1.3 Assessment Format and Permitted Materials

Two assessments, two marking routes, one 12-month clock

Quick Answer: You must successfully complete one online multiple-choice test and one practical assignment. Unit 301 is externally set and marked on e-volve. Unit 302 is externally set, internally marked, and externally quality assured. The knowledge test is open-book with three permitted items: the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Code of Practice for Grid-connected Solar Photovoltaic Systems, 2nd Edition; Requirements for Electrical Installations British Standard (BS) 7671:(2018) 2022 including Amendment 3 (2024); and a calculator. Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is not allowed. Learner registration is valid for 12 months only. This OpenExamPrep section is independent exam-technique teaching, not a centre assessment pack.

Handbook v1.3 is blunt because short Continuing Professional Development (CPD) awards attract two bad habits: skipping the practical because “I already install,” and treating last year’s battery course as RPL. Neither works here. City & Guilds wrote both the online test and the practical assignment. Centres mark 302 to that assignment pack; City & Guilds external quality assurance (EQA) samples the marking. You cannot swap a supervisor’s letter, a Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) company listing, or a manufacturer product course for Unit 302.

Time constraint: registration lasts 12 months because this is a short CPD course. If you pass 301 in month 1 and postpone 302 until month 13, the registration has expired. Last certification on 31 December 2030 does not stretch an individual 12-month registration. Book both units inside the same registration window.

Proxy unit 2922-801. Eligibility (Section 1.2) must be confirmed first. Once it is confirmed, the centre claims 2922-801 so Walled Garden can allow certification. Claiming the proxy before the eligibility file exists is the reverse of the handbook order. Claiming it after a 301 pass but without 302 still cannot produce a certificate, because both mandatory units must be achieved.

Sample assessments — a sample test question paper, sample mark scheme, and practical candidate/assessor packs — are listed on cityandguilds.com on the 2922 page (current document dates 31 October 2025). Practise with those, not with leaked “real papers.”

Permitted books — Amendment 3 now, Amendment 4 later

Unit 301 is open-book, but it is not open-internet and it is not “any electrical book on the desk.” Handbook v1.3 lists exactly three permitted materials:

Bring tabbed, intact copies you can use under exam conditions. A phone PDF, a colleague’s annotated photocopy of Amendment 4, or a manufacturer app is not on the permitted list in v1.3.

Amendment 3 versus Amendment 4. The City & Guilds 2922 page updated 25 May 2026 states that for qualifications that assess knowledge of BS 7671 through written or practical tasks, the relevant assessment tasks will be amended to Amendment 4 in due course. That sentence is a future-change notice, not a live permitted-book swap. As of handbook v1.3 (August 2025) the permitted Wiring Regulations book is Amendment 3 (2024), not Amendment 4. Until City & Guilds reissues the test specification and permitted-materials list, revise and sit against A3:2024. Walking into e-volve with only the Amendment 4 “orange” book, and no A3 text, is a materials risk while v1.3 is still the handbook in force.

When the permitted list does change, it will show up in qualification documentation, not in a social-media post. Recheck the 2922 page and the handbook version printed on your joining pack the week you sit.

Sixty minutes, thirty questions — practise looking things up

You have two minutes per question before you even tab a book. The open-book format punishes candidates who treat the Code of Practice as a novel to reread during question 1. Before test day, mark:

• BS 7671 Section 712 — PV power supply systems: scope, protection, isolation, earthing/bonding issues the regulations actually write.
• Code of Practice tables — current, voltage, and installation data you will be expected to read rather than invent.
• Energy Networks Association (ENA) G98 and G99 thresholds — G98 is the simplified connection route for small embedded generation (commonly discussed around 16 A per phase, 3.68 kW on single-phase); G99 is the fuller connection process above those simplified limits. The live paper wants you to locate the threshold that applies, not to recite a centre mnemonic that may be out of date.

A workable timing split used by candidates who already know their tabs: first pass of all 30 items in about 35 minutes, answering anything that does not need a book; second pass of 8–10 look-up items in 20 minutes; three minutes to review flagged items. LO4’s 16 questions are where slow index-searching costs the approximately 75% pass. If you cannot find Section 712 in under 20 seconds at your desk, you are not ready to spend those 20 seconds in e-volve.

Scenario: the Amendment 4 early adopter

Alex buys the new BS 7671 Amendment 4 book the week it appears in the wholesaler, and leaves Amendment 3 at home. The 25 May 2026 City & Guilds page has already warned that tasks will move to Amendment 4 in due course. Alex’s joining pack still reprints handbook v1.3, which names Amendment 3 (2024). On e-volve, a Section 712 item is still written to the A3 text. Alex wastes minutes reconciling orange-book clause numbers with a paper that was set to A3. The safe sitting, while v1.3 is current, is A3:2024 plus the PV Code of Practice 2nd Edition plus a calculator.

Scenario: trying to RPL the practical

Morgan installs PV weekly for an MCS-certified employer and asks the centre to tick Unit 302 from a supervisor statement. Handbook v1.3: RPL is not allowed, and candidates must complete one online multiple-choice test and one practical assignment. The centre still runs the City & Guilds practical assignment pack, internally marks it, and waits for EQA sampling. Morgan’s site experience should make 302 easier. It does not replace 302, and it does not shorten the 12-month registration by itself.

Walk into the test with the three permitted items, Section 712 tabbed, Code of Practice tables marked, and G98/G99 thresholds findable. Walk into the practical knowing that proxy 2922-801 only helps if eligibility was confirmed and both units are passed inside 12 months.