A&H

Laws of the Game Test 6-5

Libano Ref

New Member
Anyone have any idea what to expect before taking the LOTG 6-5 test?

It's set to be completed online but not too sure of the type of questions asked.

Cheers
 
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Without risking stating the obvious, it will be multi-choice questions about any of the laws. The 6 to 5 one is supposed to be more difficult than 7 to 6, but if you know all of the laws you will be fine.
 
And, by the way, if you can commit just 30 minutes a day to reading the LotG, you can read from cover to cover every week or two. Imagine that. You'd have it easily memorized if you read the LotG 26 times a year. Hey, let's give you Christmas week off and have you read it 25 times a year. Still very good.

To answer your question, though, I can't speak for the UK, but I can say that in Canada, we have made a move away from standard, multiple choice tests and gone to video analysis questions. It's still multiple choice, but the test taker is presented a video clip of an incident, and given four choices of decision. It is up to him or her to select the most correct response.


Edit: I've just done the math and, assuming you read at the average adult speed (which is 238 words per minute), and you opted to read for 30 minutes per day Monday-Friday, you would read the entire Laws of the Game from Law 1 to the end in a week. That's 52 potential readings of each new variation. Imagine how much easier it would be to remember the law changes when you've memorized the exact wording of each law. Amazing! Just 30 minutes every weekday.
 
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And, by the way, if you can commit just 30 minutes a day to reading the LotG, you can read from cover to cover every week or two. Imagine that. You'd have it easily memorized if you read the LotG 26 times a year. Hey, let's give you Christmas week off and have you read it 25 times a year. Still very good.

To answer your question, though, I can't speak for the UK, but I can say that in Canada, we have made a move away from standard, multiple choice tests and gone to video analysis questions. It's still multiple choice, but the test taker is presented a video clip of an incident, and given four choices of decision. It is up to him or her to select the most correct response.


Edit: I've just done the math and, assuming you read at the average adult speed (which is 238 words per minute), and you opted to read for 30 minutes per day Monday-Friday, you would read the entire Laws of the Game from Law 1 to the end in a week. That's 52 potential readings of each new variation. Imagine how much easier it would be to remember the law changes when you've memorized the exact wording of each law. Amazing! Just 30 minutes every weekday.
I've read the LotG once to be honest, but obviously gone back to specific points throughout my career whenever I felt the need to. Video Analysis questions sound a lot more interesting and challenging, but perhaps that's a smart way to take things. I think every new ref needs to go through the Q&A section on the IFAB App, extremely helpful to do 10-20 questions on a daily.

The test ended up being multiple-choice and having only 15 questions with 20 minutes to complete. I was done within 12 minutes and thankfully managed a 15/15.
 
And, by the way, if you can commit just 30 minutes a day to reading the LotG, you can read from cover to cover every week or two. Imagine that. You'd have it easily memorized if you read the LotG 26 times a year. Hey, let's give you Christmas week off and have you read it 25 times a year. Still very good.

To answer your question, though, I can't speak for the UK, but I can say that in Canada, we have made a move away from standard, multiple choice tests and gone to video analysis questions. It's still multiple choice, but the test taker is presented a video clip of an incident, and given four choices of decision. It is up to him or her to select the most correct response.


Edit: I've just done the math and, assuming you read at the average adult speed (which is 238 words per minute), and you opted to read for 30 minutes per day Monday-Friday, you would read the entire Laws of the Game from Law 1 to the end in a week. That's 52 potential readings of each new variation. Imagine how much easier it would be to remember the law changes when you've memorized the exact wording of each law. Amazing! Just 30 minutes every weekday.

Sorry but no!
 
I've read the LotG once to be honest, but obviously gone back to specific points throughout my career whenever I felt the need to. Video Analysis questions sound a lot more interesting and challenging, but perhaps that's a smart way to take things. I think every new ref needs to go through the Q&A section on the IFAB App, extremely helpful to do 10-20 questions on a daily.

The test ended up being multiple-choice and having only 15 questions with 20 minutes to complete. I was done within 12 minutes and thankfully managed a 15/15.
Congratulations. Video analysis questions are more difficult, since multiple answers can be technically correct. What it tests is not so much your Laws of the Game knowledge, but whether you think the way that the association wants you to think about incidents.
Sorry but no!
Ummm... ok? Nobody is making you, but it would be undeniably helpful.
 
Ummm... ok? Nobody is making you, but it would be undeniably helpful.
'Undeniably helpful' yes, and perhaps as an L3 it's worth doing, but I think at less illustrious heights spending 3.5 hours a week continuously rereading the same book might get a few raised eyebrows and perhaps the suggestion of an intervention of some sort!
 
'Undeniably helpful' yes, and perhaps as an L3 it's worth doing, but I think at less illustrious heights spending 3.5 hours a week continuously rereading the same book might get a few raised eyebrows and perhaps the suggestion of an intervention of some sort!
RyantheRef is not in England, so the reference to Level 3 is not fully valid; for those in grassroots football, a regular quiz on tbe LOTG is a good regime to keep you switched on and up to date.
Make sure you use current quiz sources, as some on the Internet are years out of date, and only use quizzes relevant to your country.
In my area we have quizzes at all observer meetings, referee development meetings, etc., and always interesting😅
 
My views on this have been made clear many times over the years, there should be a mandatory LoTG exam for all referees at least once a year. So easy to do now with the online exam software.

