Notebook
How to tab your codebook for the CWI exam without copying the code
A tab is a way back to a section. It is not a copy of the section.
Unofficial. This note is not affiliated with or endorsed by AWS, API, or AMPP. It is not a code book. It does not promise an exam result. It does not offer renewal credit. It does not tell you which edition a test uses. The books named for your test, and the booklet handed to you for the practical part, are the ones you tab, and only after you have read the year on the cover.
This note was drafted with the help of AI software tools.
People get into trouble when the sticky note starts carrying the rule. A number, a limit, a sentence from the page, written small so it will still be there when the book is closed. That note is a copy. Do not make it.
Three books, three colors
Give each book one color and keep it. One color for the structural steel code, D1.1. A second color for the pipeline standard, API 1104. A third color for the Part B specification booklet, the one handed to you for that part. It is not a book you bring from home to stand in for that booklet.
If two books share a color, you will grab the wrong one. The color is the signal you can see from the edge when the book is closed.
Number, then the title in your hand
On the tab, write the section number. Then write the section title, looking at the page, in your handwriting. If the tab is too small for the whole title, put the full title on a map and keep a short handle on the tab. The handle is a label. The title on the map is the name of the section. If they ever disagree with the page, the page wins.
Do not write a page number from someone else's notes. Editions move the page. The section number and the title move less, and they still move. The 2025 edition of D1.1 and the 2020 edition do not use the same clause numbers. Inspection is not the same clause in both books. Tab the edition you will actually open. A map for the wrong year is a map to the wrong page.
What never goes on a tab
- A limit, a tolerance, or a voltage.
- A table or a figure.
- A sentence you would not want to explain as your own words.
- A question you remember from somewhere.
Any of those turns a tab into a copy. Write the number. Close the book. Open it again to that section without hunting. Write down the seconds. That is the drill.
Stagger the tabs down the edge so they do not stack into one lump. Five heights is enough, then repeat. Let the color stick out past the page, and keep the words on the page so the cover does not slice them off.
The thirty-second version
There is a short of this same method on the Hold Point Prep YouTube channel. The voice is synthetic, and the video is labeled AI-made and unofficial.
The printable
Hold Point Prep sells a printable tab kit for $14.99. It is color labels and a placement map by section number and section title for D1.1, API 1104, and the Part B booklet, plus blank labels for an edition the map does not cover. The map does not carry the text of those documents.
That link is our own product. It is not an Amazon product link.
The Part B workbook
Disclosure. The button below goes to a Hold Point Prep product. We sell it. A purchase supports this site. It is not an Amazon product link. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases on Amazon links elsewhere on this site. This page has no Amazon product link.
The workbook is practice for the practical part. It is not the booklet the test center hands you, and it is not an AWS book. The site is Hold Point Prep. Read who operates it if you want that in one place.
The sales page is boomerledgerco.com/b/Oe08t. That link is our workbook. It is not an Amazon product link.
When the page wins
When a project specification, a current standard, or the booklet at your test disagrees with this note, those documents are the authority. A tab does not change that. It only shortens the walk back to the section.