CWI exam hands on portion

By jonny25 Date 12-10-2002 20:14

Again, I am posting for a friend. I appreciate all of the responses to my previous query, they were very helpful and unfortunately I couldn't reply to everyone individually.

Question: Does the hands-on practical portion consist merely of 46 samples, or does it also include questions written by the specific examining committee?

I don't know anything about this stuff so it's all greek to me, but I think he just wants to know if the test is standardized or whether the hands on portion includes stuff his particular exam board could have invented.

Thanks in advance!

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 12-10-2002 20:48

My hands on test consisted of a kit that was made up ahead of the test. It had plastic weldments that had different indications molded into them. There were questions written asking about the weldments meeting a made up code. You answered the questions according to the code you were given. The kit had weld gauges, undercut gauges, micrometer, dial calipers, and a variety of plastic molds of weldments for you to inspect.(possibly other tools that I may not have mentioned)
Anyway, the kit was numbered, which you entered on the top of your test. I thought it was very straight forward, no tricky questions. Although, I've heard from others that thier kit was tricky. The cut off for rejection may have been a total of 3/8" of porosity and they measured .374", which made them question themselves and they spent time going back over and remeasuring the sample.
My guess is that AWS has several different tests that they hand out so no one is able to get help from a neighbor, but it is a standardized test.
Sorry for the rambling on,
John Wright

By don

Date 12-12-2002 15:31

The hot manual is a good study guide
as long as your friend can use all the gauges and reference them to a very general code he will be ok

By Michael Sherman (***)

Date 12-12-2002 15:41

I used one fillet gauge and the 6" metal ruler for the hands on test. I scored 87% across the board. So, I would not be too concerned with all of the gauges, just know what they are and when to use them. The tests have a kit with plastic samples, some photographs and some questions. At that time there were 4 different tests. I have been told by some proctors that AWS is revamping all of the tests. I am led to believe this year is the last time we will see these particular 4 tests. The format isn't supposed to change, just the questions. This is second hand news so take it for what it is worth and don't get upset if I am wrong.

Respectfully,
Mike Sherman