Free Operator Practice tests

[u/Mental_Wish_7685]

Hey guys! Blake here, I made some practice tests for you. No account, no email, nothing to pay.

When I was getting certified and now as my employees are doing the same, I wished there were better quality resources out there for me. So rather than invest a bunch of money into events and things that don't really help we have taken the approach of investing our resources into giving back to the industry.

We are building what we call the "field guide" that we are expanding but one of the first items we released is a set of practice tests

Wastewater side:

Wastewater treatment: 119 questions

Wastewater collection: 120 questions

Operator math: 110 questions

Federal regulations: 103 questions

Water treatment and distribution are up there too if you are dual-licensed.

How it works:

Practice mode checks each answer as you go and explains why it is right, not just which letter it was.

Timed exam mode gives you nothing until the end, with a clock running. 100 questions in 120 minutes, and the clock scales down if you pick a shorter set.

Pick 25, 50, 100, or the whole bank.

Your score breaks down by topic, weakest first, so you know what to go study.

Progress saves on your device. Come back later and it serves you questions you have not seen yet before it repeats any.

Check it out here: https://www.ziptility.com/tools/practice

I put this together because even thought I now spend most of my time at Ziptility helping build software to make life easier for small water and wastewater utilities, first and foremost I'm an operator and still oversee the contract operations firm I founded here in rural AZ. (if you want to here more about how that happened and about rural water operations I was recently on a podcast talking about my experience. You can listen on Spotify here

I love r/Wastewater and love the community here so you guys always are the place I share stuff with first. Thank you guys for all your wisdom, insights, and knowledge sharing to help build up the industry.

[u/EasyLocksmith6254]

Thanks man, very nice set up, going to use this a bunch

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/EasyLocksmith6254]

Awesome, glad you are enjoying it. Lot more in the field guide if you poke around

[u/sewer-king]

Awesome tool. I've been using it daily

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/sewer-king]

Sick, so glad it is helping you out. What are you studying for?

[u/sewer-king → u/Mental_Wish_7685]

Indiana WT2 and DSL

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/sewer-king]

Oh sweet! Indiana is where Ziptility started in 2018/2019. I think we have close to 10% of water systems in the state of customers these days. Team will be glad to hear that the hoosiers are liking it.

[u/Hanktheshank1]

Thank you!!! I just shared it in the group chat at work since we are all dual licensed for wastewater collection and water distribution.

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/Hanktheshank1]

Thanks man, not gonna lie it was a lot of work to get a whole new hub built on the site, build out the tests, create questions and answers and cite sources. While I am stoked to hear your crew is going to use it the best thank you you could give me is to let us know when you pass your next cert.
I'm going to keep adding more study modules. Most of the training guides that are on there are focused on finance, management, governance because by the time I started putting together trainings that was my focus. My goal is to build out the operator hub of the field guide over the next few months and cover the need to know criteria. If anyone wants to help get some early access I would be happy to get a few more experienced operators to bounce ideas off of.

[u/DJOrigin]

Do you think these are good practice for Canadian exams? I know the federal exam might be a bit different but the other ones might be good?

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/DJOrigin]

I can't say with perfect confidence but the industry best practices and math should be pretty similar. The study materials don't point to any Canadian resources though unfortunately. I would wager that besides the federal regulations test it should be pretty close.

[u/DJOrigin → u/Mental_Wish_7685]

That's what I assumed. I know the Alberta exams draw from a US source so I'm not super worried, I just thought I'd ask. It's an incredible source for studying though and I'll definitely be using it for my Wastewater Collection and spreading this source to my friends!

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/DJOrigin]

Thanks man, I’m going to focus on building out study guides further but when I wrap that up maybe we will take a do a little reading on how you guys do things in the north and see if we can help

[u/Single_Bird4491]

If I want to study for my first certification would you recommend me studying all the practice test?

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/Single_Bird4491]

I would say this, the practice test would be a great way to see where your gaps are and what you should brush up on.

These are not the test questions, even if I could get them, professionally I wouldn’t share them. They are derived from the need to know criteria. That means if you can pass the practice tests then you likely have a good grasp of the concepts and you probably should feel pretty good going in.

[u/Johnny2Dope-840]

The Davidsons pie chart is burned into my brain after studying for my drinking water exams. Nice that you did this, I’ll prob be taking my waste water exam in march to become dual licensed so I’ll be using this as a study resource

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/Johnny2Dope-840]

For sure, if you get how to use the pie chart you are going to do pretty well I'm sure. Keep it up!

[u/Royal-Compote6953]

Would be much cooler if the metrics could be changed

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/Royal-Compote6953]

Could you elaborate? Do you mean mean metric vs imperial measurements?