Some referees just don't keep up with law changes and are woefully out of date. This came up in a Facebook refereeing group I'm a member of, where an EPL referee was getting pilloried for not coming back to caution someone after he played an advantage. I'm talking 90% of the posters not knowing about the law change, even when they were given a screenshot of the relevent law change they still argued. One person said his excuse was his CFA haven't run any courses because of Covid, so why should he be expected to know about law changes. As referees we are paid to provide a service, not knowing the laws is no different to a builder not keeping up to date with building regs, it just isn't good enough.
 
The problem is, what do you do with those that fail? I haven't seen a weekend of full coverage in years and I don't even do youth football, so even if only 10% fail the test, suspending them would have a huge impact on coverage at grassroots.

If recruitment and retention are improved then bringing in online exams could well be step 2 in the process, but I can't see it happening any time soon.
 
The problem is, what do you do with those that fail? I haven't seen a weekend of full coverage in years and I don't even do youth football, so even if only 10% fail the test, suspending them would have a huge impact on coverage at grassroots.

If recruitment and retention are improved then bringing in online exams could well be step 2 in the process, but I can't see it happening any time soon.
They can keep retaking, I'm not saying they are booted out of refereeing for failing. But the fact you can be paid to referee games having not passed an exam in 40 years is, frankly, ludicrous.
 
They can keep retaking, I'm not saying they are booted out of refereeing for failing. But the fact you can be paid to referee games having not passed an exam in 40 years is, frankly, ludicrous.
It's obviously far from ideal. But they are a) neutral and b) have at least a passing familiarity with the LOTG. I think you can definitely make a case that this is still better than forcing a whistle into the hands of one team's subs or coaches - who also, to be clear, are very unlikely to have ever opened a copy of the LOTG!

Also, why retake if they're not barred from refereeing in the mean time? I supposed you could limit them to claiming a reduced 3/4 fee when unqualified or something like that, to try and gently incentivise passing the test without going to an outright ban. But fees are generally self-reported, certainly when it comes to mileage, so that will be difficult to police. And still might have the effect of some people deciding they don't want to do it any more, which still just punishes grassroots football.
 
WRT Ref retention... doesn't even need to be a LOTG test. We have to do the Safeguarding online course to recertify, so why not be subjected to a periodic LOTG course which quickly summarises the amendments to Law. Who knows, even some of these guidelines Regional Confederations teach in private could be disseminated to the masses... or are County Refs not worthy or ready for such privileged teachings!? 😏
 
Eh, I don't think that's a totally fair comparison. If someone fails a safeguarding test, I don't want them in football and will happily have no one doing that job instead.

If a referee has previously qualified and now fails a LOTG test, they still remain a more useful and more qualified person than someone who has never done a LOTG test and doesn't want to be doing that job.
 
Eh, I don't think that's a totally fair comparison. If someone fails a safeguarding test, I don't want them in football and will happily have no one doing that job instead.

I agree it's not the same thing but the principle that a regular updates to learning can be delivered easily and cheaply is one that could be applied to the LOTG too. It doesn't have to be a test.

The number of referees on my U9 son's games who are still doing contested dropped balls ...
 
I agree it's not the same thing but the principle that a regular updates to learning can be delivered easily and cheaply is one that could be applied to the LOTG too. It doesn't have to be a test.

The number of referees on my U9 son's games who are still doing contested dropped balls ...
Oh yeah, I'm not disputing the logistics are plausible. I'm just concerned about what would happen with those that failed/refused to do it and what impact that would have on the % of covered matches, which is already too low.
 
Eh, I don't think that's a totally fair comparison. If someone fails a safeguarding test, I don't want them in football and will happily have no one doing that job instead.

If a referee has previously qualified and now fails a LOTG test, they still remain a more useful and more qualified person than someone who has never done a LOTG test and doesn't want to be doing that job.
Didn't need Safeguarding until recently to Ref OA (was it a year or two ago?)
It wouldn't be difficult to put a few slides together and mandate all Refs to look through them. I suspect you're in the mindset to pick a spat regardless, so I'll leave it at that
 
Didn't need Safeguarding until recently to Ref OA (was it a year or two ago?)
It wouldn't be difficult to put a few slides together and mandate all Refs to look through them. I suspect you're in the mindset to pick a spat regardless, so I'll leave it at that
That's an unnecessary comment to throw in - this is a forum, it's designed for discussion, people will disagree and I don't think anything has even come close to the line in here? If your intent is to throw out opinions without any capacity for response, I think you're in the wrong place.

There's a difference between people who exist in an unregulated world where safeguarding isn't required, and people who are then asked to do safeguarding and proceed to either fail or refuse to do it. The latter category is concerning and the entire point of safeguarding is that football is probably better without them even without anyone else to take their place. I don't think that's the case with referees and updates to LOTG.

Again, I have no issue with the logistics of asking people to do a refresher - be that in person or online, in the form of a test or just a presentation. That's not the problem, of course it would be technically possible. The problem is, what do you do with the people that refuse (or fail if there is a test element)? Unlike with safeguarding, football would be worse off if they left - someone would have to step into their shoes, and that person is likely to be not neutral and even less versed in the LOTG than an outdated ref.
 
Getting a little bit bored of the pair of you now bickering and de railing threads. It stops now, I’m being lenient this time but won’t be in the future.
 
In reality an unqualified ref could be paid to ref a game, they just aren't appointed to by the appointments officer so I am siding with Graeme here in that mandating the lotg test and refusing appointments until complete is not the way forward.

I do also agree that any referee worth his salt should be keeping up to date with law, but they are a lesser evil than coach of Team A reffing the game.
 
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