CEDS certification candidate: exam an 'eye-opening' experience
The morning of December 16 was frigid in Kalamazoo, Mich., where attorney Lisa Prowse made a final check of everything she might need before walking out the door. She had her driver’s license, state bar card - even a Sam’s Club card – all in preparation for the personal identification requirements for admittance to a certification exam that will help her career.
Although one does not have to be a lawyer or a Sam’s member to take the exam, the ACEDS-Kryterion High-stakes Online Secured Testing (HOST) testing locations have strict measures in place to confirm the test taker’s identity and ensure there is no fraud.
Having studied for several weeks, Prowse was eager to sit for the inaugural exam to become a Certified E-Discovery Specialist (CEDS) as part of the charter class of 2010.
After driving for an hour in single-digit temperatures, Prowse arrived at the Grand Rapids, Mich., campus of Davenport University, where she would spend the next four hours answering 220 questions on 14 major topic areas related to e-discovery.
Prowse is director of document review and strategic legal services at the southwest Michigan corporate office and central processing center of Business Intelligence Associates Inc. (BIA), a major data solution and litigation support corporation. Ordinarily, she would be in her office advising clients on such matters as the risks of assigning employees to handle self-collection of digital information, or overseeing her team as they tag documents to be scanned for electronic review.
Instead, on this day, she walked into the bustling library, which houses the testing center, and presented her forms of identification to the proctors. They even asked for the Sam’s card.
"It was extremely busy. A lot of people were taking tests, but I had a quiet cubicle. It was nice and warm in the test center. They even had disposable ear plugs, which was great," she said.
Prowse said that she took the CEDS exam because specialized e-discovery supervision is a key part of her work with clients and document review teams.
"We are a technology company, we do forensic collections," she said. "I’m the director of document review, and prior to that, I was a senior adviser for e-discovery. I want to stay in that role. Having certification behind your name lends credibility."
In addition to her work at BIA, Prowse maintains a private law practice, Prowse Law PLC, in Kalamazoo. She an extensive background in organizing digital information—more than 16 years designing and managing databases—and more than six years in e-discovery.
"Up until now, it’s basically been the case that you can call yourself an expert in e-discovery with no measure. Everyone calls themselves an expert, but this kind of changes things" she said.
On the morning of the exam, she sat in a personal cubicle with a desktop computer and keyboard. After following a few additional security procedures at the workstation, she logged on and started the exam.
"I was prepared, but the exam was harder than I thought. The questions were much more precise...detailed. It wasn’t as broad on topics as I expected."
With 220 questions to answer in four hours, Prowse calculated that she had one minute per question. But that wasn’t what intimidated her most during the exam.
"Just reading through each question takes 30-45 seconds. If you had more time to read, it’s not as daunting. It’s the fact that the timer at the top of the screen is counting down the time in front of you!"
Being director of document review at BIA, where she routinely relies on speed and accuracy in reading and analyzing data, may have helped Prowse get through the CEDS exam just a little bit faster.
"I had 15 minutes left to answer 25 questions. I ended up going through those quickly, with 18 seconds left on the clock,” she said. “It was an enjoyable experience, and it was eye-opening. It was scenario-based, just like the multistate bar exam."
Prowse, along with the other candidates, will learn the results of the exam in early 2011.
