The QPC has chosen a four-year revision cycle for the three question pools. The Element 4 (Extra Class) pool was revised first (2002), followed in subsequent years by the Element 2 (Technician) and Element 3 (General Class) pools.

In order to give the various license preparation publishers adequate time to prepare, distribute and sell their publications, the Question Pool Committee has adopted the following revision schedule. The QPC will do a thorough revision of each pool on a rotating 4 year cycle schedule.

License Class:	Examination	Dates these pools will remain valid:
Technician Class	Element 2	Valid: July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2014
General Class	Element 3	Valid: July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2015
Extra Class	Element 4	Valid: July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2016

The VEC's Question Pool Committee developed the following transition schedule from the old to the newly revised pools.

Month/Day	Action taken:
on or about December 1	New Pool released in public domain - See www.ncvec.org
on or about May 1	Publishers distribute study material for new pools. New Exam Software distributed to CVE Team Leaders
June 30	Use of previous question pool discontinued
July 1	New Question Pools MUST be used in examinations.

The W5YI-VEC designs and offers to our VE teams PC software to properly-construct written examinations based on the questions and multiple choice answers agreed on by the QPC. VEs have the option of using our tests or designing their own examinations. We prefer that our teams use our PC-compatible software which permits VE teams to easily and correctly prepare and print needed examinations, answer sheets and keys.