Acs questions???

[Ginger plumbing]

Hi there gonna be taking my ACS in a couple of weeks and I wondered if any one knows has a some questions that are likely to come up and if there's a web site or something where I could possibly do a mock exam. Many thanks I really want to try and pass this

 

[sal786]

Hi did mine few weeks ago try gb gas website they have mock questions or read up on the viper eg ventilation ,pipesizing ,combustion etc .

 

[DJNelsonHeating]

If you've got your G1/G2 book, tab it up with all the pages that have facts and figures, so you don't spend forever searching for the information you require. i.e. a tab on the CO/CO2 ratios page, a tab on effects of CO poisoning, a tab on how deep and where you can cut into joists, chase pipes in walls, and so on. Leads for a messy looking book, but I had it with a different colour tab for each chapter's tabs. About £1 from Tesco. Good luck!

 

[Hardy1]

did mine last week, revise on, characterisitics on combustion, ventilation, pipe sizing, gas pressures, flues, gas controls, pipework, appliances, gas escapes, gas rates, e.t.c. youll be fine.

 

[DJNelsonHeating]

did mine last week, revise on, characterisitics on combustion, ventilation, pipe sizing, gas pressures, flues, gas controls, pipework, appliances, gas escapes, gas rates, e.t.c. youll be fine.

Yup, pretty much everything

 

[Mr leaky]

how difficult is the test any ideas what the pass rate is i assume it isnt like bpec exams where its multiple choice + open book

 

[kirkgas]

how difficult is the test any ideas what the pass rate is i assume it isnt like bpec exams where you pretty much turn up to collect the certificate

i would make you an offer to bring some cash to our bpec centre and see if we "sell" you a certificate,

 

[Speedy_Sandwich]

As it's all open book just do what DJNelsonHeating said, mark up the pages which contain the facts and figures in your choice of learning material. This will enable you to find things quickly and stop the 'panic page flicking' . I mean i find the index and layout of the Viper book to be pretty pants so it's definitely worth marking that up if you have it.
I have another tip which generally seems to work and i find a godsend; As most questions are multiple choice and most have four answers it is more than likely that two of the available answers are completely wrong so you can eliminate them staright away. That leaves you with a 50:50 chance if you really have to guess!! :wink:

Either way good luck!!

 

[Hardy1]

you get 3 attempts, just revise(<thats the key), learn where to source information from and where it is contained, some stuff you should know off by heart, but then theres stuff you aint going to remember, so learn to reference that is the key, and dont waste time.

 

[DJNelsonHeating]

you get 2 written attempts - the third is an oral questioning during practical assessments, perhaps worded differently to ensure you understand the question (some are not well worded).

however, strangely enough, in the written there are true/false questions! If you don't know tick true, and you know if you get it back, the answer is false for the 2nd attempt! Defeats the object, but there you go...

 

[Ginger plumbing]

Thanks for all your replies and help, gonna hit the books now so will keep you posted how I got on.

 

[kirkgas]

you get 2 written attempts - the third is an oral questioning during practical assessments, perhaps worded differently to ensure you understand the question (some are not well worded).

however, strangely enough, in the written there are true/false questions! If you don't know tick true, and you know if you get it back, the answer is false for the 2nd attempt! Defeats the object, but there you go...

i wish i had £1 for every expert who needs a 3rd attempt at a yes or no question, i kid you not

 

[DJNelsonHeating]

It baffled me that it was the case!

 

[northstar]

Hi did mine few weeks ago try gb gas website they have mock questions or read up on the viper eg ventilation ,pipesizing ,combustion etc .

where did you do your exam at ?

