Welding Certification test Q&A and tips and tricks
mostafizur
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    Tue Oct 04, 2016 9:57 pm

Can anybody please help me with level 1 practical exam advices specially how to measure?

Thanks!
Mostafiz
mostafizur
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    Tue Oct 04, 2016 9:57 pm

Otto Nobedder wrote:Kasey's stats say he last visited May 19, 5 days after he joined. It's not unusual for someone to come here with a specific question and move on after it's answered.

There are others here familiar with that test, though. You may need to start a fresh topic to get their attention, though.

Steve S
Thanks for the advice
TrunkMonkey315
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    Canada.

I'm a Journeyman/Red Seal welder and I managed to fail the practical the first go. I also didn't follow the instructions and circled more than one fault on my samples. I asked the lady at the front desk what I should do if I find more than one, her reply was "pick the most obvious". It is a fairly easy test, if you see a fault right away that's the one you should mark down. Once you identify it measure it and compare it to the generic welding standard they give you and either accept or reject the sample making sure to mark down the size of fault you observed.

What problem with measuring are you having? The easiest way if you haven't had any training in inspection tools is look up youtube videos. There's several available that show you how to use the gauges provided for the exam. (Vwac, fillet, bridge cam, hi lo and a basic ruler.)
MakeWeldsNotWar
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    Sat Sep 23, 2017 5:34 pm

I'm about to take this exam and was wondering if it's multiple choice, and if not, how much descriptive writing is involved. Any other tips would be appreciated too!
med415
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    Tue Dec 05, 2017 6:49 am

I am only on mod 4 on the theory for level one and I have been waiting 4 months for the grades going to move on and hope I did not fail anything
Rebeliron
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I passed CWB CWI level one and it's no joke. Read the instructions is the first part and follow it to a "T"! That's your first test as an inspector. No over thinking it, that will be your downfall. You must follow it exactly and ONLY CIRCLE ONE discontinuity (pick the easiest one and not all discontinuities are weld faults), pass or fail it, use the right term for the discontinuity (no slag, there are multiple choices but not all of them are the correct terms.) and measure the discontinuity, if it is measurable (not all discontinuities can be measured). In my class there were 12 students and only four passed, i believe. Just remember, in level 2 you need to redo level one (so keep your books)and you need to work for minimum of 2 years under a level 2 or 3. Level 2 CWB CWI is more like AWS CWI and in level 2 it is a less than 10% pass rate. It's best not to talk about level 3 (lol). Good luck and don't use the palmgren gauge, the bridge cam is your best friend. :D
ashleyh
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    Wed Jul 11, 2018 2:32 pm

i am doing my level one test as well and i failed the practical the first try. I have seen that there are some discontinuities that cannot be measured. In that case what would you write down in that spot. I had a test piece would i would call incomplete weld/not tied in. I am thinking that was would be the one you can't measure. Wondering what anyone would put for that one. It never said, or i just didn't see it that if you can't measure it what to put in that space. any information would be helpful
Rebeliron
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You must pick one and only ONE discontinuity. Pick the easiest one and if you can, pick one you don't have to measure. The test welds are plastic 3d printed models, which suck. Make sure you read the right side of the model. There are discontinuities that you don't have to measure and you record it as not measurable. KEEP IT SIMPLE AND SHORT. Good luck
Lyman Bolt
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    Thu Jul 26, 2018 4:04 pm

Can someone please send me information on the Cwb Inspection level one practical exam , I don’t know what I am doing wrong . I have tried the test 3 times now and have failed. I know I have to circle the one weld fault for each coupon. There are 5 plastic coupons . I don’t know what else to do. I have read the instructions and have done what’s asked . Can someone email me please lyman_b@nf.sympatico.ca. I need help.
Crash
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    Wed Jan 02, 2019 8:33 pm

I too have tried and failed the practical exam three times now.

There is one discontinuity I am having particular difficulty with. It's something in the middle of the top pass (I can't recall if each time it was on a fillet weld) where it looks like a bead was stopped midway through a pass and the next bead did not tie into it properly.

It's certainly a unique (and ugly) discontinuity and unfortunately I can't seem to find anything that looks like it, either online or in the textbooks that came with the course.

I was hoping someone knew which discontinuity I was talking about. Or perhaps someone knows of a good online resource with lots of photos of discontinuities?

