Location of incident....Tulsa, Okla. SCWI Exam. Date of violation...Oct. 2009.Test score...62%. Preparation...flipped through some of them books. Background...30 years manager/inspector/welder AWS D1.1, D1.5. CWI....1986 vintage.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Hah, Hah! It's funny now, but it wasn't then. I remember checking in as the only SCWI applicant out of sixty something inspectors. The administrators greeted me with some strange kinda smiles as one asked, "how ya doing today?" Well to be honest, I had a real bad feeling about this test. Now I hadn't ever failed any kind of exam since high school, but this one had me torn. The reference material covered so much that anyone could've easily written 2,000 questions from it...let alone 200. This is where "flipping through some of them books" comes in. So many possibilities for potential questions, there's just no way to retain that much info. So you flip and read and become overwhelmed with info and retain very little new knowledge....major mistake! Now I'd never met a SCWI or anyone who had attempted to become one. So on my own, all I could do was focus on what's the difference between a SCWI and a CWI. Turns out that logic got me pretty far in the right direction...just not far enough.

Disappointed but vowing to return, my plane landed in Reno on Dec. 12th. for round two. I kinda felt like that old wise hound with one bad eye and a crippled leg, but still able to run down anything in the woods. So I greeted the adminstrators with a strange kinda smile, and promptly tore through that test as if I were reading yesterday's news.

My thoughts....Wow!! What a test. Good to see AWS raising the bar.

Morale of the story...take it twice or take a study course. Better yet...know a SCWI.LOL!!!

Btw, Merry Christmas!!!