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SOLIDWORKS Certification serves as verification that students can demonstrate their expertise with SOLIDWORKS 3D solid modeling, design concepts, and sustainable design. Not only is it a testament to their commitment to professional development, but it’s a great competitive edge they can add to their resumes.
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To become certified, students must receive at least a 70% passing grade (70 out of 100 points) on the 3-hour exam.
Not to be taken lightly, the exam requires students devote a good deal of time and effort to learning engineering design principles and practices. Students rely on their teachers to lead them in the right direction, so we’ve outlined a few helpful tips on how to best prep students to become Certified SOLIDWORKS Associates.
Understand the content of the exam before you prep your students.
The exam is divided into five categories: Basic Theory and Drawing Theory (2 questions), Advanced Modeling Theory and Analysis (2 questions), Part Modeling (1 question), Advanced Part Modeling and Analysis (1 question), and Assembly Modeling (1 question). Review SOLIDWORKS’ general guidelines for content likely to appear in the exam before you begin preparing your students. This will help you keep these overarching principles in mind throughout your teaching.
Give your students ample time to prepare.
It’s a good rule of thumb to make sure your students have a minimum of 6-9 months of SOLIDWORKS experience before taking the exam. This ensures they’ve had enough time to learn all of the necessary concepts and have experienced enough troubleshooting to address any issues they may come across while taking the exam.
Don’t forget about broader conceptual fundamentals.
45 hours of classroom learning time is recommended in order to ensure students fully understand all the engineering design principles covered in the exam. Outside of these 45 hours, we recommend ensuring your students have a basic understanding of engineering fundamentals and practices at a broader conceptual level. This is key to helping students fully understand concepts rather than simply follow a series of steps previously identified for different design scenarios.
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Teach students how to pace themselves.
In our experience, most people fail the exam because they run out of time – not necessarily because they are unable to answer the questions correctly. Administer the Practice CSWA Academic Exam in a setting that mimics the official exam to give your students an idea of what taking the official exam will be like. This will indicate which problems take more time for individuals, so that they can spend more time practicing those design processes that they struggle to complete in a short amount of time.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
Ask your students to review the online tutorials on Parts, Assemblies, and Drawings as a prerequisite to the exam. SOLIDWORKS Educational Edition has built in tutorials to teach all of these concepts, but we also recommend investing in the Official Certified SolidWorks Associate CSWA Exam Guide. Each chapter introduces key CSWA exam topics, explains these topics in detail and provides short tutorials. The book also offers a collection of practice exam questions, which can help you help your students identify any areas of weakness.
Remember, there is a minimum 30 day waiting period between every attempt of the CSWA exam.
The exam costs $99 per attempt, but there is an option for you – as an educator – to administer the test for free. Contact us to learn more.
Good luck!
