looking for some advice

I used to teach at a school and about 95% passed certification the first time and most are now working in the field or in thier own business. I plan on opening a school in the South Florida area in the future as well as offer online/home study and certification tutorials.

Until then do a web search for auto electronics schools. Some offer home study and Select Products has some good videos on custom fab. and other stuff. There is a link on this forum as well for schools.

If you wish to certify on your own order the MECP study guide  http://www.mecp.com/FAQ.asp and post if there is something you don't understand. Take the test and see how you do. If you fail you can study up on what you did poorly in (there are 3 sections) and retake it shortly after.

Find yourself a job as a trainee (if you have no experience in the retail end of this industry you will have a much better chance generally if you are certified) and before you know it..you will be a pro !

Best of luck.

Well the test score doesn't really mean you will never be an installer (although I think you are kidding).

In the same respect, I know a few first class certified installers that can't do a deck swap without help, there is NO substitute for hands on experience.

However, if this was your first time taking the test you actually did quite well. You have a weak area in electronics theory. I could easily help you pass it the next time.

Post back any specifics you can remember that gave you a hard time. Keep in mind you only need a 70% or better on that section to pass the test overall, the other sections you seem to have down.

From years of teaching I have developed some tips, "tricks" and analogies to help relate some of the more difficult subject matter to real world experience. Everyones brain works differently and everyone learns/maintains differently. However, the high scores on the other 2 sections displays to me you have what it takes, just need a little guidance.

Get back to me if interested.

Inductance has to do with the properties of a coil of wire. Although we deal with inductors in a sense most installers have never even held a raw one in thier hand. I used to use them in building passive crossovers years ago but it is not something I would describe as "used every day" in that sense.

For the basic, all you really need to know about inductance is that it resists a change in electron flow, and thier value is measured in "henries" ,not really much else. On higher level tests that's another story.

I don't recall a question that deals in "four" properties but perhaps you are thinking of wattage or power? I know there are questions regarding meters that ask specifically what "THREE" main purposes are DMM's used for in our field and that would be to measure current, voltage and resistance .

Thats one of the quirks about that test. Sometimes an answer seems to easy so you start to doubt it is the correct choice.

The test used to be alot worse..it was like it was a test to understand thier tricks and terminology rather then testing your ability to perform a safe installation, which IMO is what the basic test is supposed to gauge. They changed the basic test a few years ago and it is much improved.

However there still are a few questions like that. Best not to second guess yourself, the obvious answer in those cases is usually the correct answer.

Note that many confuse power and current for some reason. Just remember power is the product of current and voltage, is measured in watts, and is loosly defined as "work over time".

Current is measured in amperage or (amps) and is loosly defined as the "rate"