Well a cheater course doesn't really cheat for you. You get out what you put in. I took a exam prep course which ran 72 hours. Eleven days at 8 hours a session. It was spread over 3 months on saturdays. And the home work was about 20hrs a week. It opened my eyes on a lot of things. Being a residential electrician I didn't have much control or transformer expierence prior to taking that course. It really helped me continue learning well after I passed. For guys to take an weekend long crash course and pass, they would have to know a great deal walking into that class. The Georgia test is heavily weighted with taxes, unemployment insurance, workers comp and such. The only way to get this stuff is to take a course cause the bossman isn't gonna waste his time one it. I never had a master teach me what I needed to know on the test. I think if you can get done in a weekend... great! But good luck. As Electric Eagle said continuing ed in our state can be a joke. I try to go find a course that will benefit me instead of just trying to get my four hours in. Like I said you get out what you put in. Today we wrapped up about two hours early so I took all my men back to the shop for school. Pulled out the dry-erase board and started preaching. We took 14.4kv primaries and took them through the whole system down to the last recept. I referenced the code the whole way through and they sat with pen, paper and ugly book and took notes. No one I worked for did this for me and it made tough when I went from the field to the code book. I try to do this with my crew when we have time and it's fun to hear to helpers arguing code issues the next day on the job! It really gives them a sense of pride and makes them better electricians.
