My third petition got rejected "as it stands". This means I have one chance to expand on the entire thing and hopefully prove that I deserve not to take the class. It is frustrating though, not only for their comments but also what they are looking for.

The entire prior learning assessment process to allow people who have a lot of experience to bypass trivial classes. In this case, it is a project management class which I thought made sense because I've been doing PM for quite a while now. They reviewer also noticed that:

Learner showed substantial experience in the area of project planning, but want to also see what knowledge that he has in this process of project management. In so many words, explain how he would foresee project planning for a particular venture according to PMBOK.

So, basically, I have the experience, but could I prove that I know the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)? PMBOK is one methodology for doing project management, there are others and not everyone uses a formal system for managing. I know the school uses PMBOK in their classes, but neither the petition questions nor the class description actually refer to PMBOK even once (which is all you get when preparing for the petition). If it did, then I would have gladly written in terms of the PMBOK.

And the last part of their response is the frustrating part. As I read it, they want a textbook answer as part of my proof of prior experience?

I can also see their point of view. They want to prove that everyone who has credit for the class actually knows PMBOK. I just wish it actually said "Project Management Body of Knowledge" instead of say... CMM and CMMI (which I know both), Phaser and Lazer (Pearson's and Lucent's project management systems, which I know both), or the hodge-podge that I figured out through "trial by fire". "Project Management" includes a lot of things beyond PMBOK and what I feel comes with my "substantial experience".

I'm not too worried, though. Every reviewer is different, just as every instructor is different. I've gone through nine petitions so far with this school without ever needing this specific level of textbook knowledge, but I have the book and I understand it. I'll just come up with something and hopefully that will give them the proof that I know PMBOK as well as I would coming out of the class.

Obviously, this is my priority this week since I only have 10 days to complete it. I'm also shifting the priorities on the DG edit since I have a commission due and I really should never have two writing projects on my priority list at the same time (commission and DG are both writing projects).