A West Virginia University educator will have a significant impact on future generations of dietitians.

Betty Forbes, director of dietetic education in WVU ’s Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences, was one of nine registered dietitians from across the nation invited to write questions for the national registration exam for dietitians.

Forbes spent Nov. 11-14 in Chicago writing new questions in the areas of community nutrition and program development. Writers were trained by an ACT coordinator and also had an experienced writer as a mentor. The nine writers had a quota of 25 exam questions to write in a day and a half.

There were very strict criteria by which each question had to be written,Forbes said.It was a fascinating experience to learn how a national accreditation exam is designed.

The questions will be reviewed by another panel this spring and then entered into the data bank as experimental questions. If the questions perform well, they will be part of the pool.

Questions are always being reviewed and are removed if they perform poorly, or the questions are rewritten and updated, Forbes said.

I’m glad that I had the opportunity to participate in the process,she said.The bottom line for students is to read the textbooks and keep the books as references. The questions are not tricky. They’re designed to identify persons who are not ready to practice dietetics.