(27-05-2010, 08:26 AM)fnnnj001 Wrote: As part of the York Study group we were set question 2 to attempt from the 2007 module 1 paper.
I have answered them from a MTCE background and would appreciate any feedback good or bad.
In summary you looked at this question too narrowly by concentrating only really on staff competence and only really from a routine maintenance perspective. Perhaps that is understandable if you have not been on the railway long and that is your experience to date, but the IRSE Exam in general (and mod1 in particular) requires you to demonstrate a greater depth of knowledge.
You would have done well to have started your answer by saying that you were answering from an NR Maintenance perspective; it gives the examiner a clue f where you are coming from.
Even from a limited viewpoint I think that you could have done better on this question if you had thought more widely rather than really concentrating on one facet. The second part of the question was obviously all about "competence" so you want largely to "hold your fire" on that one to use your ammunition later- you are not going to get the same marks twice.
I think the first section was really expecting you to demonstrate an overall understanding of the
Yellow Book (so if you are not already familiar then I suggest some detailed study of that is required as it is sure to come up in some form or the other within any mod 1 paper). However leaving that aside for now, what you surely know and could have explained are:
1. How a maintainer knows which pieces of equipment need to be maintained when.
2 Why different types of equipment have different service intervals and indeed certain tasks on an item are performed more frequently than others.
3. How the tasks to be performed are defined- so some description of the Signal Maintenance Specifications should have been included.
4. What records are kept of having undertaken the work; how does the supervisor ensure that the scheduled work has actually been undertaken and completed?
5. Where important values / checks are recorded- be it track Circuit Record Cards, cable test result sheets etc.
6. How any anomaly detected whilst undertaking maintenance is reported and the process that then ensures that any faults are subsequently cleared within the appropriate timescale.
6. The use of calibrated gauges, meters etc
7. An example to demonstrate might have been a good idea; the routine test of a cable that identified some seriously defective cores and necessitated the use of temporary jumpering to utilise spare cores- and how this site change is made evident to others who may next work at the location and what the longer term "fix" would be.
Competent maintainers are obviously one key element, but only one. You should at least have addressed the process and procedures which bound their work- to be safe requires the right thing to be done at the right time in the right way with the right equipment. Mod 1 is about the Management of Safety and you need to take a wide overview. The question did say Signalling AND Telecomms, Maintenance AND Renewal so even if the majority of your answer were based on Signalling Maintenance then you should have made some effort to highlight any differences of which you are aware for other elements.
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I think if I were marking your answer I'd really put your parts 1+2 together as addressing part 2; indeed what you wrote for the two combined was about the right length for 8 marks. From my experience one line of text is most unlikely to warrant more than 0.5 mark; you should aim in your 30 minutes to write something like 75 lines (2.5 lines a minute handwriting is easily possible when the answer is flowing freely).
I'd have preferred a clearer description of what "competence" is- the closest you got was that it was gathered from official training courses and on-the-job leaning (but you did mention mentorship in the last part).
A useful acronym to remember is
KATE:
Knowledge
Attitude
Training
Experience
Think also about the
Competency Assessment Criteria applicable for getting an IRSE licence, also the
Underpinning Knowledge and need for evidence that you can perform
consistently.
Your answer only considered the provision and retention of ATW by members of staff; it was reasonably good on this but that was only half an answer.
Something else you should have explained was
Safety Critical tasks. Without a clear understanding of what makes any particular activity "Safety Critical" and also what specific competence has been assessed as being needed to undertake that task then there can hardly be a procedure to ensure only competent staff undertake it!
I felt on initial reading that you might be giving me more than I needed and going off topic a bit when you started giving details of NR's AITL system; actually it was relevant in that it is both a means of documenting and undertaking periodic testing to ensure that competencies once granted are maintained. If you had worded such that you first stated these high level objectives and then said that NR's current method of achieving is via AITL, then you'd avoid the risk that the examiner thinks you have wandered off onto something you know about but isn't directly answering the question set.
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The third part of the question was again answered well as far as it went; however it focussed too narrowly on that one individual and the one site.
What about other similar work that the individual had previously undertaken- could that be suspect as well?
Why did that person do something in a manner that is incorrect- is there a generic issue that may be affecting more people?
Is the Specification ambiguous or at least liable to misinterpretation? Was the training poor?
Was there confusion between two similar but subtly different pieces of equipment?
Was the right thing done at the wrong time?
Is it actually impracticable to do the task as specified within the constraints of the possession regime?
Are the correct tools provided?
Has a culture grown up locally that "the book says something but in reality it can't actually be done and therefore we work like this- everyone does it and we've never had a problem yet"?
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So on the basis of what you wrote I'd judge "not yet competent"; there wasn't much wrong with what you wrote but you didn't demonstrate a grip of the breadth of the subject.
You need to build on and expand your existing area of knowledge which at the moment I suspect is too limited.
It would certainly be a good idea to attempt to get onto a Yellow Book training course.
You will gain experience by attempting such questions and learning from feedback.
I like your attitude that you are prepared to give it a go and share your efforts.
So persevere and you will get there!
See also the [url=http://www.irseexam.co.uk
/showthread.php?tid=408&pid=1580#pid1580] other answer to this same question [/url]
Also I have attached a couple of summaries I made some years ago relating to what were then current NR instructions. See if you can get access to the current relevant intructions and do likewise as you read them- distill them to their essence and you'll learn moere than just reading and will end up with a form of revision note to refresh your memory prior to the exam.