I have been studying now for 3 months and have done 3 basic modules on the c&g 2357

when you were studying how did you remember everything?
calculations like voltage drop, csa, capacitance etc etc... I will remember these!

should I be trying to remember everything or do you think it will all come together once i have finished all the modules?
Is it just a case of keep using the calculations everyday? of course it is

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- Dave
http://www.pamperhouse.net
http://www.invertedcircle.co.uk

Study as if you were going to teach the subject to someone else.

When I was working as a college lecturer I (at first) found it as difficult as I normally did to 'absorb' a subject - sort of a 'student learning block' - but when I thought about it in terms of having to relate the topic back to someone else it, for some reason, became much easier.

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it depends Root.

when i was an apprentice..ooh some 27 years ago we were taught in block release. 6 weeks at college. 6 weeks at training centre. 6 weeks with electricians on site and that was for 4 years.

all the calculations and maths you do at college don't actually count for that much for domestic. unless you are in industrial situations you really arn't going to push the volt drop boundaries in a house but even if you do, it's all written down in the regs book anyway.

all you learn is what size cable takes what loading. yes there is a lot of maths in wiring, well at least far more than people realise, but not as much as a college course will have you learn.

the other factor to consider is how you will work when you finish the course. i worked for East Midlands electricity until i was 24. when you work for a firm, they do all of the calculations and design/planning for you. you get handed a job sheet and you install, so i spent 4-5 years after the apprenticeship not needing any of what i had learnt at college, apart from testing cals but again, that was in a book anyway. it wasn't until i left them and had to plan all of my own jobs that i realised i needed it.

it's like everything in life, how many of the classes you sat at school have been useful in life so far? did RE, music & French really help you do the job you are doing now?

lool sorry K-eye, i didn't mean my post to sound opposite to yours but it may look like that. i 100% agree with your words and you put it well, it's just what you are taught isn't all necessary.
we used to have one teacher that thought his job was to read from the regs book while we wrote it down. it took us about the 1st 15 minutes to figure out his teaching tactic, which to be honest, was abysmal.

when i was at college doing my 2330 lvl 2 and 3 i found ot as easy as asking the tutor what sections the exams where on and reading the sections over and over and over do a test see what im bad at and read over it again.
alot of the people in my class seemed 2 manage without really doing and practice or reading.

Rich - no probs and I agree totally that there are some abysmal teachers out there (the news is full of it at the moment too).

I've been on 'loads' of electronics courses and can honestly say that 90% of what was taught has never been used 'on the job' - that's not to say that it WON'T be necessary sometime in the future BUT I don't think anyone could take a particular course and 'scratch out' any percentage of the lessons with any accuracy as YOU NEVER KNOW!

When I was doing my radar maintenance course as a student I ended up teaching the other students how to fault-find - much to the chagrin of the lecturer taking the lessons but to give him his due he told me to apply for a position at the college as a lecturer. The rest is history BUT I even got some of MY students to learn things 'properly' by getting them up to the blackboard and making THEM explain a particular theory to the rest of the class and even THEY said that, having to tell someone else how it works made them learn it better themselves - so my explanation above is also based on practical experience.

Try it yourself - take cable calculations as an example and go through, in your mind, how you'd describe the technique to someone who had no idea..... don't skip any steps.... don't cheat...... you'll be surprised at how detailed the process is although you can probably do it yourself 'in your head' after all the years hands-on.

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I am sure some one some where needs to use imaginary numbers to work out power factor correction! However when I have come across the problem I have installed a power factor correction unit and the supplier has commissioned it for me so I have never needed to do the maths.

I have also installed two sets of batteries and I did not use matrix or any of the maths to work out what current would flow in each cable. In fact if I was asked to do it I would have to get out the books and think much more likely I would use Electronic Workbench to work it out for me.

However I have used ohms law many times and produced many Excel work sheets to work out the lower maths used. Working abroad I often found I did not have what I wanted and I had to work out things much more.

Although auto electrics the same can apply with other systems. I had no voltage regulators and a fleet of Leyland Landtrains with charging problems. To keep them on the road I wanted to charge the battery at below what it would use so although not over charging it would last longer than no charge at all. Flat out charge would be 6A field current approx so I wanted about a 1/4 of that around 1.5A. I was going to use a bulb as a resistor. Asked guy with me to work out approx size required and was stunned when he admitted he didn't know ohms law. I have also had people who could not understand that the prospective short circuit current was directly related to the loop impedance which is simple ohms law.

So as to what you need to remember is very much dependent on the level you are learning. As it gets complex you will get aids like Electronic Workbench but for basics you do need to learn it all.

In real life we tend to use things like Excel. If I work out a single sum I can make a mistake without noticing it. But with Excel I can test the spread sheet by entering known figures so I am sure there is no mistake.

It is the same using test equipment. If one tests a house at the end of each install one soon gets an idea of likely results. When doing my 2391 I was given a board to test and very quickly I realised the results were wrong and I marked up my test sheet accordingly. However it seems the lecturers had wanted results similar to a larger installation and had used resistors to emulate this. I had assumed some bad connections because reading were too high for lenght of cable. So some times we can know too much.

Dyslexic considerations mean lecturers can no longer read out of a book while the student copies it into their notes. Although with non dyslexic students it helps to write it down with dyslexic students they need too much thought on the writing so very little of what is said sinks in. In schools teachers are taught about this but in the college often the lecturer can be unaware he is doing anything wrong. My mauled right hand means I have limited ability to hand write and when I asked the lecturers permission to take a photo of the board it did cause some problems. They at first refused saying it was copy write or some thing similar so I requested a scribe. This brought it to a head as of course the college did not want to pay for the scribe. So the whole thing was changed and we started to get hand outs instead.

ah haa, just completed a health and safety module, unlocked some online learning after i got my test results back and have had really good overview of what I learnt in the first 2 modules... although i am onto my third notepad now keep going only 10 months to go if i keep studying 2 blocks of 1.5 hours an evening.

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- Dave
http://www.pamperhouse.net
http://www.invertedcircle.co.uk

next module now, should be recieving electricians guide to building regs and on-site guid shortly

big module for defined scope coming up

_________________
- Dave
http://www.pamperhouse.net
http://www.invertedcircle.co.uk