How to Use This Guide & Build Your Open-Book Reference Set

How This Guide Maps to the Official Exam

The chapters follow the four parts in the order AWS examines them, and every chapter traces to a clause of the AWS B5.16-2006 Body of Knowledge.

Allocating Study Time by Composite Weight, Not by Item Count

A common planning error is to divide study time by question count. The composite weights tell a different story:

Part 4 has 40 questions — a quarter of the items — but 40% of the score. Each Part 4 question is worth roughly 2.4 times as much composite credit as each Part 1 question. Study plans should be weighted accordingly, while still respecting that a sub-60% result on any single part is fatal regardless of the composite.

Building the Part 3 Reference Set

AWS publishes the exact books from which Part 3 questions are drawn, and candidates may bring hard copies to the test centre:

1. ANSI Z49.1, Safety in Welding, Cutting and Allied Processes — free PDF from AWS. Covers the 5% Safety domain almost in full.
2. AWS Welding Handbook Volume 1 (9th or 10th edition) — welding science and technology; the primary source for the 20% arc physics domain.
3. AWS Welding Handbook Volume 2 (9th edition) — welding processes, part 1 (arc processes).
4. AWS Welding Handbook Volume 3 (9th edition) — welding processes, part 2 (resistance, solid-state, high-energy beam, brazing and soldering).
5. AWS Welding Handbook Volumes 4 and 5 (9th edition) — materials and applications; the metallurgy and weldability domain.
6. Blodgett, Design of Weldments — the standard source for the 20% weld design domain.
7. Lippold & Kotecki, Welding Metallurgy and Weldability of Stainless Steels — constitution diagrams, ferrite number, solidification modes.

Tabbing Strategy

At three minutes per question, you cannot browse. Tab by question type, not by chapter title:

• Arc physics: volt-ampere curves, transfer mode maps, ionization potential tables.
• Processes: the parameter and shielding-gas comparison tables in Volumes 2 and 3.
• Metallurgy: the iron-carbon diagram, CCT diagrams, carbon equivalent formulas, WRC-1992 diagram.
• Design: Blodgett's section property tables and fillet weld sizing charts.
• Safety: ANSI Z49.1 clause on ventilation, the 35-foot rule, and the filter shade table.

Building the Part 4 Reference: One Book, Deeply Known

Part 4 permits only AWS D1.1/D1.1M, 24th Edition, 2020. An electronic PDF is displayed on screen, and a hard copy may also be brought. Because Fabrication (25%), Inspection (20%) and Welding Procedure Qualification (20%) together account for 65% of Part 4, and because D1.1 is the only permitted reference, navigation speed in D1.1 is itself a scored skill.

Tab at minimum:

• Prequalified base metal and filler metal tables — group classification and matching strength.
• Minimum preheat and interpass temperature table — category, thickness range and process.
• Prequalified joint detail figures — groove geometry, root opening and backing requirements.
• Fabrication tolerance clauses — fit-up, alignment, cut-edge quality and straightening.
• Visual inspection acceptance criteria table — statically versus cyclically loaded.
• Welder and procedure qualification clauses — position, thickness and diameter ranges; test specimen requirements.
• Ultrasonic testing clause — the decibel rating arithmetic and acceptance tables.

Edition warning. The permitted reference is specifically the 24th Edition, 2020. Clause and table numbers moved substantially in the D1.1 restructure, so a copy from a different printing will not match the clause references the questions use. Verify the edition on the title page before you tab a single sheet.

Using the Two Open-Book Parts Correctly

Part 3 gives 180 minutes for 60 questions and Part 4 gives 150 minutes for 40. That is three minutes per question in Part 3 and 3.75 minutes in Part 4, including reading, calculating, and any lookup. Practical consequences:

1. Answer from knowledge first, verify from the book second. Only look up values you genuinely cannot recall: a preheat table row, a decibel attenuation factor, an acceptance limit.
2. Do the calculation questions with the on-screen scientific calculator. No personal calculator is permitted.
3. Flag and move on. A single lookup that runs past five minutes has cost you a question elsewhere.
4. Practise timed. The skill being tested in an open-book exam is retrieval speed, and retrieval speed only improves under a clock.

A Realistic Sequencing Plan

1. Diagnose. Work sample items in all four domains before deciding where your time goes; most welding professionals are weakest in Part 1 physics and Part 2 strength of materials, not in welding content.
2. Close the science gap first. Parts 1 and 2 must be passed before Parts 3 and 4 can be attempted, and they are closed book, so they cannot be compensated for on exam day.
3. Build the reference set early. Tab and use the books throughout your study, not in the final week. Familiarity is the whole point.
4. Weight the back half. Once Parts 1 and 2 are secured, shift the majority of remaining study into Parts 3 and 4, which carry 70% of the composite.
5. Apply within one year. After passing the last of Parts 1 and 2, AWS gives candidates one year to apply for Parts 3 and 4.