Important points for your study plan

Time is your limited resource. Your learning efficiency will increase by having a plan and be focussed. Why spend hundreds of hours studying haphazardly when you could learn just as much or even more with 50 – 60 hours of organized study plan.

 

Our e-learning course offers 24/7 access and online support, aiding you in time management while focusing on key subjects in an organized and effective manner.

 

With a study plan structured over 12 weeks and dedicating 5-6 hours per week, you can maintain a consistent pace of learning at your convenience. This flexible approach enables you to study at your preferred time and location, ensuring a productive and adaptable learning experience.

 

Your learning and productivity will significantly increase with this disciplined approach that could also also fit into with your daily schedule.

 

Do not wait and cram the week prior to the exam. You may be still be lucky to pass the exam, but you will soon forget what little you have learned.

 

Preparing for a certification exams is a great opportunity to increase your inspection knowledge and skills and significantly enhance your career.

 

Make the most of it by subscribing to our e-learning course where the level of detail is proportional to the number of expected number of exam question and where you shall learn about the concepts and knowledge of codes and recommend practices and how to apply them as an authorized inspector.

Closed & Open book Questions 

When the candidate is required to refer to the diagrams or formulas or tables or graphs and curves from the Codes, it will always be an “open-book” question.

 

All calculation oriented questions will normally be “open-book” type.

 

The Code Information which is not short and crisp, (for example, large paragraphs, several descriptive statements clubbed together) will normally be asked in “open-book” part. Here the participant is expected not to remember the information but should know where to find it in the body of the Code.

 

The questions asked in closed book part are general and specific types of questions and practical questions that inspector normally encounters on daily basis and is expected to know without referring to the code.

 

Pay special attention to relevant figures, charts and table footnotes.

 

To answer open-book questions, you only need to know where to find the answer in the code and therefore tabbing of Code pages, highlighting the paragraphs or adding explanatory notes is useful and time saving.

 

We shall highlight the important pages of codes during each module.

During calculation type of sample and mock exams, you shall also see the code pages that are frequented and get an idea where you find the answer to most of the questions in open book part of the exam.

 

Please note that it is very important to also work with the PDF version of the codes and RPs as it is quite different when you go through a hard copy of a code than when you go through the PDF format.

 

Try not to use the search button in pdf files as this would be disabled during the exam for open book.

You should pracice navigating through the PDF version of codes and RPs without using search button as this is the medium you have to work through during the examination.

 

Please remember that study of API 510 code has to be “thorough” and total, while study of ASME Sec. VIII Div.1, ASME Sec. IX and ASME Sec. V should be such that it can cover the topics mentioned in the “Body of Knowledge”.

 

Our E-leaning course not only completely covers the body of knowledge, but also designed to elaborate or brief the topics depending on number of questions you may expect from a particular section. This is to ensure that you are focused more on topics that have higher possible number of questions.

 

We recommend the following three phases of study:

 

1- If you are about a month away from examination, read all the Codes at least once and concentrate on highlighted text in the Codes.

 

2- If you are about two weeks away from the exam, concentrate on highlighted text as well as the mock examinations provided.

 

3- In the last week of preparation, focus on Flash Card and highlighted text from the codes and RP.

Time Management during the Exam

Try completing the closed-book part of the exam (110 questions) within 2 to 2 ½ hours, against the allotted 2.75 hours and use the remaining 15-30 minutes to review any flagged off questions ensuring that all questions are answered.

For closed book part, You should answer minimum 16 questions per hour.

Open-book part (60 questions) takes a little longer and may require all the 3.75 hours that are allocated depending how fast you can find the relevant topic within the reference documents, but keep a tab on time; that is, maintain a healthy speed of questions answered versus time remaining.

For Open book part, You should answer minimum 40 questions per hour.

Always keep a tab of the clock on the right hand top corner of the computer screen during the exam. It show the remaining time versus number of questions attempted.

 

For closed book, you have an average of 1.5 minutes per question while for open book, you have 3.75 minutes per question on average.

This means you should answer 40 questions per hour for open book part and some 16 questions for closed book part as a minimum, even more, if you leave your desk for using the toilet, drinking water, or wish to review the flagged off questions at the end.

It is always better to complete each part 15-30 minutes earlier using the time left to review the flagged off questions, ensuring that all questions are answered to the best of your knowledge and also taking care of few nasty questions.

You may start from Question No.1 and proceed. If after 1 hour, you feel that you are maintaining the speed (40 questions per hour for closed book and 16 questions for open book), that is fine.

 

If, however, you are behind the target progress rate, start jumping the questions, for example, start attempting those short questions that you can answer quicker. Flag off or mark questions whose answer you do not know, to be reviewed at the end.

 

Then, at the end, start reviewing flagged off or marked questions by clicking ‘’review marked questions’’ tab and start solving them using your “feel” factor. Go on like this until say the last remaining 5-10 minutes.

 

If there are still some questions where you have no clue at all, just mark the answer at random. This may give you few lucky points.

Attempt all questions since there is no negative marking.

Before the clock stops, make absolutely sure that you have answered all the questions.

If you press the ‘’review all’’ button, you can also see whether you have answered all the questions or not. The exam stops automatically once you ran out of time.

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Percentage of Exam Questions per Code and RP

As per Effectivity Sheet for API-510 exam, there are 4 codes (API 510 code & ASME Codes V, VIII & IX) and 5 Recommended Practices (RP) plus PCC-2 have been prescribed for examination.

However, all of them are not equally important and therefore, do not require equal emphasis.

About 50% of questions are asked from inspection code (API 510) plus inspection practice (API 572) while the rest contribute to the remaining 50% marks which are some 2000 pages.

Approximate % of questions versus codes & RPs

Code & RP	Approximate Percentage %
API 510 Code & API RP 572	50-55
ASME Sec. Vlll Div.1	10-12
ASME Sec IX & API RP 577	10-12
ASME Sec. V	10-12
API RP 571	5-6
API RP 576	3-4
API RP 578	2-3
PCC-2	5-6

Typical API 510 Score Card