I'm Back

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 02-10-2009 13:24

So how do you think you did on the exam?

By BryonLewis (****)

Date 02-10-2009 14:31 Edited 02-10-2009 14:43

I am very glad I took the seminar. It helped greatly filling some of the gaps that I couldn't fill on my self study. John Husfeld was the instructor. I think he did a very good job presenting the material.

I have heard horror stories on the Part B of the exam. I think I did very well on that. Notice I said, "I think". There were several people there that were taking this part over for the 2 or 3rd time. I believe that I did my best on that section, I just hope my best coincides with the answers. But I am sure that I made well above the 72% mark.

The Fundamentals part of the test was a bit nerveracking. I don't think I did as well on this part as I would have liked even though once again I'm sure I passed it. It was a little more indepth than I was thinking that it would be.

And the Code portion. This section is the one that I studied the most. I have never welded to or knew about "codes" until I started to research welding inspetion so I thought that I might come up short in this section. I studied the Code deligently and tabbed the book in my own way that allowed me to find everything that I needed. I finished that portion with about 10 minutes to spare. If I didn't study and read the Code as much as I had over the past few months, I think that clock would have killed me.

All in all I think I passed. It was a very interesting experience, being away from the family and meeting a wide range of people, from welders to the lowly, LOL, engineer, all trying to gain their CWIs. I appreciate the advice and encouragment that I got from all on this forum, and the support that I found during the seminar. I will be stressing over the next few weeks wainting on my results from Miami but I am ready to work when I get the nod. But when I DO get them I know that it will be a well deserved position that I will treat with pride.

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 02-10-2009 15:19

That clock will get ya if you don't know where to look for the answers...people think "open book" and get over confident about that part, but if you spend time looking, you can get caught by the clock.

Sounds like you did well. How was the practical in terms of black and white acceptance and rejection? I found that the set of samples that I had were grossly one way or the other, there wasn't anything where I had to split hairs to weigh out acceptance or rejection.

By Kix

Date 02-10-2009 16:39

Yeah, for THE D1.1 exam I think I figured it out to be that you had 90 seconds a question granted that kept going up when you knew the answers right away on a few of them. It also went down when you had problems finding an answer or while you sat there second guessing yourself.

By BryonLewis (****)

Date 02-10-2009 16:58 Edited 02-10-2009 17:00

I think it was 2 min 24 secs. Something like that. I too did the D1.1. It really helped that I knew some of the answers and didn't have to look for them. If I would have had to look up all 50 questions I would have been dead. It was funny, there was a guy there that had flunked the Part B 3 times before. He thought that they need to give more time on that sectin but the 2 hours were ok on the Code portion.

I did the Part B in an hour and a half, and thats with challenging 2 or 3 questions. The Fundamentals also 1 and a half hours. The Code though, is a whole other story. I finished that up with 10 minutes to go. The last 5 minutes I challenged 3 or 4 questions.

What else I thought was funny was all of the people taking the API 1104 code portion. They were all determined to do that because the book is so much smaller than the D1.1. There was only 1 other guy finished with the test when I was and he tested on D1.1 too. With 10 minutes left these guys taking the "easier" code were still working on it. I am damn sure that some of them didn't even finish.

By BryonLewis (****)

Date 02-10-2009 16:42

Out of all of the stories I heard about the samples and test kits, I don't think I got one of the bad ones. The tools all seemed to be pretty new as well as the examples. Measuring some of the undercut I thought was a little hard. Some of the undercut had been dug into with the V WAC gauges in the past but I think I got past all of that easily. I think that the tolerances for undercut were a little bit tough given the condition of the sample welds. I would have rather had an actual metal test sample for the undercut questions just because of that. I think some of those questions could go either way depending on where the undercut was measured. Its hard to gauge 1/32 on a plastic sample that has been dug into before.

The other samples, bend test and porosity seemed to be in better condition than the undercut sample. But by nature of how those are measured they should be in better condition. It truly hard to figure out how well one really does on the test based solely on Part B. The fundamentals, you know it or don't so its easy to know if you passed it. The Code portion is pretty easy because the wording in the questions seemed to be taken directly from the Code book. If you found the wording in the book as in the test then you probably got it correct. And yes, the clock will kill you on that SOB. But the practical is pretty much based on opinion and many of the answers had very little room for error.

By doyenofcastle (**)

Date 02-10-2009 15:56

hi, can you give me more information about the hand on exam you didn't mention this,and I hope if you have some question example in pdf or doc because i prepare to take the exam without seminar

By BryonLewis (****)

Date 02-10-2009 16:47

I don't have any sample questions in pdf or doc. To be honest I think to study for this part you should read the Part B Book of Specifications a lot. They gave us a sample exam at the seminar but most of the questions on both the practice and the real exam were based on the set of plastic sample welds in relation to the Part B "code" book. As long as you can use the gauges and tools that are used in the practical and know and understand the Part B book, that is all you can really do.

By Chris Nichols Date 02-13-2009 04:17

Byron, I have to disagree with your suggestion to spend a lot of time studying the Part B book that they send you. The Part B book has many similarites to the actual D1.1 and/or API code, but there are some differences. If you spend too much time studying this book rather than the actual code that you are testing on, one might get confused when answering questions on the Code or Fundamentals portion.

I as well took the seminar for D1.1 which I believed helped tremendously, mainly because we had an excellent intructor. But when it came to the Part B portion he specifically told us not to spend any time studying the provided code book. The most you should do is to just briefly familiarize yourself with where stuff is in the book. The table of contents on the front is pretty explanatory.

Hope you get your results soon. Only took about a week and a half for me to get mine and my test had to go from Seattle to Florida and then come back. Good luck!!!