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"You can't teach an old dog new tricks." That saying is really not true. It just takes longer! I was reminded of this recently when I took the Texas Radiographer's Certification Test. It is pretty basic to say that you must be tested before you can do nondestructive testing. So, it occurred to me that some readers might use some tips on test taking. Here are mine. Frank A. Iddings |
Introduction
You must be approved, registered, or certified in some way to be able to do nondestructive testing. That means you must take tests on a variety of materials at a variety of levels from a variety of sources to be permitted to do your job. These tests may come from your employer, your client, a professional organization, a governmental agency - or all of them.Unless you are a professional student, taking tests probably is not an easy, comfortable thing for you to do. Many people have never learned to take tests, and so get poor results. If you are one of the people who never gets a grade that really represents the knowledge you possess, there are some things you can do to improve your grades. And, you can do this without knowing any more about the material on the test. What you need to know is how to take tests. I’ll try to help with the following material. But remember: reading this article will not help unless you do some, or all, of the things suggested.
Read all of each question. Read all of the answers.
Get Ready Early
Accumulate the study materials you need as early as possible, even before you apply for the test. Get the official list of study guides/materials and get that material in hand or on order so that you have plenty of time to learn it. Also get materials from associates who have passed the test. They may have found some helpful items that are not on the official lists.I’ll use the Texas test for Radiographer Certification as an example. For it you will need:
- a copy of the Texas Regulations (Parts 11, 12, 13, 21, 31, 41, and 42 are recommended with Parts 21, 31, 41, and 42 being most important in terms of information covered on the test)
- background materials such as NDT Radiography Manual by Harry D. Richardson and Working Safely in Gamma Radiography (NUREG/BR-0024) by Stephen A. McGuire and Carol A. Peabody
- a copy of your license
Other materials include example tests and compilations of questions and answers on radiography or background materials like Radiography in Modern Industry by Eastman Kodak Co.; Nondestructive Testing by W.J. McGonnagle; the Nondestructive Testing Handbook, first edition, edited for the American Society for Nondestructive Testing by Robert C. McMaster; Nondestructive Testing Handbook, second edition, Volume 3, edited by L.E. Bryant (technical editor) and Paul McIntire (NDT Handbook editor); or any of the many other books on radiography that are available. The good news is that they are available from ASNT. The bad news is that if you try to read them all, you will never be ready to take the test! Get a couple of background texts and only look for others if you find a question not answered to your satisfaction.
Start early. You cannot believe the things that will come up to interfere with or delay your studies. Some items may be slow in coming or never arrive. (I went to my bookshelf for some of the material I was going to use for this article - and it was gone. I may never find it. Start early.)
Read the necessary material. Then, after a breather, outline that material and extract only the information you need to study. When you can reproduce the material you need to know without going back to reread, you are ready - and you will not have to cram for the test. Remember that when you cram, some of the information you "cram" in seems to displace some of the information that was already there. Not good! Besides, you will go to the test tired when you need to be ready and rested.
Working Problems
Problems seem to panic more people at test time than anything else. There are some things you can do to make working problems less fearsome. The first of these is to start working example problems as early as possible. Start with easy ones and work up to the harder ones. And do them over and over until they become almost second nature.Before you work a problem, try to do two things:
- be sure of the information you have, and
- be sure of what answer is wanted.
Many people jump to a conclusion about what the question will be and never finish reading the whole question. Don’t work a problem that is not on the test; what is on the test is really quite enough. I spent a terrible amount of time on my last test trying to work a problem. I could not get any of the answers given! Of course not! I had incorrectly written down one of the numbers used in the calculation.
When you work a problem, always write down the information on a work sheet and, if possible, diagram the problem. If it is an inverse square problem, draw a diagram of the starting information and a diagram of the ending information. That way you will never plug the numbers into the calculator and come out with a ridiculous answer. For example, if the information given is for a source at one distance and the radiation level is requested for a greater distance, you should be ready to reject an answer that comes out with the radiation level being greater. You know better from the diagram. All you have to remember is that you will use the distances squared to reduce the starting radiation level. Also, this makes checking the work easier. Never do the problem in your head. The right answer can get lost in there!
Examples of problems can be found in work materials from ASNT, your company, your associates, and background reading material. The extra reading material may be used just to get some different problems to work. Rework the problems after a few days. They will get easier every time, and they will be easier on the test. Remember, the only thing that really changes are the numbers. You will work the problems the same way. Just remember to work complex problems (where you have to calculate some information to do the next calculation) in pieces. It is like eating a meal, you take it in bite sized portions or you will choke. Work the problem in as small, or bite sized, portions as possible, and you will make fewer mistakes.