 

[gasmarc]

To be honest some of the questions are totally beyond me and I still woudnt know the answer. Its just a process of elimination on the multiple choice imho. A total was of money

 

[kirkgas]

To be honest some of the questions are totally beyond me and I still woudnt know the answer. Its just a process of elimination on the multiple choice imho. A total was of money

its only my theory and not based on anything official, but my take on the random/stupid/unrealistic ACS questions that nobody knows off the top of their head but can find the answer to via notes or BS docs is if you were ever in court for an incident you would be asked the question "why did you do what you did" your answer would be "because i thought it was the right way" then they would say "when you did your ACSow did you get the answers correct" you would then answer "i knew some and researched some in BS docs or training notes" the next statement is the one that will get you is "so can you tell the court why in this case you didnt think it was necessary to check you knew what you were doing when you used this method to confirm an answer during your ACS exam" CYA by the system, and i firmly believe there are a load of random/mental/unknowable answers throughout the exams as these prove you researched some of them as nobody knows all the mad ones, cause if the questions were all sensible you could argue in court that you passed because you knew all the sensible stuff and didnt need to look things up, therefore showing the system to be at fault, and they cant have that can they? again i must say this post is from my own ramblings and not based onanything official

 

[Speedy_Sandwich]

My gripe for sometime now => On my ‘Soap Box’ here but the industry needs to sort itself out as the educational part of the Gas sector is a complete joke. I can give various examples but here is a couple;
The last place I went to do my ACS there was no invigilator in the exam and one chap went back and forth with his answers for checking 6 times - yes I said 6 and passed. mg_smile: Also everyone (apart from me and one other guy) were constantly “what you get for 32 and what you get for 16”? During the teaching phase one instructor, when talking about ventilation said that ’for a gas appliance in a kitchen you MUST have an openable window’. I challenged this and his answer was ‘the good book says so’. I got the centre to dig out the CORGI bulletin which as most will know allows mechanical ventilation or venting instead of the window - other factors too.
The time before that when I did my ACS it was strictly controlled and one guy failed. Don’t know what happened to him after that. But the teaching at that place was out of this world and I will go back there next time.
Everyone complains about ‘illegal gas workers’ & ‘cowboys’ I think we need to look internally when shoddy work is found as I think the ability of some is suspect. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that most guys are incompetent I just feel the industry is not providing a monitored teaching sector with a standard to be followed like any other educational establishment. As this would guarantee workers who were competent and felt confident in themselves. As someone else has stated here in this topic trying to find some “one line information” in a BS is just ridiculous. I did it in my last ACS and I would say that I will probably never have to use that info on the frontline.

One final word on this; when I had my “1 to 1” with the CORGI man he asked about purging. I responded with the usual about times/volumes etc and mentioned that I would burn off gas at the end of a pipe run using a suitable method if installation over the size (0.02m3 - I think - I will look it up and correct, I mean you can’t remember everything that’s why the exam is open book). He was most insistent that you should never ever do this and just vent it.

Off my ‘soap box’ now though I may open a new thread for discussion.

 

[sparra1100]

few yrs ago when i done mine i dont remember being able to ask questions on it, no one would tell you anything about it, carnt believe people are givin info out in something as important as this plus not every person gets the same paper as you go along might sound sour grapes but really dont think there should be info on this

 

[Hardy1]

i remember doing mine last week, we started at 9:00, i was out by 1:30, everyone was looking at me like :| :| :| :|, even the assesor i was like cheerio :33:

 

[kirkgas]

i remember doing mine last week, we started at 9:00, i was out by 1:30, everyone was looking at me like :| :| :| :|, even the assesor i was like cheerio :33:

was that on your theory papers, and if so well done you put enough effort in and prob got some good support:rofl:, but nevertheless some struggle so well done

 

[Hardy1]

lol yh it was on the written papers, i was like2-3 papers infront of everybody at all times, even on the practical, i slowed down by thursday night, but on friday morning, went in banged it all out, and was gone by half 1 again, d ova 3 guys jus started there CENWAT1 or jus nearly finished 1 appliance and had 1 to go, and yes good support all thanks to you kirk , thanks again for everthing, still waiting for these darnn certificates to come through, do you know roughy how long NICEIC take for ACS certs??

 

[gasmarc]

you cannot rush the process ,I got mine about 10 days later

 

[Hardy1]

cheers thanks for your info.

 

[sparra1100]

yep about 10 days mate, give them a ring

 

[Hardy1]

give who a ring, where i took my acs or NICEIC?