I received my Endorsement exam (ASME Section IX, B31.1, B31.3) results today and missed certification by 3 lousy questions. But I am more than certain I did not miss that many. I know the codes very well. I am wondering if my changing a few of my answers, resulted in errors. You know, not getting the answer circles erased good enough.
Now I am debating whether or not to send in a hand score request. I feel confident about the true results but this fee is $225!!
Has anyone been in my situation?
I haven't had that situation YET, thank god. Missing the cert by 3 would of really t'ed me off but missing by 1 would of caused me to go nuclear. That hand score fee is pretty dam steep although I can understand why it is.
I don't understand why the fee is so high.
Yup, I agree. There is nothing I would like more than to have someone that is chronically unemployable hand checking the answers on my AWS examination.
That would be nearly as good as having a chronically unemployed CWI on the job site who is more interested in reading the sports page than checking the work he's being paid to inspect.
There is probably some underlying reason both individuals have that extra time on their hands. An individual that executes that type of flawed logic is exactly the person I would rather not have carrying an AWS credential.
Al
OK?? Go be arrogant somewhere else...
It is pure arrogance on my part to think it was a "silly" comment for anyone to say there are plenty of unemployed people available to hand correct AWS examinations.
I’m sure there are hundreds of unemployed people in the unemployment office thinking; “I wish AWS would call on my expertise to hand correct the examination Joe Schmuck took. It is understandable that Joe has difficulty keeping the pencil point inside the ovals on the answer sheet and I know he makes smudges when he erases his wrong answers. How can a machine be expected to correct Joe's answer sheet?”
Remember, Florida is where they could not tell the difference between a valid vote and a “hanging chad.” The hand count took months to complete and it still wasn't decided. Does anyone want to leave their fate in the hands of those people? Whoever heard of a hanging chad before that election? Does anyone want to return to the days when it took six weeks to hear whether you passed or failed the examination?
Forgive me for my sarcastic response to what I perceived as a ridiculous post. It is in jest, well not entirely.
The price AWS may be a bit steep. I can agree with that point. However, the comment about hiring unemployed people to do the task of hand correcting examinations struck me as being in need of ridicule.
Whoosh!
Welcome to the Forum where no one is immune to the sharp well deserved barb in the butt from time to time. Hey, that’s the fun of being a participant! It thickens the hide and is good preparation for the unemployed, I mean for the inspector. Welcome to the Sunday morning roast.
Best regards – Al ;)
Al
I might be late but an excellent analogy.
Thank You
Marshall
Well Dan, I was glad to read your e-mail and I am happy to see you saw the humor in my jest.
We all encounter situations as you have and out of shear frustration we say something that may be a little silly in hind sight.
Any of us that have lived through the era of waiting six weeks (or more) to hear whether we passed or failed an examination would not want to see a return to those days. The use of a "correcting machine" has reduced the wait to a couple of weeks. The adaptation of machine scoring the answer sheets is a major improvement over what it was like when a "human" corrected each answer sheet by hand.
I assume you grasped the brass ring in 2009. Take it from an "old timer" who passed the examination back in 1981, you don't want to see a return to the good old days of hand scoring answer sheets.
Now that I have had some fun at your expense, please accept my apologies for any burnished nerves I may have rubbed the wrong way.
Best regards - Al
Hmm, I guess I need another cocktail because I don't see where this chronically unemployed thing came from, was there a post deleted or something?
Gents, the exams are scored by machines using clerical type people. As one might imagine there are 1000's of tests coming in from all around the world.
When a request is made for handscoring comes in the machine basically stops; AWS Certification either has to bring in another staffer to grade (using an answer sheet) or the remainder of test stacks back up.
It is a high fee admittedly but there are some justifications.... maybe a fairer method would be if in fact the test is a pass vs a fail then no fee?
The has been some editeding done.
jrw159
Well, the last project I saw the billing rate sheet on (exactly one year ago), a CWI was billed out at $90/hour and $150 per diem. At those figures, 1 hour to hand score the test would be "reasonable"?
As far as the 6 week wait for exam results, it was what it was. Everything took longer in those days. Remember when you could play the check game? Get groceries, write a check for $50 bucks on a $5 purchase, then deposit the $40 bucks, have $5 for a pack of smokes and a couple of brews at the local water hole and the light bill wouldn't bounce.....Ahhhh...those were the good ol days
One thing about the old CWI exam "back in the day", there was no Part B!!! Just 2 modules of about 300 questions and the Open book code.
If you follow through I believe what you will find is your first answer was the correct one. In the prep classes where you are taught the test, one thing they tell you if you are unsure of the answer is to go with your first impression.
In a four or five question format there will be 2 wrong 1 close 1 really close and 1 correct. If you are very familiar with the subject going with the first impression will give you a better than 50/50 chance.
But depending on what you have in the test and what it is worth you you, the cost may be worth it to you.
If it was one question you missed it by, you may be right. Three, my bet is you seconded guessed your answer and was wrong.
But that is only my opinion and its value is worth about what you have paid.
I would like to throw one more item into the conversation for serious consideration:
The instructor (no need for his name, a very good instructor mentioned here many times) at the seminar I attended made this observation and comment a couple of times during our seminar week:
" I hear this often after the exams so you need to know...NO ONE EVER MISSED THE EXAM BY ONE QUESTION/ANSWER. It took 15 other wrong answers before you got to that ONE."
And on the General Knowledge Exam it takes more than that. AND, if you missed each part by ONE, for a total of THREE, then you really missed a lot of questions. Not just three.
So, how well did you say you know that material? You missed a minimum of 18 according to your claim of missing ONLY BY 3. So, you are hoping there MAY be 3 mistakes on their part so you can still squeak by with a minimum score? And depending upon your erasing and/or marking procedures the mistakes are truly yours anyway. They strongly warn and admonish to take great care in answer marking. The same care that needs to be common practice as one inspects welds and writes out detailed reports.
Just my two tin pennies worth.
Have a Great Day, Brent
Great point Brent, I'll definitely remember this.
Hi CWI2009
Sorry to hear about your test results. I’m up for the same test next month on the 26th.
I have felt what you’re going through right now. I missed being a CWI by one question in part B. So I said, “Surly with all the second guessing and erasing I did, for sure, they could fine one question marked correctly in my favor”. Sorry it didn’t work for me. Well it removed my doubt and 250 dollars. I believe if you missed 20 or 30 or more questions and you know you did good, then you could say , machine error or they didn’t input the correct code book for your test. Three questions don’t lose any sleep doubting yourself or their machine. Take it again if you can. I did, and you’ll put out a better score the second time. Has anyone out there ever challanged their test results, and come out in their favor?
fit2inspect
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