Before the Examination

Candidates must apply for entry to the examination on the prescribed form. Copies of the form are obtainable from the IRSE Head Office or from the examination pages on the website: www.irse.org.

Candidates must be members of the Institution at an appropriate grade, and must not be in arrears with their joining fee and subscriptions. Applications received from candidates who are not fully paid up members will be returned unprocessed.

Applications must be received at the IRSE Head Office by 30th June of the year in which the candidate requires to be examined. Please note that late applications can not be received after this date and will be returned unprocessed.

Taking the Examination

Whether you are taking just one module or spending the whole day being examined, make sure that you know exactly where you have to go, at what time the you should arrive and the exact time each paper will start. This is particularly important if the location is one, which you are not familiar with. Check to see if there any special security arrangements for access at the weekend which could delay you. Plan your journey so that you will arrive in good time to prepare for the exam. The stress of a last minute dash or a late arrival will mean that you will not be functioning effectively for the first part of the exam.

Check that you have all the equipment that you might require during the exam. It is advisable to take duplicate pens, pencils, scale rules, rubbers etc. and a spare calculator with new batteries. All the answer papers are photocopied so it is essential that you do NOT use colours in diagrams. Instead use different line thickness' or styles and print sizes if you need to.

Templates for circles and flow-charting are very useful as they enable neat diagrams and charts to be drawn very quickly, but do not bother with excessive neatness.

The first five minutes of each paper will be a 'reading and thinking' period. This will enable you to:

• read the instructions carefully and make sure that you know how many questions you are expected to answer.
• read all the questions carefully and decide which ones you feel most competent to answer.
• plan exactly how long you are going to spend on each question or how you will divide your time in Modules 2 and/or 3.
• use the remaining time to plan how you are going to structure the answer to your first question.

The main criticism from the Examination Committee is that many candidates do not read the question carefully, or fail to understand the question. You must answer the required number of questions. Failure to answer a question will result in no marks at all for that question.

You MUST begin the answer to each question on a separate piece of paper. Apart from the module number, the question number, your candidate number, the sheet number and the total number of sheets do NOT write anything else outside the box on the answer paper. This is to facilitate photocopying.

If it is necessary to answer on a piece of paper that is not IRSE answer paper, e.g. graph paper, the module number, the question number, your candidate number, the sheet number and the total number of sheets must be written on it.

The exam is set in English and answers are required in English, however the Examiners do recognise that English is not the first language for some candidates. While no marks are deducted for incorrect grammar or unusual use of vocabulary, it is expected that the candidate can provide a clear explanation of what they mean. Questions will only give metric dimensions and figures, and the use of imperial measurements in answers from candidates will not be accepted.

The purpose of the exam is to communicate ideas. Although poor handwriting is not penalised, you are likely to get better marks if it is written decently, simply because the examiner can read what is written.

Examiners are experienced in what candidates can be expected to achieve and recognise that candidates will not know all parts of the syllabus equally well. The fact that a topic has come in the last three years will not guarantee its appearance or disappearance in the fourth year. For a three question paper candidates will be wise to prepare six or seven topics thoroughly with two or three in reserve. In general topics are not discrete. An understanding of one part of a syllabus is almost always dependent on an understanding of the other parts.

When choosing which examination question to answer, make sure that you are confident that you can give a professional answer and that you answer the questions in the context of the paper. i.e. questions in Module 3, Signalling Principles, need to be answered in relation to Signalling Principles. Don't forget to add a few lines of explanation when answering questions that require calculations.

Little bits of answers dashed off in the closing minutes rarely add significantly to your marks. You will benefit more by planning to leave a few minutes to read each question through carefully and correct any mistakes. If you recognise that the answer to a question is not correct, but do not have time to correct it, make a statement to that effect. You will be awarded marks for recognising your error. You may wish to leave spaces throughout the answer to add any after thoughts, clarifications or definitions.

Remember that the ultimate purpose of the exam is to give you the opportunity to demonstrate that you are able to take a professional Engineer's approach and set your knowledge in its wider context. Whenever there is a borderline decision to be made, one of the questions asked is 'Has the candidate demonstrated a professional understanding of the subject matter?'