I received my results between 7 and 10 days after the exam (allowing for weekends/holidays).

Okay, cool. Thanks for your feedback! When you received those results, were they posted to the AWS website or your personal e-mail first?

mine was average compared to what the tester told us. mine took three weeks, and they claim that is average and yes it will be three weeks of hell

Just to follow-up incase there are other individuals out there whom have the same concern. I received my results today, and I passed! One thing I did notice that will help as well, the first time when I failed the part B(2 points shy), the title of the message on the AWS Website was "test results." Today the title was "certification notification", so for you guys out there waiting on results and you see those words as the title of the message chances are you passed. If the title is "test results," unfortunately you may have come up shy. Don't hold me to it but that's what I experienced first hand. I don't know if I was just lucky(although I prayed hard)to get my results back so quick or if AWS is just on the ball these days, but it's true, I only waited 5 days for my results. Test location was Houston, Tx.

Best of luck to you guys, and God bless
WeldTx

Congratulations WeldTx!
I'm hoping to join your ranks by the end of the year.

Thank you 48v, and good luck to you!. When that time comes and you have questions I am here and I'll do my best to answer anything you may be unsure of!

Best regards,
WeldTx

I leave in a week for the seminar. Nervous wreck? Definitely. Good luck on your results.

Hey Sammy, if you would share some information when you complete your test that would be cool. I was told during my seminar two weeks ago that they are changing the Part B to a 3 hour test and adding more questions. I doubt the new test has come out yet; but if it has let us know! I heard(indirectly) from respectable people in the field that this theory is true. I've heard it multiple times actually. Anyway, good luck !

My confirmation paperwork and test schedule still say 2 hours. If they change it at the last minute that would be shady... but not surprising.

Part B: fake welds being evaluated to a fake code. Most are acceptable to the fake code. USE THE SUPPLIED CRITERIA. You are a guaranteed Fail if you use previous remembered codes, good workmanship standards, personal prejudices/criteria, etc. They are evaluating YOU, to see if you can work 'by the book', or if you will use other, outside, non-applicable criteria when you 'read' these UGLY welds. And the [drilled in] porosity is either 1/16" or 1/8", exactly. So look out for 'greater than' versus 'equal to or greater than'. Tricky.

Seminar and exams are done. Now the longest 2 to 4 weeks of my life waiting for the results lol. Here is some info for anyone curious. Right now the exams have about a 50% failure rate, and out of those who 'pass' you have to figure in the 1/3 or even 1/2 of them that only get the yellow associate card, mostly because of part b. End of the day, figure about a 70% failure rate for CWI. We were also informed that a big chunk of those failures were the 9 year re-certifications that keep coming in and failing part b. The administrator of the seminar told us that the committee was presently considering further changes to the exams, but it would only involve more questions. The time frame will always be 2 hours. That is how it went down for the API 1104 exams, people got used to the 46 question test and were acing it all the time. The committees that develop the exams take this as a professional challenge. You will not ace their test. If people do, they will simply make it harder. For API the solution was simple. Time frame is still 2 hours but now it's 60 questions instead of 46. The same thing is likely to occur with part b, though I have no idea why. It's definitely difficult enough as it is, especially when people who have been inspecting for 9 or 18 years keep failing it.

Personally, I dominated the fundamentals and code. I wish I was as confident about the practical portion. It was very difficult. I finished the other 2 sections with plenty of time to spare, but with part b it took me about an hour and 20 minutes to finish and I was there going over every thing for every second of the 2 hours. It was definitely no joke that's for sure.

For anyone about to take the exams - the best strategy for part b is to do all the text questions that have you flipping through the appendixes first. Everything that involves measuring the samples - do that last.

I disagree with holding off the measurements (easy questions) until last. It is too easy to waste time on the more difficult questions. Go for the easy questions first. The goal isn't to score 100%, the goal is to accrue as many points as possible so one can pass the test.

Answer the easy questions first to collect as many points as possible. No one gets "extra" credit for answering the hard questions. If measuring and calculating UTS is part of your strong skill set, then by all means, answer those questions first.

