A Certified Crop Advisor (CCA) exam training was held January 12, 2024, at the Illinois Soybean Association (ISA) in Bloomington, Illinois. Despite the onset of a winter storm, 11 participants were able to attend. This event was organized by Karen Corrigan, CCA, and she was assisted by the following volunteers: Dr. Stacy Zuber, ISA (Soil and Water Management), Derek Rapp, CCA, Brandt, (Nutrient Management), Abigail Peterson, CCA, ISA, (Crop Management), and Stephanie Porter, CCA, ISA, (Integrated Pest Management). These presenters trained participants on CCA test objectives.
- If you are interested in taking the CCA exam training, test takers currently have five years to pass both exams. If you take one test and fail, you have five years from the first exam pass date to pass the second exam.
- CCA test participants can choose to assessed on individual components of the exam. If you take each performance objective separately, you have six months from passing the first objective to pass the other objectives.
- The CCA Exams are on-demand with testing windows. Take the tests at a time that works for you. Go to Exam Information for exam registration dates and available exam dates.
- International, local board, and specialty exams are offered quarterly (four times a year). You can take the international and local exams during the same testing window, or you can split them between different testing windows.
- For more information on registration, study materials, Performance Objectives, please visit the CCA Exam page.
Our former ISA Agronomy intern, Shelby Stoner, provided the following tutorial for exam registration:
- International Exam
- On IllinoisCCA.org, scroll down to the “Become a CCA” column.
- From here, click on the “ASA” button, and this will take you to the Certified Crop Advisor website.
- Click on the blue “certifications” button, and this will take you to a list of all the certifications.
- Click on the “CCA Exam Information” button, and that will lead to a list of exams.
- The blue option on the left is the link for the international exam.
- From there, you can access the international exam registration page by clicking on “International CCA Exam Registration.”
- Once you are on that page, you can either login or create an account.
- Once you are logged in, you will enter in your personal information, and then select an exam time.
- State/Local exam
- For the regional exam registration, you will go back to the Certified Crop Advisor website and get back to the “Exams” page.
- From there, you will select the middle green button “CCA Local Board Continuous Exam Registration” tab, and this will take you to the ASA website where you will login or create an account.
- After you are logged in, you will enter in your personal information.
- Lower on that page, there is an “Event Selection.” Here you will select Illinois, then register for your desired exam time.
About the Author: Stephanie Porter
As Outreach Agronomist for the Illinois Soybean Association (ISA), Stephanie supports research efforts and helps communicate both in-field and edge-of-field research and validation studies to Illinois 43,000 soybean farmers. She also helps lead the demonstration and adoption of conservation agriculture practices and raises awareness of best management and continuous improvement practices for conservation agriculture in Illinois.
Stephanie has 23 years of experience that consists of agronomy, conservation, horticulture, plant diagnostics, and education. She has her bachelor’s in crop science and master’s in plant pathology from the University of Illinois. Stephanie is a Certified Crop Advisor and was named the 2018 Illinois Certified Crop Adviser Master Soybean Advisor. She also has experience with corn and soybean pathology research, crop scouting, soil testing, as well as crop consulting. Previously, she utilized her diagnostic training and collaborated with University of Illinois departmental Extension Specialists to diagnose plant health problems and prepare written responses describing the diagnosis and management recommendations as the University of Illinois Plant Clinic.
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