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Almost to MCP, need E3 and F3

classicT

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Have been working towards MCP over the last year and a half, and am almost there. The final two exams that I have are E3 - Commercial Electrical Inspector and F3 - Fire Plans Examiner.

Both of these are a bit out of my wheel house as a building inspector as Washington State L&I does electrical and our FM handles all related to fire.

Does anyone have advice or suggestions on how to start prepping for these two exams? What was the exam content like? So far, I have only relied upon putting my face in the books and reading everyday. Thanks for any input!
 
I did my exams on the 09 codes, so things may be different now.

The E3 wasn't that bad as I recall. F3 is one of the two I had to take twice - there were some pretty obscure references to the NFPA books in the questions, and switching your brain to decipher an NFPA code book after you've been staring at an ICC code book takes some mental gymnastics.

Standard stuff here, but: Tab the chapters, get stupid-familiar with the indexes for all the required books, and take the practice exams on the ICC campus website. They're spendy, but were well worth every penny when I went through all this.

Something else I did, with every code book I had (have), was highlight the section headings, and then the exceptions in a different color. Every page of every book. You want to get familiar with a code? Take a highlighter to it and go a page at a time. You'll know where stuff is when you're done with that...

Good luck. Let us know how it turns out.
 
Something else I did, with every code book I had (have), was highlight the section headings, and then the exceptions in a different color. Every page of every book. You want to get familiar with a code? Take a highlighter to it and go a page at a time. You'll know where stuff is when you're done with that...

^^I like this! I'm going to utilize this technique in the future! Thanks JCraver
 
Something else I did, with every code book I had (have), was highlight the section headings, and then the exceptions in a different color. Every page of every book. You want to get familiar with a code? Take a highlighter to it and go a page at a time. You'll know where stuff is when you're done with that...

^^I like this! I'm going to utilize this technique in the future! Thanks JCraver

Yes, and highlight footnotes in another color......they will nail you as sure as exceptions.........
 
Regarding the Commercial Electrical Inspector Certification, I studied the NEC and used the tests in DeWalt's Electrical Licensing Exam Guide This helped me a more than the ICC online study course.
 
There is a club? Are there dues? Secret handshake? Group discounts? I have been missing out!
 
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