simonmoon99

Hey guys of hilarious banter and sarcasm!

I finally got my application back from the ewrb and have been told that everything is all good apart from I need to sit my Stage 3 practical! Does anyone know whats involved in this or done it recently??! Just want to be a little prepared for the kind of area there going to throw me in and how strick they are.... Most of the electrical exams except my 2391 have been pretty chilled out and easy going but any advice or pointers would be greatly greatly appreciated as its pretty costly and I dont want to have to wait another 4 mths for the next exam!


Cheers people!

simonmoon99

Also I forgot to say that Previously I have seen a thread where someone posted pretty much everything they went through for the day and it was a really good informative thread but can I find it now!! can I ........ Soooo if anyone can nosey me in that direction then that also would be greeeeat!

BEVS

Annoying when that happens.
I'll have a ferret around.

BEVS

Here is an old one

sparkie down under

Stage 3 (for us) is a week long, going through stuff that you will have forgotten about no doubt. There's a lot of motors and starting/protection, there's a bit about testing, but bugger all like back home, some appliance testing and then the dreaded 'place on a board the following'! (which takes a day)

It's not a walk in the park, but if you've had a screwdriver in your hand recently then you'll get through ok.

Our examiner/instructor said to us, I'm not here to teach you, you're here to impress me; but that doesn't mean I can't point you in the right direction if I feel you need refreshing"

On my course we all passed except one - and he really shouldn't have been in our trade.

Also please bear in mind I did mine 7 years ago - so I might be a bit out of date.

Best of luck

simonmoon99

Ahhh thanks bevs... and ghost... so noone has taken it recently also Im currently working here as a qualified builder hovering around the $30 mark... what should I expect as far as the sparkie rates?? Is there a light at the end of the gloomy EQC Flecthers tunnel of doom ???

simonmoon99

And sparky down under

HeatherGirl

Hi there

My husband is doing his stage 3 in November. He'll be away for 2 weeks (a week for regs and a week for practical) with an exam on the Saturday in the middle..

Still, at least it'll be out the way and he'll have his license!

If you're planning yours after Nov - I can quiz him about it and let you know.

HeatherGirl

SparkyGaz

Hey there, I will be registering soon and saw a good post so I had the foresight to paste the info into a word document and save it. I knew I would never find it again........ Here's the whole thing, hope it's of some use......and good luck !!

The 1st weeks course, which is regulations is basically sitting in a classroom for a week pounding through old exam papers, the course is open book so you need to get yourself a highlighter pen and loads of small post it pads, on which you can make quick find notes as the 3hrs hours goes so fast, the tutor will point you in the direction of which questions are lightly to be raised, but it is a hard course especially if like me you havent done a regs course in 20 or so years.
The theory is a different matter , you start off wiring up a circuit board, on the board it consists of wiring up a consumer unit along will lighting and power, the 2-way lighting and intermediate switched via a relay, three phase sockets and a few stop/start switches which go through various relays and contactors....not easy!!
Next is the wiring up or motors, about 6 in total if i remember, star/ delta, three phase/single phase. Now this is the hard part....there is a board fixed to a table, mounted on this board at the top are contactors/overloads/ mcb's and relays, these are wired up to what can only be discribed as what the old telephone operators used to used back in the day, with loads of holes in a board and plug in cables to each of the holes, these go to various parts of the contactors etc, so you will need a multi meter as you have to find out the normally open/ normally closed contacts on the overloads/contactors, you get circuit drawings so you dont have to work out any of that, at the end of that you have to test the control circuit and if ok, connect up the motor to it and run.
After that, there is RCD testing and then portable appliance testing( and they use 2 phase cookers over here) so i would be lying if i said it was easy and if its something your not familar with, you may struggle, but you may not be the only brit there so you can work it out between you, there is help from the tutors but you are expected to have some knowledge.
hi all.just finished day 3 on my stage 3 practical,the couse was set up to Hover across the whole board of the electrical industry,i very much hope all went well but a matter of waiting for a letter of confirmation im guessing !
roughly the course ste up was
1.Wire up a 3 phase socket,a single phase plug and an after the connections and terminals being checked both leads were the used to wire up to a 2 phase motor,both star and delta and a single phase motor.
2.Was give a worksheet to set up a board and circuits comprising of-4 lights ran from 3 switches,2 x 1 way,1 x 2-way-inter,2 sockets ran independantly through an rcd,info depicted which size breaker for each,a 3 phase socket,a control circuit for a 3 phase motor switching the motor from star to delta through contactors and a timer and the 3 phase wiring to the motor,
4.Fuseboard wired from scratch from a 3 phase sochet you must feed to a 3 phase isolator up to the board which then feeds an isolator,links must then feed breakers for each individual circuit as ther is no busbar inside the board.
all necessary test conducted to confirm the safety of the installation before liven up the board,do live tests and test the circuits,lights/power/motor.
5.appliance tests,was given 2 appliances to test,visual inspection,earth continuity test,I/R test,appliance resistance test and fill in necessary testsheet.

It sound like a lot of work but once you begin they are very understanding of the industry and peoples knowledge more of the part of the industry you specialise in.they want you to have a basic knowlege of everything i guess but will be very helpful if you become stuck/confused with any part of the (exam),i have written ""exam in the loose term because they class the whole thing as somewhat as a lesson for you as well,to learn the techniques they are after over here,any questions more than willing to help,got the regs exam in 3 weeks so got my fingers crossed i passed today and will be working my butt of studying till then.

Remember to copy and paste this info somewhere for future ref
Gary

simonmoon99

Thats what im after! good man!!

SparkyGaz

Glad I could help