Here are some comments from others who have been through the C

Here are some comments from others who have been through the C&G 2391 Practical assessment.

YOU will be stuck in front of a rig armed with an insulation and continuity tester and a loop impedance tester. He will say nothing.

YOU have to do a FULL test and in PROPER order (as in CRIPPLER) and fill in and EIC as you go.

It is not hard work. And remember to check your instrument before each test (continuity short leads and make sure that you get a zero reading and null out the test leads, and for insulation short out leads to ensure that you get a zero reading BEFORE you test). I know people who have failed because they did not do these pre-reading checks.

Stay calm and cool and don’t get flustered. Look as though you are thinking even if you are not

2391 practical has a few sections to it but they all follow on logically from one to the next.

The main thing is to observe your standard proving dead and locking off isolation procedures. You'll be asked to measure PFCC on a 3 phase circuit too so if you're not testing this often you should just do some dummy runs to refresh our memory.

Then there's the test rig where you have o identify the fault from the readings you're getting from your meter. It's just a rig with some socket & lighting outlets, with some switched resistances/shorts etc in line. They get you to test it on one load of settings, then switch a few switches and test again. They're standard stuff nothing sneaky so don't be afraid to spout up what you reckon the problem is.

The rest is just like a standard PIR. Watch out for stuff like bending radii and grouping factors, lose terminals etc.

If you test often enough beforehand you'll be fine. Just bring the kit to friend’s house and give them a free PIR over a few evenings, then they'll owe you oodles of beers to celebrate afterwards too.

You have to recognize the system, TT, TN-C-S, TN-S etc, than test your measuring kit as mentioned before, It is acceptable that you will use your own meter/meters if you have them, as well as you can bring your notes/books just don't glue to them...write the results as you read them, for example I had 0 ohm on my continuity, this is possible for a bench testing, (very short run). Fault finding: look for IP rating for CU, T&E cable was clipped so the thin side was to the wall, it should be flat, look for missing grommets etc. sorry this is all that I remember, good luck

My 'practical’ comprised of 2 parts.

The first was on a pre-wired rig with a CU and associated circuits. We were told to assume that it had already been isolated and that the job was just to spot and list faults - All this was Inspection via the 'senses' bit - smell, sight, tug connections to see if they were tight etc. One screwdriver only supplied for this exercise.

We were supplied with a drawing of the lay-out and had to mark where the faults were and list each one.

The following 'faults' were present -

1) No circuits in CU marked up.

2) No warning label on Earth Bonding clip on pipework.

3) No grommet on knock-out on Metal clad CU entry hole.

4) Neutrals and Earths not in order in their respective terminal bars.

5) Earth tag on SWA feeding CU not connected via an earth tail to Earth terminal strip.

6) Loose SWA cleats.

7) Outer sheath on T&E feeding ceiling rose had been cut too far back.

No red marker sleeving on Switchwire inside light switch plate.

9) L+N crossed over in FCU.

10) CPC sleeving missing from various places.

11) Live feed pulled out of ceiling rose.

12) Cracked outer casing on loop-in ceiling rose.

13) 2x T&E cables bent round too tight and clipped side-on with only one clip. (NO ONE spotted this one!)

We thought it was a bit tight of them to pull us up on it!

Second part was pretty much as Ray has already described - Make sure you do the 'meter-lead dance',

Check that supply has been locked off and 'Danger' notice is present.

Always use the 'proving unit' between tests, zero the leads out, and make sure you use the correct range on each meter for each test.

Sounds like everyone has had to do slightly different things, but basically the requirements are the same.

We had to do the following

It is good fun if you enjoy testing and inspection, helps if you're confident in you're testing, the only danger, and it's a big danger, is that they have time limits to do the tasks and can fail you if you take longer, they should tell you how long you have to conduct each task.

And best of luck with you're assessment.