2330 303 Practical Exam

[Monks]

Hello, everyone.

I have always been pleasantly surprised by the amount of people who have provided me helpful information and tips in the past on this forum, so I am appealing to everyone's good nature to hopefully help me out again!

I am due to take the 303 practical exam in 2 weeks and unfortunately our tutor has cocked-up with the time that he has (or should I say hasn't) allocated for practical lessons aimed at providing us with some background knowledge of how to search for, and diagnose, faults efficiently; in fact, we have had less than 3 hours to prepare us for this exam, and after half-term we have no more lessons scheduled with our 303 tutor.

I hardly have any experience with fault finding at work as I am always on installation jobs, but I am fairly conversant with testing. With that in mind, could anyone give me a short list of basic faults that you are most likely to come across? Additionally, which test(s) would I have to do to find/ confirm diagnosis of certain faults?

I would really appreciate it if anyone takes the time to reply to this thread in order to help me out and, should I recieve any response(s), I shall be sharing any helpful information that anyone could provide with my fellow classmates.

Thank you.

 

[mattmoo1974]

I did PIR R1+R2 results fine and all other dead tests.
On live tests RCD would nt stay in.
Turns out no netural on 1 circuit.
Things like that.
They can just put what ever fault they want in to tie you in knots!

 

[Monks]

Thanks, mate.

How does it work then? Do I get the chance to functional test everything live to begin with to get an idea of what might be wrong, or do you just get a list of fault scenarios which you have to diagnose whilst you are going through the typical list of tests that you'd have to perform on a new installation? i.e. You find all of the faults as you make your way through your usual testing procedure? e.g. No continuity on the ring circuit, so there could be a loose connection somewhere; upon visual inspection, this proves to be correct.

Anybody else have any other faults that you are likely to come across on site/ at college? Which tests would diagnose them?

 

[mattmoo1974]

we did 302 303 the same day.
302 installation scenario, new install fill in EIC schedule of test and inspections. Grommets missing etc etc
303 afternoon as above but he puts faults in, No continuity of cpc things like that,Make sure you flick swt's when testing IR and Continuity etc etc
Its a mixed bag my friend tbh. Logical approach and all that will win

 

[Monks]

After reading your responses again, I think I might be expecting something different to how the exam actually works. I was under the impression that you'd have a rig with a list of fault scenarios, such as 'a customers MCB keeps tripping'. But, from what you are saying, you get a rig with random faults on it that you will find as you make your way through the same tests that you do in the 302 exam.

Is this correct?

 

[mattmoo1974]

Indeed it is Monks
You ve gotta find the fault ie Fault finding is what 303 is

 

[Monks]

Ah, cool. It isn't as bad as I thought it would be then. For some reason, I thought it would be much more in-depth than just taking readings for each circuit, as was the case in the 302, and rectifying whatever problems you find along the way. I thought in the 303 you'd get a vague description of what the problem was and then you'd have to perform a set test for that specific type of fault. Can you remove trunking lid and covers to confirm your suspicions if you get readings that indicate a fault on a circuit, or do you just have to give an opinion based on the readings that you obtain?

Cheers.

 

[mattmoo1974]

you cant remove the trunking lid, You do a PIR, We had about 8 faults to find.
Your readings will tell you want the fault is ie IR 0 M ohms <short circuit between what ever conductors you have tested. logical approach!!!!!!!
You also have to code the faults you find and fill out a said paper work etc etc.
you get 8 hours to do each unit ie 8 for 302 8 for 303.
We did the pair in a day, It was til 6 pm mind.

 

[Monks]

Nice one. The only thing I have to revise is what each reading I obtain will tell me about an unhealthy circuit then. That makes much more sense. Still, it would have been nice if our tutor would have spent a few more lessons on this unit in order for us all to get our heads around what certain readings mean when a fault is present.

Cheers!

 

[Monks]

Hello, everyone.

I have always been pleasantly surprised by the amount of people who have provided me helpful information and tips in the past on this forum, so I am appealing to everyone's good nature to hopefully help me out again!

I am due to take the 303 practical exam in 2 weeks and unfortunately our tutor has cocked-up with the time that he has (or should I say hasn't) allocated for practical lessons aimed at providing us with some background knowledge of how to search for, and diagnose, faults efficiently; in fact, we have had less than 3 hours to prepare us for this exam, and after half-term we have no more lessons scheduled with our 303 tutor.

I hardly have any experience with fault finding at work as I am always on installation jobs, but I am fairly conversant with testing. With that in mind, could anyone give me a short list of basic faults that you are most likely to come across? Additionally, which test(s) would I have to do to find/ confirm diagnosis of certain faults?

I would really appreciate it if anyone takes the time to reply to this thread in order to help me out and, should I recieve any response(s), I shall be sharing any helpful information that anyone could provide with my fellow classmates.

