Another wierd C&G level 2 exam question

[richardindorset]

OK, I think there are two right answers here...

Again, nothnig in the actual course notes on this...

You have to pick one, no option to write an essay on how they are all prone to issues after x years...

I'd argue that an ASHP and Solar Thermal have similar maintenance requirements. Only photo-voltaic would be really low maintenance, but thats not an option!

Which one of the following micro-generation systems requires the least maintenance once installed?
a) Micro-combined heat and power
b) Air source heat pump
c) Biomass
d) Solar thermal

 

[Gasguru]

In the gas world we often have BS questions like this. The trick is to argue your point with the assesor and let them fill in the "correct" answer to get you through. They know the questions are often poorly phrased/nonsense etc.
The correct answer in this case is A,B,C,D all those system require regular maintenence.

 

[Taylortwocities]

The key words are

least maintenance

Solar thermal is a big fluid-filled radiator on the roof. The sun heats it up. Searching on the wonderweb I got this....
Solar thermal systems must be serviced annually to avoid downtime and system failures. The glycol fluid should be topped up every year to maintain the freezing point of the heat transfer fluid (typically minus 15 to minus 25 degrees).

An ASHP is recommended for an annual service. SO is my gas boiler, but search engine says
You should get your system serviced by an air source heat pump engineer every 2-3 years – although, some warranties will require this to be done annually.

There's your answer, probably.

 

[robinbanks]

I have my ASHP serviced on the same schedule as my refrigerator

 

[richardindorset]

So consensus is ASHP is the lowest maintenance.

The course notes also say ASHP is a 'fit and forget' system. They don't mention maintenance on solar thermal.

Correct answer: Solar thermal. (WTF)

 

[JohnW2]

Correct answer: Solar thermal. (WTF)

MCQ exams fortunately only started appearing towards the end of initial my period of education, and they drive me totally mad. Many of the questions are so badly worded that the only possible way of doing justice to an answer is by 'writing an essay'- which, of course, one is not allowed to do!

 

[SUNRAY]

MCQ exams fortunately only started appearing towards the end of initial my period of education, and they drive me totally mad. Many of the questions are so badly worded that the only possible way of doing justice to an answer is by 'writing an essay'- which, of course, one is not allowed to do!

I'm in the other camp, my written work has never been good and have consistantly gained better marks with MC than essay answers. Indeed that is the exact reason I took my RAE in 1983 during the 5 year experiment.

We are of course assuming the correct answer is there, which was not the case for 2 questions in my RAE: One was 'what is the approximate resonant frequency of this circuit?' the 4 answers included the numbers 159, such as 15.9KHz, 1.59MHz, 15.9MHz, 1590MHz and the missing answer being 159MHz. I can't remember the other question which was in the other paper

In the pub afterwards there was great debate about those 2 and what we should have done about it. However many seemed think they had ticked the correct answer.

 

[JohnW2]

I'm in the other camp, my written work has never been good and have consistantly gained better marks with MC than essay answers. Indeed that is the exact reason I took my RAE in 1983 during the 5 year experiment.

I took my RAE in 1963, so did not have that option My reputation for lack of brevity in my writing was clearly well established even then, since I recall having had to ask for a 'supplementary answer book' after I filled up the first one with my 'essays'

Quite apart from the serious frustration that MCQ exams represent for many candidates (because of 'imperfect', often frankly 'poor', questions) there is at least one major problem/'danger' in examining people in this way - namely that it is testing "prompted recall" - and this presents a danger particularly if the exam relations to practise of a trade or profession.

Consider a question which was "Which of the following are important aspects of 'testing for dead' (tick all which apply)". Presented as that MCQ question, followed by a list containing several of the important answers, a candidate might well 'recognise' all the correct answers amongst the list and hence tick all the correct ones. However, if that same candidate were asked to 'explain how to test for dead' (verbally or by writing an 'essay') or, even better, if one actually watched that same candidate 'testing for dead', then he/she might (in the absence of any 'prompts) fail to remember some of the crucial parts of the process.

The point is that when people are practising a trade or profession, they do not have a list of 'prompts' to remind then what they should be doing - so an exam which seeks to assess their ability to correctly and safely practise the trade or profession should not really include any 'prompts'.

Kind Regards, John

 

[richardindorset]

I took my RAE in 1963, so did not have that option My reputation for lack of brevity in my writing was clearly well established even then, since I recall having had to ask for a 'supplementary answer book' after I filled up the first one with my 'essays'

Quite apart from the serious frustration that MCQ exams represent for many candidates (because of 'imperfect', often frankly 'poor', questions) there is at least one major problem/'danger' in examining people in this way - namely that it is testing "prompted recall" - and this presents a danger particularly if the exam relations to practise of a trade or profession.

Consider a question which was "Which of the following are important aspects of 'testing for dead' (tick all which apply)". Presented as that MCQ question, followed by a list containing several of the important answers, a candidate might well 'recognise' all the correct answers amongst the list and hence tick all the correct ones. However, if that same candidate were asked to 'explain how to test for dead' (verbally or by writing an 'essay') or, even better, if one actually watched that same candidate 'testing for dead', then he/she might (in the absence of any 'prompts) fail to remember some of the crucial parts of the process.

The point is that when people are practising a trade or profession, they do not have a list of 'prompts' to remind then what they should be doing - so an exam which seeks to assess their ability to correctly and safely practise the trade or profession should not really include any 'prompts'.

