Fact, fiction and tips
By now most of you will know that the Perth exam venue has moved from central Perth to North Lake. Also, the capacity has increased, meaning more spaces are open for potential candidates. I thought this would be an opportune time to dispel some incorrect information I am hearing and give some further tips for sitting the exam.
Firstly, the fiction:
- The exam asks for written / typed responses. This may be true for other statutory positions but for statutory supervisors the exam questions are answered by selecting the correct responses, either true / false, yes/ no, multiple choice or selecting from a drop-down list.
- The exam asks you to interpret the law. Again, at supervisor level there is no expectation to explain components of the legislation. The question will ask you for a response and if you don’t know you will need to find the reference in the Act or Regulations to assist you.
- The exam asks you to cite section numbers in the Act and regulation numbers in the Regulations. This is not true. Knowing the location of information will help you answer some of the questions but they will not ask for the direct reference number from the Act or Regulations.
If you have any further doubt, take a look at the sample questions on the “Home” Tab on your Mines Statutory Positions Portal login.
Now some tips for preparing yourself for the exam.
You are allowed to take in a marked up copy of the Act and Regulations. Don’t use too many page labels as this can be confusing. Try labelling each Part in the Act and Chapter in the Regulations. This breaks the documents in to big “chunks”.
When studying, focus on Parts in the Act and Chapters in the Regulations. Look for similarities in the content of these. For example, Chapter 7 in the Regulations details the requirements for hazardous chemicals. If you get a question on “chemicals” it will most likely be in this Chapter.
Label Parts and Chapters these with your words that explain the content, for example Part 9 in the Act is called “Securing compliance” This Part is about inspectors, so use this word to label this Part.
Correlate labels with the index. The index will obviously help you in searching for information. So, using the above example, highlight the Part name “Securing compliance” in the index and write next to it “Inspectors” to prompt you of the content. You can then match this to your label for the part which will help you narrow your search more quickly.
As a very general guide, Parts and Chapters are laid out as follows:
- Broad content to specific content. For example, the emergency management in Chapter 10 – Mines starts with “All mines” and finishes with “Underground coal mines”
- Many Parts and Chapters follow a hierarchy. For example, Part 2 – Health and safety duties starts with the duties of a PCBU, then duties of Officers and finally duties of Workers.
- Some Chapters follow a timeline of duty holders. For example, in Chapter 5 – Plant and structures, the duties begin with the designer, move on to the manufacturer, importer, supplier and finally the user.
Highlight key words in the Act and Regulations. Use these key words when you are searching.
Other general tips include:
- If the question is asking about a mine, mine operator or similar it is taken for the WHS Mines Regulations. The WHS Act is shared by all industries and therefore will not use references to mining.
- If the question uses the phrase “in accordance with Regulation 617” it is taken from Chapter 10 – Mines. This regulation is referenced many times throughout this Chapter but nowhere else.
Finally, back yourself and try not to second guess your responses. Some questions, mainly the true/ false and yes/ no type will seem logical if you read them carefully. You may not need to look every answer up.
Read the questions carefully. Is it asking for more than one response? Is it asking for which answer is not correct?
Flag any questions you are not sure of. Don’t spend too much time searching. Come back to the question later. You may find that you come across the answer whilst searching for another question.
All the best.