Calculator
By all means use a calculator that is familiar to you. You don’t need to learn how to use a calculator while taking a test. Get the one you will use on the test and use it on all your practice problems. What kind? Get one that is easy to use, has both regular and solar batteries, and is no more complicated than necessary for working the kind of problems you will have. If your calculator does not have a solar power supply, take spare batteries to the test. Test takers make a pitiful sound when their calculator batteries die during the test.Your calculator should be as comfortable to use and as familiar to you as a pencil. If not, you may regret using it. On one test, I checked my calculator just before going into the test. When I entered 10 ÷ 2, the calculator gave the answer as 1. Oops! When I checked it again, I got the same answer. What had happened was that both the mode button and the 1 had gotten pushed when I put the calculator away. That put the calculator into binary mode. Fortunately, "BIN" was displayed on the screen and I knew what to do. When the mode was changed to decimal (mode "0"), the calculator gave 10 ÷ 2 = 5. But it was a moment of some discomfort!
Taking the Test
You are ready, your are rested, and now you must be regardful. That is, you must not make the silly kinds of mistakes that can throw away 10 to 25 percent of the test questions you know and can answer. How does that happen? Following are some examples of how to avoid errors because of carelessness.Take your time. It is a timed test. When you are told to start, do not get in a hurry. It is natural to do - to rush when the "go" signal is given. Instead, take a deep breath, and work at your own pace. Do not throw away all of that preparation time in a rush to get done.
Read each question carefully. Read all of each question. Do not jump to conclusions about what the question is going to be. Answer the question that is on the test and not one you made up in your mind because you did not read the entire test question. Then, read the answers. Read all of the answers. Too many people take the first decent answer and put it down. Sometimes the first answer is correct and they mark (a) and go on to another question. Sometimes the second, third and fourth answers are also correct. Then expect to read "(e) all of the above" which is the answer expected on the test. If you stop at (a), you missed a question for which you knew the answer. Do not get in a hurry and throw away what you know. Read all the question and then read all the answers. Reread the question if necessary. You are there, you are ready, so don’t throw away the chance to get it right.
If the answer is not readily apparent to you, put the number of the question on a work sheet and come back later. But, be sure to skip that answer and put the answer of the next question where it belongs.
Check your place. All through the test, check to be sure you have not skipped an answer on the answer sheet and, as a result, are putting the answer in the wrong place. It’s easy to do and it makes all those answers wrong to the machine grading the test. Check often! Do come back and answer all the questions that you skipped. If you cannot answer the question, pick the answer that looks best to you. Do not leave answers blank. Your intuition is often very good and a blank answer is always wrong. If you can rule out any of the answers as truly wrong, your odds of being right get even better.
If specific units, such as metric units, are required in the answer, check the answers to see which ones have the required units. Sometimes the proper units only appear in one answer. In that case, you don’t have to work the problem! If you worked the problem before looking at the answers, you did unnecessary work and wasted time.
If the answers to a problem simply move the decimal point on the same set of digits, such as:
(a) 0.1234
(b) 1.234
(c) 12.34
(d) 123.4
(e) 1234.rather than work the problem completely, work it with easy numbers that will easily set the decimal point for you. Round off all the numbers and see if the answer is 0.1, 1, 10, 100, or 1000. Then you are done.
In other words, don’t make the test harder than it is. That is not your job.
When you finish the test, take a deep breath, then check your work. Finish any unanswered questions. Make sure that you didn’t skip an answer and get out of synchronization between the question number and the answer number. Check your calculations. When you feel you have done the best you can do, quit and turn it in.
If you get to the point where you are beginning to change your answers, you are past the quitting point. Your early answers are most likely correct unless you were unconscious when you started.
And, remember: you will know more good answers to questions than not. You were ready, you were rested, and you were regardful. You are going to do fine! Go make your own good luck.
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IRRSP, NDT Handbook, The NDT Technician and www.asnt.org are trademarks of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing, Inc. ACCP, ASNT, Level III Study Guide, Materials Evaluation, Nondestructive Testing Handbook, Research in Nondestructive Evaluation and RNDE are registered trademarks of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing, Inc. ASNT exists to create a safer world by promoting the profession and technologies of nondestructive testing.