Juru Bor (Driller) common mistakes
Juru Bor (Driller) · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Treating the exam as a general safety quiz and answering from common sense, so answers such as 'stop work and report' are chosen even when the question asks for a specific regulatory duty, threshold, or responsible person under the Occupational Safety, Health and Environmental Regulation domain.
The domain mixes general duty-of-care concepts with jurisdiction-specific legal duties (notification timelines, statutory appointments, record retention). Candidates who have worked on rigs rely on habit and never map the duty to the named regulation or role.
What to do instead
Build a one-page table of statutory duties: what must be reported, to whom, within what time, and who is the accountable person. For each practice question, identify the legal instrument or duty being tested before reading the options, and reject options that are merely sensible but not the stated duty.
Confusing hazard identification with risk assessment and control, so the candidate selects a control measure when the question asks for the hazard, or selects 'elimination' when the scenario describes an administrative control such as a permit or rotation.
The hierarchy of control is learned as a list rather than as a decision sequence. Candidates also conflate a hazard (source of harm) with the risk (likelihood and severity) and with the control (barrier).
What to do instead
Practise classifying 20 short rig scenarios into hazard, risk, and control, then rank the control in the hierarchy. Learn the distinguishing test: elimination removes the task, substitution changes the agent, engineering isolates the person, administrative changes how people work, and PPE protects the individual only.
On drilling equipment and inspection items, answering from the nominal function of a component and ignoring the inspection interval, acceptance criteria, or the consequence of a failed inspection, for example choosing what a rotary table does when the question asks what action follows a rejected sling or a worn travelling-block sheave.
Candidates memorise component names and purposes but not the inspection regime. The exam tests the link between defect, standard, and required action, which is a different knowledge layer from function.
What to do instead
For each major item (drill line, elevators, tongs, kelly, top drive, BOP stack, pressure gauges, slings), write three lines: what it does, how and how often it is inspected, and what happens when it fails inspection. Drill the defect-to-action link, not just the definitions.
Treating drilling fluid properties as isolated numbers, so the candidate answers a question about a high filtrate loss or a rising chloride content by naming a single additive rather than tracing the property to its effect on wellbore stability, cuttings transport, or formation damage.
Mud school is often learned as a list of tests (density, viscosity, gel strength, filtrate, pH, chlorides) without a cause-and-effect model. Candidates also mix up which property controls which downhole problem.
What to do instead
Draw a cause-and-effect map linking each measured property to the downhole outcome it protects: density to formation pressure and kick margin, rheology and gels to cuttings transport and swab/surge, filtrate and filter cake to stuck pipe and invasion, chlorides and hardness to contamination. Answer by following the chain, not by recalling an additive name.
Using a single drilling parameter in isolation, for example answering a question about a sudden torque increase or a slow rate of penetration by changing one variable, instead of reading the combination of weight on bit, rotary speed, flow rate, and pump pressure together.
Candidates learn parameter definitions separately and do not build the interaction model. They also confuse surface pressure changes caused by a plugged bit or a washout with changes caused by formation.
What to do instead
Practise interpreting parameter trends as signatures: what a gradual pump pressure rise with falling penetration suggests, what a sudden pressure drop with unchanged flow suggests, and what torque and drag changes indicate. Always ask which combination of readings distinguishes the competing causes before selecting an action.
Detecting a kick only from pit volume gain and missing the earlier or subtler indicators, or conversely treating every flow check result as a kick without confirming whether the well is static or the flow is due to ballooning or thermal expansion.
Kick drills emphasise the pit gain and the shut-in, so candidates anchor on those. Flow-check procedure and the distinction between a true influx and a well that is flowing for another reason are under-rehearsed.
What to do instead
Memorise the full indicator set: flow with pumps off, pit gain, changed pump pressure and stroke count, gas or salinity changes, and drilling break. Then rehearse the flow-check decision tree, including how to confirm shut-in pressures are stable and what a pressure build after shut-in tells you about influx type.
In lifting and manual handling questions, selecting the load limit or the correct sling angle formula but ignoring the practical pre-lift controls, such as the lift plan, the exclusion zone, tag lines, communication, and the competence of the banksman.
Candidates focus on the arithmetic and the hardware because those feel examinable, and underweight the procedural controls that the exam also tests. Manual handling is treated as trivial and answered casually.
What to do instead
For every lifting scenario, run a fixed checklist before answering: load weight and centre of gravity, rigging and angle effects, ground and access, exclusion zone, roles and signals, and the lift plan authorisation. For manual handling, apply the assess-lift-or-mechanical-aid sequence and name the specific risk factor being controlled.
In emergency response and first aid items, choosing a treatment or evacuation action that feels decisive but skips the scene-safety, primary survey, or alarm and muster sequence, for example starting CPR or moving a casualty before the area is made safe and the alarm raised.
Candidates answer from the dramatic moment in the scenario rather than from the protocol order. First aid and emergency response are learned as separate topics, so the sequence connecting them is weak.
What to do instead
Learn the fixed sequences and apply them mechanically: raise the alarm, account for personnel, isolate the hazard, then treat. For first aid, drill the primary survey order and the specific actions for burns, crush injury, H2S exposure, and hypothermia, including when not to move a casualty.
Mixing up fire classes and extinguishing agents, so a water extinguisher is selected for a live electrical or flammable liquid fire, or the candidate treats a gas leak fire by extinguishing the flame before isolating the fuel.
Fire triangle theory is known but the class-to-agent mapping and the isolation-first principle for gas fires are not practised. Candidates also forget that cooling and boundary protection matter as much as extinguishment.
What to do instead
Build a fire class to agent matrix and memorise the electrical and flammable liquid exclusions. Rehearse the gas fire decision rule: isolate the source if it can be done safely, cool surrounding equipment, and do not extinguish a jet fire unless the supply can be positively shut off.
In communication, teamwork, and records items, giving a generic answer such as 'communicate clearly' or 'complete the paperwork', rather than naming the specific handover method, the record's purpose, or the person responsible for the entry.
These domains feel like soft skills, so candidates do not prepare for them and default to platitudes. They also underestimate how precisely the exam tests handover content, permit and log requirements, and the difference between a record and a report.
What to do instead
Prepare concrete answers: the structured handover content (current operation, hazards, outstanding actions, equipment status), the read-back and confirmation rule for critical instructions, and the record-keeping chain from entry to signature to retention. When a question asks about records, identify who writes it, what it must contain, and what it is used for.