Thanks.
carlan
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    Thu Aug 22, 2019 6:40 pm

hey crash. how did you do with it after? I just done mine recently and never came across a coupon like that, the five I had were I hope was.....
overlap
porosity
excessive weld reinforcement
misaligned plates
insufficient leg length
I am a welder 15 years and it is a difficult test, including the codes and closed book.
Rebeliron
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    Toronto Canada

The CWB changes their samples and retires their old ones. They have many samples to choose from to 3d print. They also have some samples with no discontinuities. Be careful :shock:
Phatmandave
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    Wed Dec 11, 2019 5:18 pm

Maybe I can help a bit. I had some trouble with my level 1 practical exam and took advantage for the "Exam Review" for 110 bucks.
what I found out was that all measurements are +/- .5mm or .5 deg.
If you measure porosity and your measurement is 3mm but the test piece answer sheet says 2mm you will maybe fail the part.

Same with excessive convexity. Make sure you use the formula correctly and triple check all your measurements.

Good luck and bring your wallet.
TEXT
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    Fri Dec 13, 2019 11:56 pm

Hi guys, I am going in to write my level 1 practice in a couple of days and wondered where, or if there is information on tolerances for weld faults?
Rebeliron
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I believe it is still +/- 1mm
Kasey
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So, the key to passing the practical is to read the guidelines VERY CAREFULLY. It states to identify 1 defect with each weld. I failed the test a few times (only scoring 20-30%) due to identifying all of the different defects that each plastic mold had. Overthinking can be costly. After going back and only identifying 1 defect it was an easy 100%.
Kasey
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So, the key to passing the practical is to read the guidelines VERY CAREFULLY. It states to identify 1 defect with each weld. I failed the test a few times (only scoring 20-30%) due to identifying all of the different defects that each plastic mold had. Overthinking can be costly. After going back and only identifying 1 defect it was an easy 100%.
Andrew.L
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    Thu Oct 29, 2020 1:26 pm

This practical/visual exam seems to be more of a money grab than a test to show that you can inspect.
Read the instructions carefully, followed to an absolute T and still seem to be failing.
Get the marks in the mail and it’s 5 marks for the correct discontinuity
And 2 marks for the correct “acceptable or rejection”
And the middle where you write your measurement seems to be worth 0 every single time.

I remember exactly what the text specimens looked like them I got the results in the mail.
I remember exactly what I put down for measurements and I got a 0 on all 5.

Porosity was 3mm deep.
So in the area you put your measurement I put 3mm
GOT A 0....

Undercut on model 1001 was 3mm deep.
Circled undercut, wrote 3mm for measurement and then filled out rejection...
GOT A 0...

Just don’t seem to understand what the issue seems to be here.
The generic code states that it’s a rejection for anything over 2mm...
So what seems to be the issue here?
ali
  • ali
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    New Member
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    Fri Nov 20, 2020 7:03 pm

Andrew.L wrote:This practical/visual exam seems to be more of a money grab than a test to show that you can inspect.
Read the instructions carefully, followed to an absolute T and still seem to be failing.
Get the marks in the mail and it’s 5 marks for the correct discontinuity
And 2 marks for the correct “acceptable or rejection”
And the middle where you write your measurement seems to be worth 0 every single time.

I remember exactly what the text specimens looked like them I got the results in the mail.
I remember exactly what I put down for measurements and I got a 0 on all 5.

Porosity was 3mm deep.
So in the area you put your measurement I put 3mm
GOT A 0....

Undercut on model 1001 was 3mm deep.
Circled undercut, wrote 3mm for measurement and then filled out rejection...
GOT A 0...

Just don’t seem to understand what the issue seems to be here.
The generic code states that it’s a rejection for anything over 2mm...
So what seems to be the issue here?

Hey Andrew, have you passed yet? I just did my six year renewal today, I don't have my results but I think I failed.... Anyhow, I did want to respond to you though. You're saying that you measured your coupon with porosity 3mm deep, but you're not supposed to measure the depth of the porosity, you're supposed to measure the length of it. I hope this may help you for your next test.
Rottirudy
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    Tue Jan 19, 2021 6:09 pm

Did you figure out the measuring issue yet I seem to have done the same thing got 0 on all the measurements? Any info would be great as I try again tomorrow. Thanks
Rottirudy
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    Tue Jan 19, 2021 6:09 pm

Andrew.L wrote:This practical/visual exam seems to be more of a money grab than a test to show that you can inspect.
Read the instructions carefully, followed to an absolute T and still seem to be failing.
Get the marks in the mail and it’s 5 marks for the correct discontinuity
And 2 marks for the correct “acceptable or rejection”
And the middle where you write your measurement seems to be worth 0 every single time.

