DJR & anyone who may stumble upon this thread,
Unless you have money to waste and time to kill, don't take a seminar. It only conditions you to focus on the meat & potatoes. Do your really think they're gonna make it that easy?
1. Due to the massive amount of information in the W.I.T. book only meat and potatoes stuff if covered in the seminar.
(Pages of that book show on a projector screen)
Most questions on the fundamental test, other than weld symbols, will be from the seemingly insignificant minutia between the meat and potatoes. Filler crap used so they end up with a book 1" thick. Be familiar with the filler crap between the meat & potatoes. The quizzes at the ends of the modules....USELESS! Do you really think they're gonna make it that easy?
Buy the W.I.T book yourself and read it a couple of times.
1a. You WILL NOT be supplied with the Z49.1 book, HOWEVER, YOU WILL BE ASKED 3 TO 4 questions on safety.
This info is in Module 1 of the W.I.T. book. Equipment storage, gas bottles and ventilation flow.
FYI, I've been in inspection for 25 years and dealt with many a 3 party guy. If a CWI was to check all that the seminar instructor says you should check......you'd be shot on site. No job would ever get done on time. At the very least you'll be asked not to return. After weld start up all they are concerned with is paperwork being accurate...maybe they witness a hydro.
2. Know the Part B mock spec extremely well! I repeat, know the Part B mock spec extremely well!!
Especially the notes and your hi-low rods. Anything ending in 5,6 & 8. You do a lot of jumping between Appendices. Find info in one App. and then take that info to another App. to find the answer.
TIME IS YOUR ENEMY!! 2 hours goes very quick. Be a pro at traversing the Part B mock spec. The experience I paid for was having plastic and metal samples rudely thrown on our tables and the instructor saying "ok, there ya go!". That was it! No teaching!!! Just, there ya go, figure it out for yourself. AWS seminars SUCK!!! Use Real Ed. I hear they appreciate your money more and do spend a little more time on teaching you how to use the mock spec.
We all know how to read words on the printed page, at least I hope so. The tools aren't hard to figure out. They gloss over how to use them. But, no time is spent on actually teaching a person how to use the Part B mock spec. and that is criminal because there is an art to it. For someone with extensive NDE experience, they are very familiar with and comfortable with being bounced around and enduring the wild goose chase created by the authors (volunteer committee members/soccor moms) of codes and specs.
A lot depends on the test takers test taking personality and disposition also, in respect to panic and brain freeze.
Know this mock spec better than your wife and kids and you should be fine. Read the instructions on the first page that precedes any chart or table.
3. If you are taking the test to API 1104 (for the code portion) read the 2 Appendices A & B at the end of the book several times. Be very familiar with them. Why? They read like a regular text book. Run on paragraphs absent of section breaks denoted by large, bold face font titles like the rest of the book. The answer to the question you will be asked is buried in and amongst all this run on info. So you don't have to start reading at the beginning every time until you come to the answer (and usually by then you've forgotten what the question even was), being familiar with them will help you remember where in all that script the info you're looking for is.
Recap:
1. Fundamental portion: Be familiar with "filler material" in W.I.T. book and weld symbols.
2. Code portion: Be familiar with the contents. Tab section and tables.
3. Practical: Become very comfortable with Appendix hopping.
4. I was told by the seminar instructor that the plastic samples have manufacturing flaws but AWS didn't feel the need to remove them from circulation. Specifically, the samples with porosity have what looks like cracks and/or tails coming out of them. THEY ARE NOT CRACKS OR TAILS!!! They ARE the manufacturing flaws. DO NOT include them when you measure. On measure the ROUND HOLE(S). The proctor of the exam may or may not remember to inform you of this prior to taking the Part B exam.
Save your money and good luck.
CrNiMo