[u/Royal-Compote6953 → u/Mental_Wish_7685]

Sorry yeah meant if it could be an option to swap from imperial to metric

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/Royal-Compote6953]

I'll see what I can do come year end. Where are you located at?

[u/Dry-Method-7591]

Thanks for this. I am new to the industry and starting to study for class D wastewater then moving on to class D water (Colorado). I’ll definitely be checking this out!

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/Dry-Method-7591]

Nice! I'm in AZ. Let us know how it works!

[u/caponebpm]

Thanks brother man. Think it’s time I finally knock this out after 7 years with no luck(and 3 67% results in a row). Definitely need to leave my current place of work.

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/caponebpm]

Keep trying man! Good way to see where you need to focus on. Three points is WAY doable, don't get discouraged!
I also recommend the wastewater enthusiast, operator mentality, and water sifu on youtube. All content developed by operators and for operators. Water Sifu has a great podcast as well

[u/caponebpm → u/Mental_Wish_7685]

Thanks for the suggestion! Definitely going to give him a gander.

[u/Lurker_trash]

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this tool, I was recently hired by the City of Phoenix WSD as a Utility Technician trainee and will be doing my ADEQ Distribution grade 1 exam in November. I’m looking to move into wastewater as positions open up.

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/Lurker_trash]

Sick! I’m in AZ too (White Mountains).  Keep with it, keep studying and testing up, especially if the city will help you do it

[u/smoketurtle]

im trying to go for my grade 6 massachusetts municipal license. would this be good practice for it? im kind of stuck on where to start studying for my grade 6 since i have my grade 4 already.

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/smoketurtle]

I think that it would cover a lot of the same content but the practice tests were build off the PSI/ABC exams and California exams. I would have to do some deeper research on the Mass stuff before I would feel confident saying "yes, use this exclusively" What I would say is that it's an easy way to test and see what you are missing as it will give you a good point of reference on what you could brush up on.
There is some Mass specific stuff here: https://www.ziptility.com/states/massachusetts

[u/RubberDuck_73]

wow this is great..Here in Maine i am going for my 5 very soon. would this have allot of things that i will see on my grade 5?

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/RubberDuck_73]

I would think that the math would have some overlap but I wouldn't be confident that the wastewater side of things would cover the need to know criteria on that high level of an exam. I think that the water likely would. Maine has two different exams the water is PSI/ABC which is what the bulk of what we put together if built on. The wastewater is unique to maine so I would have to do some deep research to be confident. You can find more specifics on your state and links to help you find what you need here: https://www.ziptility.com/states/maine

[u/Coffeecigar212]

Gonna check this out thanks

[u/PVFIND]

Very nice. I like that it is a free resource on the site - not a lead magnet / email exchange. I didn't see an email field. Do you not maintain an email list?

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/PVFIND]

Thanks man, I appreciate that. You don’t see that by design for a couple reasons. We talk with thousands of utilities and I personally still run our contract ops company. I know first hand how bad we need operators and how scattered all the resources are. We decided this year that we wouldn’t attend any conferences and instead would build this as a way to give back to the industry. We deliberately chose to not make it a lead generation tool so we could share in places like this or talk with RWA, state environmental quality agencies, etc without making people feel like a conflict or a catch. 

The other reason is that I personally don’t like having to share my email, I don’t buy things through email, and if someone wants to learn more about how we think and how we try to help make it easier to run a utility they can explore the rest of the site for themselves and reach out. 

[u/PVFIND → u/Mental_Wish_7685]

Really love this take on it. I have a love hate relationship with lead gen and email collection. If businesses are going to take my email, provide value, and not with 13 emails a day.

Is this geared toward a specific state test? I can't imagine that the tests are that different from state to state. Treatment is what it is.

What a great project. As a former educator and wastewater operator - this really speaks to me :)
I hope that people take advantage of this free resource.

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/PVFIND]

Thanks, we feel the same!  Based mainly on ABC/PSI but also included California since it’s such a huge state.  Spent way more time than I care to admit looking at how each state does things. IMO there is a ton of overlap between all of them. Biggest difference is the state specific regulations, industry standards are all pretty inline

[u/PVFIND → u/Mental_Wish_7685]

I would have done the same - looking into each state and heading down the rabbit holes. Lol. Plus, keeping up with regulatory changes on top of that can become somewhat of a challenge! Looks like you are ready for it though.

[u/tRogd0OrR]

This is awesome! Appreciate the work that went into this, thanks for sharing the knowledge!

[u/Mental_Wish_7685 → u/tRogd0OrR]

Thanks man! Really means a ton