I took the ARRL-VEC Exam, which is an open-book 40-question yes/no, fill-in-the-blank, mini-essay type exam taking 3 pages. Add a page long application and a copy of your license, plus postage for 2 ounces applied to the envelope, and the ARRL promises have credentials in your hands within three weeks.
The ARRL/VEC Volunteer Examiner Manual was revised this year, and it is available for free download from the ARRL. It includes the application and test for becoming a volunteer Examiner.
While the book has been revised, the exam has not (it is dated 2011), and it sometimes shows its age (asking a question about who gets each of the three copies of a form that now has four copies, for example). I would say that a third of the questions are obvious and simple to answer (especially those with simple yes/no response). Another third can be answered with a few words, and are easy to find. The final third tends to be obscure fine-level detail that is quite difficult to find in the manual. A thorough and correct response might take a couple sentences (but rarely is there enough room for a complete/accurate answer). This is not an example of a stellar exam, in my opinion, but I suspect that it may have been left somewhat obtuse to force the student to read every page of the manual. Expect to spend about two hours completing the exam.
ARRL VEC Volunteer Examiner Patch
Unable to download the VEC manual
The manual can be accessed at this URL: http://www.arrl.org/files/file/VEs/VE%20Manual%20Web%20Final%202022.pdf
73, Bob
This post was from 2013, a decade ago, and the ARRL changed the link since then. I have updated it to the latest link.