EXISTING GAS ENGINEERS! ACS Preparation Help!

[Trouble666]

Hi everyone!
From the time I've been on here, it appears we have some very experienced gas engineers;

I've got my ACS (First time ) coming up in about 6 weeks. I've been an apprentice for a year and as you can imagine I've had to learn a lot inc appliances, system fault finding, combi fault finding etc;

Have you got any tips for ACS? Also, if anyone has any websites they could recommend, it would be most appreciated;

Regards

 

[superdupergasman]

Get to know your corgi book inside out.

.... also dont get too nervious and panic...this makes it worse!

 

[GasMan1965]

My corgi book was a waste of time as they used the VIPER book @ the center I was @ !!

Best advice I can give you is dont be cocky and dont act like your a know it all

They do help you and as far as I know its all open book !!

 

[scatmanjohn]

I've got my renewal in 6 weeks, its not the most pleasant experience even though i find it fairly easy to be honest.

Its all about preperation. (as the old saying goes "fail to prepare, prepare to fail").

By asking on here you sound like someone who is trying to prepare well.

You will be fine

For the written tests you need to be going in there knowing as much as possible without having to look up the answers. Read your books every bit of spare time you have.

In the practical if you can show the assessor early on that you are on the ball and know your stuff then he is likely to leave you alone and be concentrating on the strugglers.

If you are a "struggler" it will be a bit more intense.

There used to be a website that had acs questions on it but it doesn't seem to be working anymore.

www.naturalgasonline.co.uk

here is another with info on acs

http://www.geocities.com/thegasplace/

Good Luck.

ps. ChrisR will give you some advise (he is an acs assessor)

 

[superdupergasman]

I've got my renewal in 6 weeks,

renewal is a piece of toffee, its not as intense as the first time and has really been cut down scat!

 

[GasMan1965]

I renewed for the 3rd time bout 3 weeks ago and didnt get 1 question wrong

You get 3 chances

 

[gasacs]

Its all about preperation. (as the old saying goes "fail to prepare, prepare to fail").

By asking on here you sound like someone who is trying to prepare well.

You will be fine

For the written tests you need to be going in there knowing as much as possible without having to look up the answers. Read your books every bit of spare time you have.

In the practical if you can show the assessor early on that you are on the ball and know your stuff then he is likely to leave you alone and be concentrating on the strugglers.

If you are a "struggler" it will be a bit more intense.

Good Luck.

All excellent advise. At our centre we do use the Corgi book in training it is also classed as a normative document which the viper book is not. The viper book also is simplistic and has the odd mistake saying that it is OK.
My advise to all candidates is don't panic, don't waste time on any one question take an educated attempt and move on.Try to remember it is multi-choice so the correct answer is written under the question....You only have to choose the right one..

 

[doitall]

If your not sure of an multiple question aways choose A, then B the next time and the third time it must be C

Saves trying to remember what you ticked the previous times.

 

[GasMan1965]

I also found that where you find the answer in the books they give you, youll never go backwards for the next answer

 

[Biggles..]

If your not sure of an multiple question aways choose A, then B the next time and the third time it must be C

Saves trying to remember what you ticked the previous times.

Dont forget to pray the answers not infact D.

 

[namsag]

Scatman only thing you will need to check on is purge volume and pipework volumes on 35mm it is a bit long winded so do a few practise ones other than that it is straight forward

Gasman1965 Why have you done ACS 3 times .

Trouble666 put your books besides the pan and every time you go sit and have a read(no use if your a once day guy ),try not and read too much at a time do it gradual and go back over it testing yourself.
Also when doing exam if you don`t know true or false answer always answer true because if you get it wrong you know what answer must be.

Get a sheet of paper ready when you begin exam if you dont have a clue about question write number on left hand side of paper and quickly move on (it will stop you panicing) if you do have a clue put question number on right hand side with whatever you think it is ie A or D. After you have finished all questions go back and spend time on the ones you dont have a clue about Then you can move onto ones you are not quite sure about an either look up or if time is getting tight make an educated guess

 

[GasMan1965]

Gasman1965 Why have you done ACS 3 times .

Ok the 1st was ACOPS then 1st ACS 5 yr ago then just took the second a few weeks ago. ACOPS, ACS, all the same really aint it ?

 

[gasacs]

If your not sure of an multiple question aways choose A, then B the next time and the third time it must be C

Saves trying to remember what you ticked the previous times.

You only get two goes at multi-choice the third attempt is an oral question based on the subject matter of the question. So this is not always the same question as the one you got wrong.

Now if its a True or False question always go true first time then if you are wrong you know it was false

 

[namsag]

NA thats why they done away with acops it was to easy .Took about 3 hours to pass all 16 elements. Going in from cold. As oppossed to First ACS which was a thousand questions over 2 days and 2/3 full days of practical. Which they then scaled down due to intensity of it

 

[GasMan1965]

You know I kinda forgot what was involved with the ACOPS .. I wouldnt call ACS hard though ..