What it takes to get through GFES (so far)

So every successful person wants to share his/her insights and such on how to get ahead, right? Well here is how it is for us and we have all been successful (so far). I will use today’s subject as an example. I hope you enjoy the info and the irony. By the way, the company has been gregarious enough to provide us with laptop computers and a wireless network with all of the training materials provided in advance. The topic in question is “Demineralizers and Ion Exchangers.”

Yesterday afternoon, uploaded the powerpoint presentation and the student handout. Reviewed all 117 slides and discovered that the first 20 slides were review questions from previous topics and the last 10 were review questions from this topic, and there were 5 slides of objectives. Reviewed the student handout’s 15 pages. Uploaded the topic NRC exam bank questions and answered all of the questions (once) using the provided material.

This morning opened the powerpoint, and topic NRC exam bank on computer, obtained hard copy student handout from initial non-licensed training course. During class reviewed the NRC exam bank and student text while the instructor was presenting the powerpoint and highlighted exam answers and calculation techniques in the student text.

Following the 2.5 hour presentation and lunch with blog posting, answered the entire topic NRC exam bank..again. With several hours left of the day, review reactor theory and thermo.

And so it goes

Peering sadly into freedom???

Or a view from our classroom window. Well it’s not that bad, but it does get oppressive at times. I had the camera in the class room to upload the Monday Jack and snapped a few pics. I would have posted earlier but the department superintendent was observing our training and I figured it would be in poor taste to be on the internet during class time with him here. I’ll post something else soon

the dreaded queston #75

This was a modified question from the NRC Bank. The reason that the instructors picked this question was “to illustrate that memorizing the exam bank” was not desired. The funny response when half of the class missed the question was “got ya!!” The response, initially, did not actually address the possibility that the question or the distractors were substandard. There were some relatively snide emails that passed between the instructors and our department mentors and managers and at least one of them was good enough to pass it along to the students. On further investigation, it was revealed that the question could be worked at least two ways and that the stem of the question had been incorrectly modified. In all, it took a week before the dubious quality of the question was acknowledged by the staff. Here is the original question followed by the modified question. If you want to do the calculations you will need your steam tables!! Enjoy!!!

TOPIC: 191006
KNOWLEDGE: K1.13 [2.8/2.9]
QID: P2984 (B2084)
The following 100% rated power conditions existed before a nuclear power plant outage:
Main condenser pressure: 1.20 psia
Cooling water inlet temperature: 60F
Cooling water outlet temperature: 92F

During the outage, 6% of the main condenser tubes were plugged. After the outage, the following 100% rated power conditions exist:
Main condenser pressure: 1.31 psia
Cooling water inlet temperature: 60F
Cooling water outlet temperature: ?

Which one of the following is the approximate cooling water outlet temperature after the outage?
A. 92F
B. 94F
C. 96F
D. 98F

___________________________________________________________
The following 100% rated power conditions existed before a nuclear power plant outage:
Main condenser pressure: 1.20 psia
Cooling water inlet temperature: 60F
Cooling water outlet temperature: 92F

During the outage, 6% of the main condenser tubes were plugged. After the outage, the following 100% rated power conditions exist:
Main condenser pressure: 1.35 psia
Cooling water inlet temperature: 60F
Cooling water outlet temperature: ?

Which one of the following is the approximate cooling water outlet temperature after the outage?
A. 92F
B. 94F
C. 96F
D. 98F

License class examinations/quizzes/tests

The first phase of NRC licensing is the Generic Fundamentals Examination. “A Generic Fundamentals Examination (GFE) consists of 50 multiple-choice test items that examine applicant knowledge in three broad categories of nuclear power plant fundamentals: Components, Reactor Theory, and Thermodynamics. Each category contains several major topics, with multiple subtopics, or knowledges. Applicants must successfully pass the GFE with a score of 80 percent before they are eligible to take a facility-specific examination that if also successfully passed may lead to an NRC reactor operator license. The GFE web site provides access to all test items that have appeared on a GFE and all GFEs that have been administered since January 2001.” (http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operator-licensing/generic-fundamentals-examinations/general-information.html)

The screening for the questions and distracters’ is quite extensive as I have previously stated. When generating an exam, they use 80% questions directly from the bank, modify 10% and make up 10% new questions with the new and modified questions also meeting the same screening.

To keep up with the standard, the training department uses the same criteria for making our module quizzes and tests; however, occasionally the screening process is somewhat less than perfect as was evidenced by a question on our module final for thermodynamics.