The test consisted of 6 events: Ladder diagram and motor control (these were kind of related), written knowledge test, residential wiring project, motor control wiring project, and conduit bending.
The ladder diagram was the first event. They gave us a written description of the control situation and the requirements that the controls needed to perform. Then we had to translate that into a ladder diagram. It was pretty easy; I drew up a quick version to post here, check it out:
The second event was the written test. It was closed-book (except for the NEC). There were about 50 questions, and the topics covered all sorts of stuff. NEC, electrical theory, calculations, transformers, motors, nameplates, etc. etc. There were also some motor and transformer wiring diagrams where we had to identify and label all the winding leads for various voltages and such. I did very well on the test, the only questions I missed pertained to safety (lol), such as "What is the maximum height a rolling scaffold can be without requiring guying or another means of stabilization?"
Third event was the residential wiring project. They had a 4' x 4' sheet of plywood attached to the wall, with various device boxes already attached to it. They gave us a written description of what they wanted done, and a schematic of which boxes they wanted the devices and stuff in. It was pretty easy - power was fed in through a GFCI receptacle. Another duplex receptacle was split - one half constant hot, the other half switched from a single pole switch. Another set of switches consisted of a pair of 3-ways and a 4-way switch all controlling a single keyless porcelain lampholder. The circuit also included a pair of smoke detectors which had to communicate with each other. There was also a doorbell kit that had to be powered. Points were deducted if you used the backstab holes on the devices :wink: My resi project worked perfectly.
Fourth event was materials identification. As I mentioned in a previous post, it was terrible... lol. They had 40 miscellaneous electrical-related objects sitting on the tables. They covered up any labelling or marking on each object with tape. We weren't allowed to touch or move any of the objects. Maybe 20 of them were easy, another 10 were semi-guessers, and the final 10 were extraterrestrial artifacts for all I knew.
Fifth event was the motor control project. We used our ladder diagrams from the first event (so if you screwed up your diagram your control project was going to be screwed up too). They had a board set up similar to the residential thing: a 4' x 4' plywood sheet on the wall, mounted with various buttons and relays and switches and starters and such. I wired mine up per my diagram and it worked perfectly, though I'm not sure I followed all the standard motor control conventions
The sixth and final event was conduit bending. Each contestant got a single stick of 1/2" EMT and a bender. They gave us a sheet with a drawing of the finished pipe, included all the relevant dimensions. It looked something kinda like this:
Somebody had built a jig to put the finished conduit in. You had to pay a lot of attention to every measurement because if one was off, it would all be off. Mine fit in the jig perfectly - my three bend saddle was centered correctly, as was my four-bend saddle. My back-to-back 90s were perfect, and the only thing I got docked points for was the little offset at the end. I overbent it by 1/2" or so.
All in all it was really fun. My journeyman had won this contest a few years ago and he told me, "The best advice I can give you is to just tune everything else out. Don't worry about what the other people are doing." So I didn't and it really helped. In each of the events, there was a time limit, but there were also bonus points if you finished an event first. Before I started I had already decided, "Screw the bonus points. What's the point of rushing through it if it doesn't wind up working right?" So on every event I used every minute they gave me. I was the last guy working on each one, but it paid off cause I won
If there are any instructors out there that haven't done this sort of thing, I would totally recommend that you arrange something for your class. It's pretty neat. If you want any details or info just PM me and I'll try to answer it or refer you to someone who can
