ISO 9712 current marking requirements

How can ISO 9712 certification such as PCN be failed with a 95% pass mark for a practical specimen?

There is a requirement that all parts are passed with a mark of 70% or more and in the Level 2 examinations there are three parts: the general theory, specific theory and practical. The two theory parts are multiple-choice question/answer papers and, providing each paper when marked shows a score of 70% or more, it is considered a pass. Anything less is a fail and each theory paper is independent of the other. In the practical part, the candidate has to attempt to pass all of the practical specimens with a mark of 70% or higher, plus produce an instruction writing for a  Level 1 on one of the specimens, which has also got to be passed with a mark of 10.5 out of a possible 15. Each of the specimens are scored out of a possible 85 marks: 10 marks for knowledge of the NDT apparatus, 20 marks for application of the NDT method, 55 marks for detection of discontinuities and reporting and, on one specimen, 15 marks for NDT instruction writing. These marks are specified in Table D.1 of ISO 9712, which PCN complies with. There is a note in the table: ‘In order to be successful, the candidate should achieve not less than 70% in the NDT instruction writing part, ie 10.5 marks out of the 15 marks allowed’. Each specimen has to gain 59.5 marks out of a possible 85 marks to be a pass.

If a candidate were to achieve 85 marks for each specimen but only 10 marks for the instruction writing, they would have failed the practical part and the results would be recorded on the results notice as follows:

Specimen and instruction writing	95%	Fail – Did not cover all of the points required in the instruction writing
Specimen	100%	Pass
Specimen	100%	Pass

A seemingly harsh fail, but those are the rules as they currently stand. ISO 9712 is currently moving through a revision process and the instruction writing marking has been discussed with thoughts that it could become a stand-alone part, creating four parts to the examination and also allowing for a separate re-test on either the instruction writing or practical specimens. There is no discussion to mark each specimen separately, allowing for a re-test on just an individual specimen. Until the revision to ISO 9712 is published and the certification bodies, including PCN, implement the changes, the current marking requirements have to be used.

john.moody@bindt.org

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