Becoming a patent practitioner

Here's another little known career possibility, an exam for being a patent agent without needing to ne an attorney, for intellectuap property representation before the USPTO, I wish I'd known about this a long time ago, I only found out about it awhile back, I just thought those of you with any serious science background, which is needed, doesn't matter what field, might find it of interest, though a friend tried the exam, and found it quite rough to pass, he's going to have to retake it to try again....