Man you guys wern't kidding.....

By x77 Date 05-13-2007 23:31

I found the structure of the questions were what made it difficult. A, B, C, none, all, or a combination of ABC. It made me second guess myself on something I felt I knew before the exam.

By thirdeye (***)

Date 05-14-2007 02:57

I only wish this board was around early in my career.....There used to be a lot more posts about the exam that really benefited the first time applicants. A lot of the older inspectors, myself included, really enjoyed visiting and giving our point(s) of view. They are all in the archives of the Inspection board. Some of the best input came from guys or gals that had just taken it because everything was fresh on their minds, just like you two.

We probably need to get back on that track, not just for the younger CWI's but to keep all of us on our toes.

Here is one example, and there are many like it. I could find it easily because I participated in this thread and it was one of my early posts after I found this board.

http://www.aws.org/cgi-bin/mwf/topic_show.pl?pid=16478;hl=#pid16478

~thirdeye~

PS I think the Inspection Board would be the best place for the CWI exam posts.

By Kix

Date 05-14-2007 12:12 Edited 05-14-2007 12:17

Yeah i was second guessing myself left and right. I was like i know the answer, but what do they want to hear. I don't know i'm not going to sit hear and complain about it because thats not going to get me above a 72%, but i seriously don't ever want to take a test like that again with so much riding on it.

P.S knowone really posts on the inspection board, but if anyone is going to Milwaukee for that seminar and has any questions look us up. Ooops nevermind it's the D1.1 that knowone posts in. I'm going to go ask a few questions in there.

By thirdeye (***)

Date 05-14-2007 12:53

...but what do they want to hear...

I have heard the same thing several times and there is a different frame of mind when "testing". This applies to all types of tests. So you have to always ask yourself "what is the proper AWS answer" to the question. And, what is the most correct answer.

An interesting tip I am telling people now is to glance at the "D" or "E" answer first to see if they are "all of the above" or "none of the above". This gives you an advantage when you are going through the first few answers.

The D1.1 board is a newer board. The activity will pick up in time.

~thirdeye~

By reddoggoose (**)

Date 05-14-2007 15:08

Kix,

It is a tough test. When testing they will hand out several different versions of test to restrict cheating. I think I must have had one of the toughest versions. I felt pretty good when I went into the test, by the time I came out I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I think that test was probably as hard as just about any test I took in college. A lot of questions had several answers for the same question that could have been arguable, I even challenged a number of questions.

Good luck

By MDG Custom Weld (***)

Date 05-14-2007 16:32

reddoggoose,
I agree, 5 yrs in college, 2 welding degrees felt like just a prep course for the CWI/CWE test. I gained a lot of respect for those guys that were taking and passing the test with just work experience.

By Kix

Date 05-14-2007 16:43

Man you aren't kidding about feeling like you've been hit by a truck. By the third test i was seeing crosseyed and the i had to keep blinking to focus on the question and answers. In other words i had to sit and second guess myself so much that i was thinking way too hard and it just plain wore me out.lol

By new tito (***)

Date 05-14-2007 18:14

Yeah, the questions that could have possibly had multiple answers were the ones that had me second guessing alot. Luckily the seminar helped me discover that problem and taught me to read every answer, a thru e, before marking an answer.

By CWI555

Date 05-15-2007 03:18

I think the hardest test I've taken was the ASNT VT level III. CWI exam wasn't exactly gimmie, but the vt III covered far to many different topics. Questions I felt didn't have anything to do with actual inspections.
Such as:
What is a blackbody?
What is a color temperature?
What is plankes law and what role does it play in visual inspection?

Then there was the questions on niche market specifics including carbon fiber vessels, PVC plastic joining, fiberglass vessel inspection, composite inspections, electronic inspections, anatomy of a fiberscope, and the myriad other things. At least the AWS CWI test was task specific.
I been in it over twenty years, and never seen 3/4 of any of it, which is saying something given I've been in oil and gas, structural, mil spec work, auto, power generation and aerospace among others.

I believe their PT test is next in line. I got it done but the questions were more tricky reading comprehension questions than actual technical questions.

RT and UT where at least honest. Except for the heavy leaning of the UT to immersion, but still no problem.
(any UT III hopefuls out there better understand immersion well)

pardon my divergence, just taking the oppurtunity to whine a bit. unfortunetly, I have no cheese to go with it.

regards,
gerald

By Kix

Date 05-15-2007 12:18

Well, what were the answers like that you had to choose from for those questions?

By CWI555

Date 05-16-2007 00:03

Some background first

Plancks law vs Maxwell's theory:
Planck : states that 1. energy is emitted and absorbed in discrete quanta (photons), and 2. The energy in each quantum is hv. (E=hv) where h = plancks constant 1.626*10 to the -34 J * second. V= frequency in hertz.
Maxwell is the electromagnetic theory, 1. luminous bodies emit light in the form of radiant energy 2. radiant energy is propagated in the form of electromagnetic waves and 3. electromagnetic waves act on the retina of the human eye.

Plancks law vs Maxwells theory are the basis for any theoretical explaination of light and it's behaviour as it relates to light source choice, chromatic, monochromatic etc. I cannot remember all the multiple guess parts of the question, but that was the gist of it.

In regards, to a blackbody: it's a theoretical light source that absorbs all the radiant eergy that falls upon it and is a uniform temperature radiator. In other words, at any given temperature, the black body radiates more power at any wavelength than any other object at the same temperature.

The black body and color temperature are related in theory. The spectral emissivity of a light source is the ratio of light output vs the theoretical output of a blackbody.

The color temperature of a light source is determined by the temp at which a blackbody must operate in order to produce an emissivity that most closely matcheds the emissivity of a light source.

Thats the theory, now I know for an imaging device, the color of that light must be known for accurate representation of the image being recorded, and the color temperature from a given source as mentioned above is related to this. It's typically given in degrees kelvin. (example, candle flame, 2000, tungsten halogen lamp 3500, Photographic daylight between 5k and 6k.).

So as an answer to your question, all roads lead to rome as the three questions where inter related. Which is How I answered them, I found the ones that jived with each other.

regards,
gerald