Kind Regards, John

Yes MCQ is a pretty poor way to assess the state of learning. A proper mix of classroom and practical work, which relates to the classroom work with continual assessment by the tutors would be best. Any tutor can pick up who gets it, who is getting it slowly but surely and who is a lost cause pretty quickly.

I hated final technical exams and in the end I devised a way to pass them by simply learning to write out all the required formulas on a sheet of paper. I'd keep doing it until I could just write them all out from memory. When the exam started, I'd just write out my sheet of formulas and then start looking at the questions. After 2 days I would have forgotten all those formulas. It was a completely pointless exercise.

The C&G course I'm doing now is also odd in that the theory lags the practical by months. We covered the theory of 2 plate and 3 plate lighting about 4 months after we'd done it in the practical workshop. It would be much better if the theory was done in the morning and the practical application of it followed immediately after.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I'm in the other camp, my written work has never been good and have consistantly gained better marks with MC than essay answers. Indeed that is the exact reason I took my RAE in 1983 during the 5 year experiment.

Likewise, I always preferred the MC's, simply because my handwriting was both illegible and very slow. I'm much better, on a keyboard, and like John, can often run to an minor essay.

 

[SUNRAY]

I took my RAE in 1963, so did not have that option My reputation for lack of brevity in my writing was clearly well established even then, since I recall having had to ask for a 'supplementary answer book' after I filled up the first one with my 'essays'

Quite apart from the serious frustration that MCQ exams represent for many candidates (because of 'imperfect', often frankly 'poor', questions) there is at least one major problem/'danger' in examining people in this way - namely that it is testing "prompted recall" - and this presents a danger particularly if the exam relations to practise of a trade or profession.

Consider a question which was "Which of the following are important aspects of 'testing for dead' (tick all which apply)". Presented as that MCQ question, followed by a list containing several of the important answers, a candidate might well 'recognise' all the correct answers amongst the list and hence tick all the correct ones. However, if that same candidate were asked to 'explain how to test for dead' (verbally or by writing an 'essay') or, even better, if one actually watched that same candidate 'testing for dead', then he/she might (in the absence of any 'prompts) fail to remember some of the crucial parts of the process.

The point is that when people are practising a trade or profession, they do not have a list of 'prompts' to remind then what they should be doing - so an exam which seeks to assess their ability to correctly and safely practise the trade or profession should not really include any 'prompts'.

Kind Regards, John

I'm with you all the way John.
I have been appalled at the standard of homework I've helped my grand children with.
One maths question last year for age 13 was: A square of sides 4cm and 6cm has an area of: 24ml, 24cm³, 24cm² 24cl.
Later the stats were given;
for their class of 28: 24ml=2, 24cm³= 11, 24cm²=7 24cl=8 and
for the year of 9 classes: 24ml=37, 24cm³=71, 24cm²=76 24cl=55

 

[SUNRAY]

Likewise, I always preferred the MC's, simply because my handwriting was both illegible and very slow. I'm much better, on a keyboard, and like John, can often run to an minor essay.

Being a southpaw my writing has always been tish but my written English skills have never been brilliant either, failing O level 3 times! So for me MC is a boon

 

[robinbanks]

I'm much better, on a keyboard

Well, you say that, but..

 

[ebee]

Reminds me a bit of a class I attended for C & G 2391 (yes I mentioned this particular example before).
Test question was to list 12 defects on a practical installation example - a wooden board with T & E, metal back boxes, accessories and a consumer unit .
The tutor was encouraging people to list more than 12 items on the basis that they might have missed one and listed a non defect wrongly.
My thoughts were along the lines of well say you list 20 and there are truly only 12 then you have incorrectly included 8 items and you should have a point deducted for each one, otherwise you may as well just wrongly list everything you see as a defect and end up with top marks (and help create some new urban myths).

totally unacceptable in my view, purely to pass an exam and of not much value in real life.
The tutor was actually very knowledgeable in many respects but I did have quite a few protracted arguments with him as he, in my humble opinion, did speak quite a lot of total bullfrogs too.

Of course a lot of the class followed him not me to get their pass marks.

 

[Adam_151]

Reminds me a bit of a class I attended for C & G 2391 (yes I mentioned this particular example before).
Test question was to list 12 defects on a practical installation example - a wooden board with T & E, metal back boxes, accessories and a consumer unit .
The tutor was encouraging people to list more than 12 items on the basis that they might have missed one and listed a non defect wrongly.
My thoughts were along the lines of well say you list 20 and there are truly only 12 then you have incorrectly included 8 items and you should have a point deducted for each one, otherwise you may as well just wrongly list everything you see as a defect and end up with top marks (and help create some new urban myths).

The point deducted only works if you are given a chance to justify ones that don't appear on the official list and have the examineer make a reasoned judgement. Because other than those boards having been poked and prodded to death, theres also likely things that fall through the gaps that are reasonable to pull up, but probably arn't what you are looking for, like, I don't think those boards had a full board schedule stuck to them, but thats probably not what you are meant to be finding. And if they are the wylex standard fuseboards if yours didnt come out the rack with the plastic cover that says "FUSES" on it in place then that would be right to pull that up if it had 3036s fitted, .....its no longer a type tested assembly as it wouldn't pass the tests described in BS5486.Pt.13 .....

What I remember of it was the official line gets its knickers in a twist over things like 2x 2.5 clipped edgeways on under a 10mm clip, yeah its a bit rough but you wouldn't pull it on an EICR unless it has been done heavy handed enough to damage the sheath