(17-03-2009, 03:57 PM)steve Wrote: For module 1 I would suggest:
Yellow book (if applicable to counrty)
Blue book (if applicable to country)
relevant standards for country
use any references you find in these books to expand your own reading list as required.
For module 7 I would suggest:
Yellow book
and something like - Systems Engineering & Analysis, by Blanchard & Fabrycky
It's not enough but its a start...
Indeed. The whole thing about the exam, and module 1 in particular, is that a candidate needs to be able to demonstrate breadth of understanding. To some extent the things that you should be reading are the things about which you have little direct experience; hence it does depend upon where you are starting from. I would advise looking at the
self-assessment form which I have posted- it consists as what I see as the key topic areas for the signalling modules, approximately in "module order", but remember that for module 1 you should have a basic understanding across very many topics that are covered in more depth in the specific other modules.
The exam should be the motivation for a student to expand their knowledge as widely as possible, so it does rather go against the grain to try to narrow down to the "minimum possible to get a pass". However we all need to prioritise and it is reasonable to decide where to focus particular attention. One thing to do is to review the last 5 years' papers and get yourself a list of topics that would enable you to answer say four questions on each; hence when you sit for 2009 and need to select two from ten you should have enough knowledge to select two that you can do well- it this module in particular you cannot get by with a weak answer for one.
One approach is to take a question and then try to do the research you need to attempt an answer to it, post your answer here and get feedback on how you have done and this may well suggest further reading. You can use the Study Pack, previous past papers or indeed look at the ones suggested by various posts such as
this by Douglas.
I absolutely agree that the
"yellow book" is the best place to start. If particularly lucky it may be a large part of the answer to one question; lack of knowledge of it would probably be a critical factor for answering some 50% of the questions.
I would add to this the
"orange book"; I must admit that I hadn't heard of the
"blue book".....
The
IRSE Body of Knowledge is probably a good overview of the right level and is free now to download. I wouldn't bother with the A5 size Green booklets for module 1/7; you'd be better off reading the "London papers" for the last few years that are published in the Annual Proceedings and also in most editions of IRSE News; again these ought to be freely accessible to you for the period for which you have had membership. The "Australian DVD" of a large number of older papers is available for a very reasonable cost.
I do think that "Safeware" by Nancy Leveson is a really informative book that is well worth study but it is expensive and takes quite a bit of reading and some prior knowledge. Similarly "Safety Critical Computer Systems" by Neil Storey but this has the advantage as being more obviously exam related. I certainly think that you should find some Systems Engineering / Reliability information- whether it is worth investing n a dedicated textbook is arguable, but use the internet and you can pick up a lot of information relevant for the level of detail needed for the exam. I have already put some info in the
Module 7 area; potentially this can be added to by others. The message is if you do some research amongst a variety of sources and can assimilate into a form that you feel useful to yourself and others then you can post it on this website for comments, as for example mangeshwakankar has done for
signalling info;
DON'T JUST LEAVE IT FOR SOMEONE ELSE- apart from anything else you'll gain more from doing it than merely reading what someone else has done.
However don't expect ANY of the reading material to be a "set book" around which the questions will be designed- they all contribute to helping you build up a picture and providing a structure against which you can assess the question posed by the examiners.
So much for the views from my perspective- what about any other comments by recent students with any suggestions of what sources they used.........