No one gets a gold star for scoring in the 90%, no silver star for scoring in the 80%, only those scoring 72% or better pass.

Best regards - Al

To me, gauging those plastic samples was the difficult part. Easily very time consuming. The text questions were fairly straightforward. The answers are all right there in the book. An arc strike on steel jumps out at you. Trying to discern it on plastic is pretty hard. By doing the text questions first I was able to bank a bunch of time for analyzing the samples.

I'll have to get these eventually, this thread was great information, thanks.

It's definitely not a joke. At the seminar there were about a half dozen QC professionals, 3 structural engineers, 2 mechanical engineers, 1 nuclear engineer, and about 5 welders, both independent and company mandated. I'm just a welder with a high school diploma, and I funded this whole thing on my own hoping to advance myself. I did well in school, but at 34 years old it's getting to where that was kind of a long time ago. Studying out of a stack of books is a discipline that takes practice, like any other trade. It was pretty hard, but I enjoyed the challenge, pass or fail. I studied like an insane person for 12 weeks solid prior to the seminar, and it definitely helped. Much to my enjoyment as a welder, the engineers all thought it was going to be a 'gimme' and were horribly overwhelmed. If you show up to that seminar without a hell of a lot of prep beforehand, it is going to be pure hell, regardless of your current trade. All said and told, it's a pretty balanced program. As a welder, I had to do a lot of study and research on the NDT, the code, and the metallurgy, but I breezed through the rest of the fundamentals. An engineer will breeze through those parts, but have to do a lot of research into the nitty gritty of the welding processes. Nobody really has a clear advantage.

Solid advice to anyone looking to attempt the CWI exams: you need to know these documents forwards and backwards. And I DO MEAN FORWARDS AND BACKWARDS.

AWS QC1. Certification of welding inspectors.
http://www.aws.org/library/doclib/QC1-2007.pdf

AWS B5.1. Specification for the qualification of welding inspectors
https://app.aws.org/certification/docs/b5.1-2003-e...

AWS Z49.1. Safety in welding, cutting, and allied processes
http://www.aws.org/library/doclib/AWS-Z49.pdf

CODE BOOK OF CHOICE. - This is critical. Get a bootleg off the internet and go to kinkos with a thumb drive and stick it in a binder to practice with. A LOT. Just make sure it is the current version. D1.1 is a google search away, even though it will cost about $40 to print it. The practice exams are NOTHING like the real one. The practice tests throw softballs at you, the real deal was nothing but a shitload of oddball peripheral factoids hidden deep within the text of the code. API 1104 has no index as I am told, but even with the D1.1 that I took, most of it could not be indexed. The instructed strategy of using code words was nearly useless with a good portion of those questions. You have to have read it repeatedly cover to cover to know where to look.

The next ones are going to cost you, but I believe that if you don't want to cram 18 hours per day during the seminar, they are absolutely necessary. They will give you all of these at the event, but downloading a bootleg and sticking it in a binder to study ahead of time won't hurt anyone. Just don't tell them I told you to do that.

Certification Manual for welding inspectors. (some of this info is duplicated in the WIT book, but it's still a must have if you're serious)
https://pubs.aws.org/p/166/cm-certification-manual...

Welding Inspection Technology - They give you this book and expect you to cram it all in 3 days, which is completely unrealistic for anyone that is human. Buy this ahead of time, and read it cover to cover a few times. Its about 250 pages of textbook and you NEED to know this material inside out and backwards. For part A, this book is absolutely critical. By studying it ahead of time I was scoring 94% on the 220 practice questions the first day of the seminar, while the engineers were freaking out and doing suicide study shifts until 3 am every night because they were only getting around 50%.
http://pubs.aws.org/p/741/wit-t2008-welding-inspec...

Welding Inspection Technology Workbook - Kinda crooked that they sell this part separately, but you need it. Practice softball versions of the questions you will receive on part A.
http://pubs.aws.org/p/740/wit-w2008-welding-inspec...

