Every draft is a version. Every earlier one stays.
The reason applicants stop improving a competency example is fear of making it worse. CBA Pro removes that: every preliminary draft and every editing round becomes its own version, and every earlier round stays readable, and restorable, with its own comments and placeholders.
- Comments and placeholders are versioned with the draft they describe
- Track changes shows insertions green and deletions struck red
- Authorship is recorded: “Drafted by AI” or “Edited by you”
Reviewer comments (3) · v6
Track changes: onI helped with led the recalculation of the horizontal curve for the segment.
- v7Edited by you0 comments · 0 placeholders
- v6Edited by you3 comments · 1 placeholders
- v5Drafted by AI6 comments · 4 placeholders
Every draft is a version, and every earlier one stays.
Versioning that keeps the context, not just the text
Storing old copies of a document is easy and mostly useless. What you actually need, when you come back to a competency two weeks later, is to know why you changed it: which comment prompted the rewrite, which placeholder you were filling, what the score said at the time.
CBA Pro versions all of that together. The reviewer rail is labelled with the version it belongs to, such as 'Reviewer comments (6) · v7', and expanding an earlier version shows that round's comments and placeholders as they stood. The self-assessment score history is stamped with the draft version it scored, so 'what did it say before I rewrote the Action?' is a question with an answer.
Authorship is stated in the version list (Drafted by AI, or Edited by you) and deliberately not shown as a badge beside the draft you are currently rewriting, where it would read as a verdict on your own words.
How versions accumulate
- 1
Each new draft creates a version
The preliminary draft and any redraft each land as their own version, labelled 'Drafted by AI' so you can tell them from your own edits.
- 2
Your edits are a version
Your own edits are saved as a version attributed to you, one per editing round, and autosave keeps it current. Pending editor text is saved before any AI action runs, so nothing typed is lost to a badly timed click.
- 3
Comments are filed against their version
A review belongs to the draft it read. Later rounds do not overwrite earlier comment sets.
- 4
Track changes when you want the diff
Off until you turn it on. Then each changed section shows insertions in green and deletions struck through in red, compared with the reviewed draft.
Why this changes how you work
You will try the bigger rewrite
Restructuring an example is the change most likely to lift a grade, and the one applicants avoid because the current version is 'fine'. It is a lot easier to attempt when the current version is permanently safe.
You can answer 'what changed?'
Score history plus versioned comments means you can see what a rewrite actually bought you, rather than guessing.
Authorship without judgment
Knowing which round was AI-drafted and which was yours is useful in the version list. Stamping it on the draft you are editing would just be a running commentary on your writing.
No lost work, structurally
Earlier versions are never changed, and restoring one adds a new version rather than deleting anything. A regeneration never replaces your edits, because they are saved first.
Rewriting a competency example that came back with comments
If a regulator returns assessor comments, the instinct is to patch the sentence that was criticised. That is usually the wrong move: comments tend to name a symptom, and the cause is often the choice of example or the balance between Situation, Action and Outcome.
The better fix is usually to rebuild the example from the experience: choose the project that really carries the competency, answer its questions again with the assessor's comments in mind, and let the draft restructure around the decision you personally made. If you wrote it in CBA Pro, versions make that safe: if the rebuild grades worse, the earlier version is still there, and if it grades better, you have evidence rather than a hunch. For help decoding the comments on a competency you wrote elsewhere, CertNova's rejection support service is the right fit.
The same habit pays off before you submit: write two or three genuinely different versions of your three weakest competencies, and keep the one that grades best.
What applicants say
Farbod Asadi, a civil engineering graduate finishing his P.Eng application, describes writing his CBA competencies with CBA Pro after a colleague referred him to CertNova.
40+ CBAs reviewed since June 2025. No rejection reported back to us.(CertNova's human review service, not CBA Pro)How it's counted
“It made it a lot easier compared to how my wife did it, because I know how hard it could be.”
From CertNova's Google reviews
I had a great experience using CertNova throughout my P.Eng application process. Their software made the competency-based assessment much easier to navigate and helped me organize and present my engineering experience in a clear and structured way. What really stood out, though, was the support from Reza and Hossein. They were knowledgeable, responsive, and genuinely invested in helping me through the process. Their guidance helped me better understand what was expected and gave me much more confidence in preparing my submission. I would highly recommend CertNova to anyone going through the P.Eng licensing process in Canada. The combination of a well-designed platform and excellent personal support made a complicated process feel much more manageable.
CBA Pro helped me organize my experience against each competency, keep track of what I'd covered, and tighten my writing so it focused on my own role and decisions. It saved me a lot of time and stress compared to working from scattered notes of experiences. I'd recommend it to anyone going through the CBA process.
Reviews are quoted as written on CertNova's Google profile. Nobody can promise approval; your regulator decides.
Next in CBA Pro
A reviewer marks up your draft
Word-style comments anchored to your exact words, each with a rewrite you can accept in one click, handed to you one job at a time.
Learn moreSee what is still thin before you submit
A letter grade that re-grades itself on your newest edits, and a 0 to 5 self-assessment score coloured against your regulator's own minimum.
Learn moreWord and PDF you can proof and share
Word and PDF, per competency or the whole application, on a branded letterhead with the app's own type hierarchy.
Learn moreVersions & track changes: questions applicants ask
Every one: each preliminary draft and each editing round. Earlier versions are never replaced, and restoring one adds a new version rather than deleting anything. The self-assessment score history is separately capped at the ten most recent scores, each stamped with the draft version it scored.
Yes. Every earlier version can be viewed, compared and restored. Restoring copies its text, comments and placeholders into a new current version, so nothing is deleted, and a completed competency reopens at step 5 so you can carry on from there.
No. Any text sitting in the editor is saved as a version before an AI action runs, so a regeneration always sits on top of your work rather than replacing it.
What you inserted, in green, and what you deleted, struck through in red, compared with the reviewed draft: the same convention as a word processor. It appears under each changed section when you turn it on, and stays out of the way when you do not.
In short
CBA Pro keeps every preliminary draft and every editing round of a competency as its own version, and earlier versions are never changed. Reviewer comments and placeholders are versioned with the draft they describe, so earlier rounds remain readable with their own comments and placeholders, and self-assessment score history is stamped with the draft version it scored. Any earlier version can be restored, which creates a new version rather than deleting anything. Versions record authorship ('Drafted by AI' or 'Edited by you'), pending editor text is saved before any AI action runs, and track changes is an optional view showing insertions in green and deletions struck through in red against the reviewed draft.
Run one full competency, free
Every step, on a real competency, with no card. Everything you write carries over the moment you upgrade.