To Joe Kane, Thanks again for your input, I have the certification manual for welding Inspectors the fourth edition have you any more suggestion or study material that you think I need. I've welded for 35 years on many different welding processes, but I really didn't think about technical part of it until I joined this forum which I think got me thinking and have learned a lot just by reading. I would like to think you and many of the people on this forum for there help.
MG
By hogan
Date 12-28-2007 17:58
Edited 12-31-2007 15:06
most of this you probably know. aws a2.4 welding symbols, you don't need to memorize anything for the code portion. just have a good understanding of how the code is formated. be proficient at looking up specific requirements, including footnotes. for the hands on portion, forget what you already know. answer all questions from the sample code provided. as far as the general knowledge portion, after 35 years you should know this. also, tab your code book. i took mine to d1.1. i used one color tab for chapters, one for common tables ( 3.1, 3.2, 6.1,...), and one for typical references and the index. the index, if your testing to d1.1 start trying to anwsire all questions using the index. this code is so well indexed. all i studied was the cert manual 1/2 hour a night for 3 weeks prior to the test.
Milton
Get A2.4, A3.0, the WIT and the AWS Welding Handbook Volume 1.
Read 20 pages of A2.4 and A3.0 every day, until you are done wtih the book, then start over again. Read one chapter of the WIT every night, then start over. If you can get the WIT Work Book of sample questions, test yourself after each chapter. Time yourself for 45 seconds per question, then look up the answer in the WIT and read the paragraphs before and after the paragraph with the answer. This approach will give you an insight on how long you have on the exam. Save one of the sample test question sets, until the last day before you take the exam. this will be your last minute confidence builder!
Hogan sure is right on the rest of it. I would recommend the Hands-On training from AWS if you do not go to the Hobart School. You need to know how to use the AWS tools, becaus that is what you get on the examination. It will save you time that you will sorely need during the real exam. I aslo recommend the D 1.1 Code because it has an index. If you are more familiar with another code do whatever you feel more comfortable with. Hogan is right about the Tabbing.
I wasted my money going to Hobart, but I could tell it was superb training, professionally run with excellent teachers. Don't listen to people who tell you it is the hardest test they ever took. That kind of talk will just psych you out. If you study in advance, and you know the subject, the test is not that hard. Above all, don't psych yourself into a failure mode.
Whatever you do, don't go around asking people what questions they remember. The questions in the Certification Manual are very similar. You can do this on your own. When you get the passing grade, it will be all yours, and you can have real pride in it.
What also helped me was having a printed copy of the D1.1 Index, so i didn't have to keep flipping the codebook!
I have the WIT and workbook, both are used but in good shape, workbook has no writing in it. neither does the WIT and they dont have highlights in them, they are clean books with some use on the binding part but they are not falling apart. I will sell for $150 and i will pay shipping. I dont do paypal or credit cards. this is a good price on the books, if interested email me!
ctacker- You are totally wrong about the AWS instructors teaching to the test- they don't even know what will be on the test. As far as having a printout of the index- that's not allowed. NO loose paper is allowed for the code portion of the exam. Not even scratch paper.
Man, that is different than I had when I took my 2nd test.
I pulled both the index, and the table of contents out of the book, stapled them together, and put them on the table in front of me during the code portion of the test. That saved an immense amount of time. I also had a printout with all the different joints indexed. The proctors saw no problem with this. The only bad part was that they took up a little more space than those 1' tables allowed lol.
Mike
I did the same thing, except I had copied the index, didnt use the contents so i didnt need it and i stapled the left side all the way down to make a "book" if you will! did the same for the Errata and redlined my code book to see Errata on the pages the Errata replaced
I never said AWS instructors taught the test, and as for the index, I asked the guy giving the exam, and he allowed the index to be in a printout but said I could not get caught writing in it or i would be failed!
I have taken the CWI exam without going to a seminar. I didn,t pass the 1st time. I have been a welder since 1982. I paid $200 for precourse study material. It was worth the money to a certain degree. I made a 50% on the practical, 70% on API 1104 and 72% on fundamentals. It took me 45 minutes to take each portion. I then went to a Real Educational seminar for one day, it was the last day of the seminar. That day was designated for the Practical or Hans 0n portion, but all they were doing were practicing for the Practical part of the exam. Day wasted. I recently attended the seminar given by the AWS in Baton Rouge, LA. The instructor was Rich Depue. He is also a CWI/CWE, welder and also is a Radiographic Interpreter. He was very informative, easy to understand and a very nice person. He could answer ?'s as fast as you could ask them. If he didn't have the answer, he would find it. Before I retest, I will attend the practical portion of the seminaragain. The test is not stressful, it is the time allowed. Consider this; the AWS seminar cost you around $1000.00. But, the material you get at the seminar is yours to keep. The books you get are worth approximately $600.00. It contains alot of books that you can use as an inspector. Ex: welding symbols, practice tests, terms, definitions,. Here is an idea: go to the AWS seminar, pay attention, especially on the practical part on what is acceptable or rejectable on inspections. This way, if you are not sure, you have the books, the information you learned at the seminar and the time to get outside help, such as going to a NDT/Inspection company that will let you observe testing. Good luck!