T
ToonTaffy
I’m no stranger to taking exams. I’ve got a couple of “A” levels which I took in 1983 (when they were difficult), so I can tell you with some credence that the Part P exam is quite tricky.
I took the CSCS (Construction Skills Certification Scheme – Health and Safety) exam last year and that was a “walk in the park” compared to the Part P. You could grab a man off the street and give him the CSCS exam and he would pass it. It’s just about common sense.
However, with the Part P, you’ll need to have a detailed knowledge not only about the Building Regulations Approved Document P but also the relevance of Approved Documents A, B, C, E, F, L, M and Regulation 7 in relation to domestic electrical installation.
I was hoping to post the questions on this forum to give you some idea but we had to give the exam papers back to the invigilator. Even our lecturer was not allowed to see the exam paper before or after. We were hoping to have a post mortem after the exam but those tricksters at EAL constructed the questions in such a convoluted way that none of us could remember them.
You have to read the questions VERY carefully. For example;
“Which of the following structures are not exempt from the Building Regulations?”
I had to read this 3 times before I twigged that they wanted to know which structure should CONFORM to the Building Regs.
You should also know where the special locations are located and what a special installation actually is.
Also watch out for the use of the words “Dwelling” and “Structure”. The use of one of those words in a question implies whether you need to be concerned with regards to Part P. Remember, Part P is all about dwellings and not business premises or cow sheds.
Another tip when answering questions about what is or isn’t notifiable is to watch out for the words “existing”, “new” and “replace”. For example, it is not notifiable to install an electric gate to an EXISTING circuit but installing the gate using a NEW circuit is notifiable.
I took the CSCS (Construction Skills Certification Scheme – Health and Safety) exam last year and that was a “walk in the park” compared to the Part P. You could grab a man off the street and give him the CSCS exam and he would pass it. It’s just about common sense.
However, with the Part P, you’ll need to have a detailed knowledge not only about the Building Regulations Approved Document P but also the relevance of Approved Documents A, B, C, E, F, L, M and Regulation 7 in relation to domestic electrical installation.
I was hoping to post the questions on this forum to give you some idea but we had to give the exam papers back to the invigilator. Even our lecturer was not allowed to see the exam paper before or after. We were hoping to have a post mortem after the exam but those tricksters at EAL constructed the questions in such a convoluted way that none of us could remember them.
You have to read the questions VERY carefully. For example;
“Which of the following structures are not exempt from the Building Regulations?”
I had to read this 3 times before I twigged that they wanted to know which structure should CONFORM to the Building Regs.
You should also know where the special locations are located and what a special installation actually is.
Also watch out for the use of the words “Dwelling” and “Structure”. The use of one of those words in a question implies whether you need to be concerned with regards to Part P. Remember, Part P is all about dwellings and not business premises or cow sheds.
Another tip when answering questions about what is or isn’t notifiable is to watch out for the words “existing”, “new” and “replace”. For example, it is not notifiable to install an electric gate to an EXISTING circuit but installing the gate using a NEW circuit is notifiable.
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