AWS A2.4 Standard Symbols For Welding Brazing, and Nondestructive Examination - 2012 has some very important revisions that will be on upcoming exams. Variables to the left of the weld symbol used to be "S[Depth of bevel] - E[weld size]" - In 2012 and forevermore it will be shown as "S[size or strength of certain welds] or D[depth of groove] - (S = groove weld size)" It's a little more descriptive, but more complicated. You need to be familiar with weld symbolism up one side and down the other, take that to the bank.
http://pubs.aws.org/p/1040/a242012-standard-symbol...

AWS A3.0 Standard welding terms and definitions, including terms for adhesive bonding, brazing, soldering, thermal cutting, and thermal spraying. (What a mouthful lol)
Part A threw a few oddballs out of here just to screw people out of a couple correct answers. They gave this book to us and had us underline about 80 - 100 or more antiquated and bizarre unused terms that you will have to know for the exam.
http://pubs.aws.org/p/874/a30ma302010-standard-wel...

AWS B1.10 Guide for the nondestructive examination of welds. (This book is critical for someone like me with little to no experience in high end NDT. A lot of very useful detailed information regarding UT and RT, and several good charts / tables)

D1.1 Code Clinic (obviously, only for those that use this particular code for the exam): if you are like me and have little or no experience with the code book, this document, although LOADED with typos, does a great job of breaking down a 570 page code into 231 active pages for the real exam, includes 3 practice tests.
http://www.buildersbook.com/9780871715296.html

I hope all that is helpful. :)

i would also add something on metallurgy, that subject stump me, too many big words

for welding metallurgy i'd recommend 'Welding Metallurgy Vol. 1' and Vol.2 by George Linnert. Available off the AWS website, or perhaps other sources as well.

Invaluable source of knowledge, includes references in the text to chase down various topics both common and uncommon.

I needed 'metallurgy for dummies"

Well fellas where is all the work??

I feel like a college grad after completing the CWI and I cant find a job in my field of study. smh.
I live in East Texas and I cant find any work around here, its all South South, TX.

Dunno about Texas, but here in Southern California every CWI I know has more work than they want.

Nice, what are they paying in Southern California? Do you know right off hand?

Lots of work for a CWI in and around the Houston area and the Golden Triangle.

I appreciate the input guys. I havnt searched for a job in a long time. Unfortunately I feel like I'm extremely underpayed for the duties I currently perform; to make matters worse the company I work for just cut my hours(I work full-time), I'm not happy so I've been looking all around South Louisiana, and South Texas for CWI work. Ive submit my resume with several companies and havnt heard anything. I'm 26 and have been in inspection for a while, I've noticed that API 510 and API 560 is in high demand along with the CWI that would be a big plus in adding to the resume.

WeldTx

@WeldTx, I don't know a dollar figure, but I can tell you the people really doing well for themselves are working on shutdowns out in the desert. A lot of them work a shutdown and then don't work for the rest of the year.

@WeldTx, Did you find a new Inspection job yet. I am a new CWI cardholder as well and nobody seems to be calling back. I have sent out several resumes and now I am thinking about going old-fashion and knocking on doors.

@young15 yes I did. I'm actually working on a construction job in Miami, FL. We are building an LNG loading station from the ground up. I'm 17hrs from home but i think I'm getting paid well(considering I just got my cert). 37/hr. $120/day per diem and working Monday-Friday 7-6pm. This job is SUPPOSED to end in October2015. 👍🏽👍🏽😎😎

I need to find a source of names of the big construction contractors. I am having a hard time finding anything as well. I have dropped off resumes at the places I know of, but after that i'm struggling to find places to apply.

Look at the AWS.org web site, look for "member services" and then look for "jobs" They list many CWI positions that are available. You will have to go to the work, they rarely bring the work to you.

Many companies are looking for something other than people that passed the open code book exam with API 1104 if they are involved with structural steel, bridges, etc.

Best regards - Al

Personally, I have zero experience with pipe. My entire career has been in structural. I tested to D1.1. But my work has all been shop welding and I am looking to get out of that. Im just not entirely sure how to go about it. I would like to drop off some resumes with companies that employ CWI's, so they have mine on file even though they may not have open positions right now... i'm having a hard time finding these contractors tho. Seems like a stupid problem to have lol :) im patient. I will find something eventually.