Did he pass the examination?
While many of these people "qualify" to sit for the examination, how many actually pass the examination?
Of the three parts of the CWI examinations, Part B probably filters out those individuals that truly lack the experience needed to function as a CWI.
Very few individuals that sign up for the CWI have the back ground needed to pass the examination without additional study. Whether they work in a "code" shop or not, few welders have the necessary experience looking for information in a code book or experience with all the different welding processes covered by the examination, few engineers have experience examining welds, and few QC personnel have experience with all the different welding processes. In each case, the candidate has to expand his knowledge of welding, inspection, codes, mechanical testing, and metallurgy. Whether they obtain the knowledge by home study, taking a class at a community college, a for profit organization, or AWS sponsored seminar is not an issue. Whether one can pass the examination with a 72% correct score is the issue. Of all the variables at issue, the least pivotal is whether the candidate has experience. That will come soon enough when the CWI picks up his fillet gages and walks through the shop door. In any event, it is the employer's responsibility to assess the CWI's experience and capabilities before assigning them to a project. The CWI credential is not the end point, hopefully it is the beginning of a life long learning experience.
Just my thoughts on the process of qualifying to be a functional CWI.
Best regards - Al
I doubt it. Right before the 3rd exam i overheard him saying he hoped he scored at least a 50 average. Ha
I agree with what both you and Brent are saying. I would not say I had a ton of print reading experience prior to taking the CWI. I was a fitter/welder and started as a grunt in the union when I get my real first taste of formal Code print reading. But I had been welding to prints for many years. I was also in welding school at the local college at night for a few years. I remember reading and studying 4 months in advance of the exam, every single night, after the test I was so sick of welding haha. Took me a good few weeks to want to open a book about it.
I teach an LA City prep course to prepare students for the code test, and built the class more of a CWI style understanding. I broke down each clause into its own sets of questions and it covers clause 1-6 and came to 137 questions. I teach the class clause by clause, one a week. For their final I take 50 questions from the 137 and give them 2 hours to complete it. Between us I do not judge their grade based on finishing it all in time but more how many they attempted vs how many they got correct. I think running them slowly through each clause will help it all stick better and create some real smart welders to send into the welding world. Plus if they do good, the LA City would be a cake walk.
J