Thank you.

I've had a word with my tutor and he's told me that, at our college at least, we are given a list of fault scenarios. With this in mind, is there any more help anyone could provide me with?

Cheers.

 

[simpson93]

hi there hope this helps you

- all of your faults will be due to continuity or high resistances cross polarity etc
all done with a low ohm meter.
(you will have to tell them where the fault is e.g no continuity on live between socket2-3, or no continuity on neutral between socket5 and returning leg

-after you identify the fault your teacher will ask how to rectify the problem just answer for every one check terminals and look for junction boxes then rewire if that isnt problem.

it is alot easier then the 302 in my opinion. good luck

 

[Monks]

Brilliant. Maybe I'm just worrying about it too much and I'm overcomplicating it due to lack of practice at college. The 302 was simple enough, so hopefully I'll be OK.

Thank you.

 

[toofasttoosoon]

Hi Sat or stood my 303 practical last week 9 faults and a visual on a rig with various faults whatever the tutor switched on with job cards to answer.Went ok after a shaky start purely due to lack of fault finding practice due to mostly classroom work.basic continuity faults and insulation resistant failings.It was mostly the wordings on the actual exam paper that needs to be spot on ..dah!Same day i had the 301 online L3 science/principle exam which went well...Verrrry long day!!! Good luck.

 

[ExArmy]

had mine this week, got a distinction. was very simple in my opinion, easier than 302, less writing up and less testing.

we were told 4 symptoms, and told we had 2 continuity faults and IR fault and a polarity fault.

symptoms:

1: one socket on ring won't work with electronic equipment but works with lamps
2: RCD keeps tripping
3: flourescent lamp has stopped working
4: user has reported an electric shock from motor casing

set off on ring circuit, did end to end tests all ok, did cross-connect L-N ok, did cross connect L-CPC got no readings when testing L-CPC at sockets bingo fault found (reversed polarity socket 3)

then went onto RCD fault, IR tested whole of DB2(the only RCD protected circuits), showed dead short L-CPC, greater then 500M Ohms on L-N and N-CPC. flicked off mcbs untill fault didappeared to locate the faulty circuit. found out it was on the radial circuit which only had one socket, fault found (link placed between L-CPC back of socket)

next had a look at the flourescent, did R1+R2 but got greater than 999 Ohms with the switch in both position. then started buzzing out the L to find the break, turned out there was no continuity between lamp and switch. (switched live was disconnected in switch.)

then the hardest fault of all to guess from the symptoms was the motor fault. wasn't sure what it would be so i started with R1+R2 again and got open circuit, started buzzing it out to the starter and L was ok, then assumed it would be the CPC so did that and boom, fault found (CPC disconnected in isolator between DB and starter)

i think the fact that you get symptoms make it alot easier, and also that we got told what type of fault we were to expect( 2 cont. 1 IR and 1 polarity). i guessed what faults would be where apart from the motor one, but at that point i had already found 3 faults so i knew it had to be a continuity fault.

if only fault finding in real life was so easy!!

 

[Monks]

Nice one, fellas. Sound advice from everybody who has replied. Hopefully it's not too complicated and I'll be OK.

Thanks again, fellow forumers.

 

[Monks]

Did the exam today. To be honest, I found it harder than the 302 practical, although this could be down to my lack of experience on fault finding. I found all of the faults, though, so I would like to thank all of the people who posted help and guidance on this thread.

Many thanks, everyone. I really appreciate it.

 

[mattmoo1974]

I think th whole point of the test is for you to suss out whats wrong.
Just know your tests and in what order monks.
And remeber to do them from the start again once you ve found a problem.
As iv mentioned before they can just flick a fault in with a key
Stare at page 33 of GN3 for about a week and you wont go far wrong.unk:

 

[Wiltz11]

Could you tell me what they asked you in the exam it would be a great help.

 

[Monks]

All sorts.

First of all you are asked to identify 3 visual faults, and then you are asked to perform the safe isolation procedure on your fault rig. After that is done you are expected to find a number of faults, each with their own scenario; like 'The plumbers have been working under the floorboards and since they have left the RCD keeps tripping'. Then you go through whichever tests you think are necessary to find the fault.

It's not that bad, TBH. I was actually expecting it to be really difficult, but I found all of the faults in the end. As long as you think about what each circuit does and how electrical circults/ fault protection behaves, you should be OK.

Best of luck.

 

[Wiltz11]

Ok thanks what collage did u go to has im from bristol

 

[toofasttoosoon]

Hi Monkk pretty much hit the nail on the head regarding the 303 practical,We had work cards with faults ranging from dim lighting to socket failure.Test for insulation resistance and continuity etc.We also after all faults found tested ZS readings on all circuits and compared them with the OSG.Good luck..