I remember exactly what the text specimens looked like them I got the results in the mail.
I remember exactly what I put down for measurements and I got a 0 on all 5.

Porosity was 3mm deep.
So in the area you put your measurement I put 3mm
GOT A 0....

Undercut on model 1001 was 3mm deep.
Circled undercut, wrote 3mm for measurement and then filled out rejection...
GOT A 0...

Just don’t seem to understand what the issue seems to be here.
The generic code states that it’s a rejection for anything over 2mm...
So what seems to be the issue here?

I am curious if you have gotten the measurements figured as out I am having the same issue and had the same sample the 1001 with 3mm of undercut.
Drift
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    Mon Nov 22, 2021 6:17 pm

Hello, I just took the practical exam for the level 1 CWB welding exam a few weeks ago, and I ended up failing with 60%. I was really shocked that I failed since I know what all the discontinuities look like, and I followed all the rules for the test by picking only one discontinuity(or no discontinuity if there was none), entering only one measurement without giving a range, then selecting if it was a pass or failed weld.

I have a few concerns and CWB wont give any information to me, so I hope someone can give some details on how the test should be filled out.

I found measuring the samples was really easy, but still managed to get two of the measurements wrong. CWB wouldn't tell me how specific the measurements have to be, I asked if they were rounded off to the closest 0.5mm since the tools didnt have lines for every tenth of a mm, but she said she can't tell me that information. I just want to know how precise the measurements need to be, because I can't wrap my head around how I managed to get two of them wrong when it seemed very easy and clear what the measurement ended up being. I see earlier in the comments that people are saying they have a bit of leeway in our measurements, which makes me even more confused on how I managed to get them wrong since there is no chance I was more than 0.5mm off on my measurements. I feel like they want an exact precise measurement, can anyone confirm this at all?

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Another concern is when I can clearly see there is a bunch of tiny specks of porosity which are so tiny that I can't measure them, should I select no discontinuity? Should I select porosity? If something is too small to measure, Im not sure what measurement I could put down since they were so tiny. Personally in this situation I put down No discontinuity since porosity under 1mm in length is allowed, and I couldn't even measure the size of them since they were just tiny little dots ... I have no clue if I got this right though.
With that said with the porosity sample I had, I also had a sample that was really ugly that had a whole bunch of undercut on it, but the undercut was only 1mm deep, and undercut is allowed up to 2mm deep. I also selected no discontinuity for this one since it wasn't outside of the acceptable amount...although this one was still able to be measured, so Im not sure if I got this one wrong, maybe I shouldve selected undercut, marked down that it was 1mm deep, and then accepted it as a passable weld..... or was I right to select no discontinuity since it was still less than the unacceptable amount?
The biggest problem with these two samples is I only got one discontinuity wrong out of the 5 samples I was given, and its possible that I was right by selecting "No discontinuity" for both of them. It wouldn't really make sense that I should've selected the porosity or undercut since I would've been wrong on at least two discontinuity selections if thats the case...unless I was suppose to pick undercut since the undercut was measurable, and leave the porosity one as no discontinuity.
TLDR for this section, I mostly just want to know when I should be selecting "No discontinuity" or the passable discontinuity...like at what point does it become a "no discontinuity" selection? For all I know I was right on both of these to put no discontinuity, and the 1 of 5 that I selected wrong was something else.
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Not sure if anyone else came across a situation where any of the samples were too scratched up to figure out what they were looking at. One of my samples was so scratched that I couldnt tell if I was looking at undercut, or if I was looking at some exposed bevel. If it was exposed bevel then it would've been lack of fusion, if it was undercut, then it was deep enough to be marked as under cut since the pit was deep enough for a rejection...but sadly it felt like a flip of a coin since I couldn't tell what I was looking at. Has anyone else come across a situation where there sample was too scratched up to see the sample clearly? And can anything be done about it?
Last edited by Drift on Mon Nov 22, 2021 7:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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