of another reason why the drop occurred on Jan. 31. Maybe the answer lies in the facts that Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 are in the middle of the week and that we don't have data from the other Tuesdays and Wednesdays in January. I hypothesize that the numbers for Tuesday and Wednesday have been low for a month. Most people who have to travel to DC would prefer testing on a Monday or Thursday because they can take advantage of a weekend. A glimpse at our DC 2016-2017 OPM Testing poll indicates that far fewer Board members signed up for DC between Christmas and March. Assuming our low numbers reflect the general population's, then those who signed up for January or February had the opportunity to select a Monday or Thursday. In contrast, those who signed up for a fall date were more concerned with getting the preferred month than a particular day of the week. Thus, the Tuesday & Wednesday numbers were high in the fall but could have dropped significantly in January and February without us knowing. That is, until franperirose showed up last Wednesday. Or Gary hacked the system and sent out a mass email giving people the wrong testing location. Decent analysis. We will know within the next month or so how accurate it is. [/quote]
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Post by judgymcjudgypants on Feb 3, 2017 6:15:24 GMT -5
I dunno. I took a weekend flight, added a day to play tourist, and preferred to test on a Tuesday. Also, air fare is not the only consideration. The hotel stays take the biggest chunk of change. As someone else noted, it would be cheaper to pay air fare every day than the daily hotel rates! If you live in driving distance, you can also eliminate one or two hotel stays.
Which brings us back to time will tell.
J
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Post by gary on Feb 3, 2017 8:27:48 GMT -5
If I have already paid for my airline ticket, I am pretty sure I would continue to DC regardless of the hiring freeze. If anything, it's a tax-deductible vacation in our nation's capital. Just what is the difference between Jan. 30 (28 test-takers) and Jan. 31 (3 test-takers)? The hiring freeze was announced Mon. Jan. 23, one full week before Jan. 30. A week would make a difference only to frequent flyers on Allegiant and US Airways because those are the only two airlines that permit cancellations up to 7 days prior to the flight. I can't think of another reason why the drop occurred on Jan. 31. Maybe the answer lies in the facts that Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 are in the middle of the week and that we don't have data from the other Tuesdays and Wednesdays in January. I hypothesize that the numbers for Tuesday and Wednesday have been low for a month. Most people who have to travel to DC would prefer testing on a Monday or Thursday because they can take advantage of a weekend. A glimpse at our DC 2016-2017 OPM Testing poll indicates that far fewer Board members signed up for DC between Christmas and March. Assuming our low numbers reflect the general population's, then those who signed up for January or February had the opportunity to select a Monday or Thursday. In contrast, those who signed up for a fall date were more concerned with getting the preferred month than a particular day of the week. Thus, the Tuesday & Wednesday numbers were high in the fall but could have dropped significantly in January and February without us knowing. That is, until franperirose showed up last Wednesday. Or Gary hacked the system and sent out a mass email giving people the wrong testing location. Shhhh!
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Post by bayou on Feb 4, 2017 23:03:59 GMT -5
My initial thought is that the drop in testers for the one day is not a result of the temporary hiring freeze. This time period was always viewed as a time of higher variance; as demonstrated by the drop in the number of board members testing.
We also don't know if those couple of days were outliers. It could be that those will end up being the lowest testing numbers for the entire period and just because they happen to be days that were reported in a time when we aren't receiving daily reports, their significance is magnified.
Right now, without more data points, it is just a *shrug* and who knows response.
For any board members that test in the future, don't just ask about the day before but ask them about what the average number of testers have been since Christmas. As you are signing out at the end of the day would be a prime time to do it...not in the morning when everyone is tense. You could also ask the people signing you in for the SI as you are leaving the SI.
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Post by Pixie on Feb 5, 2017 1:19:27 GMT -5
www.wmata.com/service/SafeTrack.cfm I didn't use the metro, but, for the next two months, it just got harder to use again. It's not technically impossible to get to King Street in February or March by Metro, but this is important if you are Metro-oriented. So why did it get harder to use; are they doing more work on the lines?
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Post by Pixie on Feb 5, 2017 1:53:09 GMT -5
Thanks fro tor the updated info, Focus. I knew the work would be going on for awhile, but I had forgotten about it.
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Post by Judge McJudgeypants on Feb 8, 2017 2:16:55 GMT -5
According to family legend, Ms. Loren is a distant cousin. So I've made her my avatar in hopes that I may channel her spunk into this week's testing. May I remain glamorous (or at least not grungy) through a 5 hour coast-to-coast flight tomorrow and persevere with gusto through Thursday's WD/LBMT and Friday's SI. I shall report back!
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Post by bayou on Feb 8, 2017 8:42:13 GMT -5
According to family legend, Ms. Loren is a distant cousin. So I've made her my avatar in hopes that I may channel her spunk into this week's testing. May I remain glamorous (or at least not grungy) through a 5 hour coast-to-coast flight tomorrow and persevere with gusto through Thursday's WD/LBMT and Friday's SI. I shall report back! G'luck. Focus and confidence will carry you through. Don't forget to ask about the number of testers over the last few weeks. After you test of course because that is where your focus should be.
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Post by banks on Feb 8, 2017 11:45:11 GMT -5
Hi all, I tested 2/6/17. There were 13 people in the testing. 4 were women, 9 were men. The test proctors indicated that only 2 were testing the following day. So glad that's done. Loved the State Plaza hotel! The location was awesome. The weather was phenomenal. The blue line metro is planned to be down for service starting 2/11 for 3 weeks so plan ahead. When I was there it was mostly serviced during the weekend hours. Very few testers seemed to be familiar with the forum board. Several were SS writers. Nice group of people. Thanks for the update. Did you stay at State Plaza for both nights? Was it easy to get to the SI by 8:15? Uber?
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Post by Reverend Geek on Feb 8, 2017 14:27:24 GMT -5
I dunno. I took a weekend flight, added a day to play tourist, and preferred to test on a Tuesday. Also, air fare is not the only consideration. The hotel stays take the biggest chunk of change. As someone else noted, it would be cheaper to pay air fare every day than the daily hotel rates! If you live in driving distance, you can also eliminate one or two hotel stays. Which brings us back to time will tell. J Has it been enough time to tell? Trifit just posted that 13 people took the test on Monday 2/6 and only 2 were scheduled for Tuesday 2/9. I'd like to think this means we're both right. The drop in testers seems to be a trend with no decent explanation for the drop after Jan. 30 other than the hiring freeze. At the same time, the fact that only 2 showed up on Tuesday supports the hypothesis that the Tuesday & Wednesday numbers will be low during these winter months. The best of both worlds. Lastly, I wonder what the two test-takers on Tuesday thought about their chances when they saw there was only one other contender.
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