CWI / CWE training ... oh boy!

A good decision even if you never use it. I suggest putting tabs on your pages and marking important clauses and sections. You can get coloured plastic tab sleeves that glue on the edges and you can slide printed descriptions into the tabs. I found that the "legal" section a challenge with the time limit. I never used mine but found it useful in filtering BS and avoiding problems before inspection. In most CWB shops you can't look after a shift without Welding Supervisor/inspector status. Randy

Congratulations on a good career move.

Your boss is not as bad off as you think. I did D1.1 on my CWI exam. It is not so bad. Just have to read it enough times so you know what is where and what isn't there at all. FWIW IMHO the AWS D1.1 seminar is a waste of time and money. The only useful things I got out of it are tabbing your book, and clipping off the metric portions, non-mandatory annexes, and commentary which aren't relevant on the exam. If you subtract the clipped off portions, and the prequalified joints, which you only use a few of, the material you are responsible for is a lot closer between D1.1 and API-1104 than it first seems.

The Welding Inspection Technology part of the seminar should be a breeze. It should just be a review of things you already know. You could probably get by without it.

The Visual Inspection Workshop is great if you have never done visual inspection before. You get to work with tools and plastic imitation weld samples similar to what you will see on the hands on part of the exam. Just be aware that when checking the plastic weld samples for porosity that the porosity on the surface of the samples from the plastic casting process must be ignored. Only the drilled holes, which all happen to be nice multiples of 1/64", count.

Good luck on all three parts. If you don't pass the first time, don't get discouraged. I think most folks probably take it atleast twice before they pass all three parts. I know some that have taken it three times and not passed. Likewise, if you pass, but not high enough to get a CWI, and wind up with a CAWI, don't get discouraged. Keep at it until you get what you are after.

I thought the test was a joke. I passed with a composite score of 94.6%, but my background is NDE and inspections in general. To be honest, I've never struck an arc.

What is the pass/fail rate of the CWI test?

As someone else posted, D1.1 really isn't that bad. D1.5 is worse, especially since there is a lot of misprints and references to other paragraphs that don't exist.

I also took mine on API 1104.

Remember this when you do the visual part of the test: When they ask you if a certain discontinuity is acceptable, ignore every other type of discontinuity, i.e. Is this weld acceptable for porosity? The plastic weld will look atrocious and the plastic calipers they give you are kinda funny.

According to the instructor around 85% first time, and 95% second time.

IIRC thats the folks who take the seminar.

Quality of tools seems to vary from kit to kit. I had decent quality metal calipers. Not Starrett or Mitutoyo, but decent quality third world stuff. But the vwac gauge was pretty beat up.

BTW don't forget to check and recalibrate your micrometer. If you don't know how to do this, learn before the test.

When I took the seminar, about half the folks were getting ready for their second shot at the test. Some were perparing for their third shot.

That's pathetic.