DCA TEST PAPER QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS 2025/2026
GRADED A+
✔✔diamond fits into recessed seat drilled and formed - ✔✔Bead setting
✔✔large pendant w/slotted sides - ✔✔Slide
✔✔prongs extending from a scalloped base - ✔✔Buttercup setting
✔✔metal rim that holds diamonds - ✔✔Gypsy setting
✔✔diamond studded links circled around the wrist - ✔✔Straight line bracelet
✔✔like a solitare, w/row of diamonds - ✔✔Halo ring
✔✔chain-like links of diamonds - ✔✔Tennis bracelet
✔✔metal beads hold diamonds - ✔✔Illusion setting
✔✔ornate dramatic design - ✔✔Cocktail ring
✔✔small square diamonds set together into a wire-like framework - ✔✔Invisible setting
✔✔4 v-prong pegged head - ✔✔Tiffany setting
✔✔coils around w/ends passing over another - ✔✔Crossover ring
✔✔pendant suspended from the neck chain by another - ✔✔Y necklace
✔✔open-ended necklace held by a clasp in front w/diamond drops at each end -
✔✔Lariat
✔✔8 out of 10 - ✔✔How many US couples mark engagement with a diamond ring?
✔✔1400s, became popular in US by 1900s - ✔✔The centuries in which history first
recorded a diamond engagement ring, and the diamond engagement ring became a
mainstream American tradition
✔✔die-striking, electroforming, and casting - ✔✔Techniques for manufacturing jewelry,
and the types of jewelry they're used to produce
✔✔platinum is purer than gold and more dense, sold at 90%-95% - ✔✔Why platinum
jewelry is more expenisve than comparable items made of gold
, ✔✔less than 50% cannot be labeled as platinum, 850-900PT= 85%-90%, 950-
1000PT=95% - ✔✔FTC guidelines on platinum
✔✔silver palladium, titanium, stainless steel - ✔✔Alternative metals that are now being
used for diamond jewelry
✔✔creates fancy color in yellow or brown diamonds and intensifys other natural colors -
✔✔Irradiation
✔✔doubled images of the back facet junctions - ✔✔Doubling
✔✔light breaking up into spectral colors as it reflects from the boundary between the
diamond and the filling - ✔✔Flash Effect
✔✔crystal form of silicon carbide - ✔✔Synthetic Moissanite
✔✔coating a gem w/ substance to alter its color - ✔✔The one treatment that's always
considered deceptive for diamonds
✔✔1500s w/glass, 1900s there was a growing popularity because of their affordability -
✔✔When gem quality synthetic diamonds were first produced, when they began to
appear on the jewelry market, and their current status
✔✔colorless sapphire, quartz, and colorless zircon - ✔✔Natural gemstones that are
used as diamond simulants
✔✔synthetic spinel, sapphire, and glass - ✔✔The most common simulants in terms of
volume
✔✔flash effect, color zoning, and unusual florescene equates w/ synthetic diamond -
✔✔Tests that can be used to separate diamonds from simulants, or to identify treatment
of synthetic diamonds
✔✔thermal reaction testers separate diamonds from simulants except moissanite -
✔✔The products that can be identified with the instruments and test available in many
jewelry stores
✔✔a flat, triangular crystal resulting from twinning - ✔✔Macle
✔✔the potential to break in crystal directions - ✔✔Cleavage (property)
✔✔resistance to scratching 1-10, 10=hardest - ✔✔Mohs Hardness Scale
GRADED A+
✔✔diamond fits into recessed seat drilled and formed - ✔✔Bead setting
✔✔large pendant w/slotted sides - ✔✔Slide
✔✔prongs extending from a scalloped base - ✔✔Buttercup setting
✔✔metal rim that holds diamonds - ✔✔Gypsy setting
✔✔diamond studded links circled around the wrist - ✔✔Straight line bracelet
✔✔like a solitare, w/row of diamonds - ✔✔Halo ring
✔✔chain-like links of diamonds - ✔✔Tennis bracelet
✔✔metal beads hold diamonds - ✔✔Illusion setting
✔✔ornate dramatic design - ✔✔Cocktail ring
✔✔small square diamonds set together into a wire-like framework - ✔✔Invisible setting
✔✔4 v-prong pegged head - ✔✔Tiffany setting
✔✔coils around w/ends passing over another - ✔✔Crossover ring
✔✔pendant suspended from the neck chain by another - ✔✔Y necklace
✔✔open-ended necklace held by a clasp in front w/diamond drops at each end -
✔✔Lariat
✔✔8 out of 10 - ✔✔How many US couples mark engagement with a diamond ring?
✔✔1400s, became popular in US by 1900s - ✔✔The centuries in which history first
recorded a diamond engagement ring, and the diamond engagement ring became a
mainstream American tradition
✔✔die-striking, electroforming, and casting - ✔✔Techniques for manufacturing jewelry,
and the types of jewelry they're used to produce
✔✔platinum is purer than gold and more dense, sold at 90%-95% - ✔✔Why platinum
jewelry is more expenisve than comparable items made of gold
, ✔✔less than 50% cannot be labeled as platinum, 850-900PT= 85%-90%, 950-
1000PT=95% - ✔✔FTC guidelines on platinum
✔✔silver palladium, titanium, stainless steel - ✔✔Alternative metals that are now being
used for diamond jewelry
✔✔creates fancy color in yellow or brown diamonds and intensifys other natural colors -
✔✔Irradiation
✔✔doubled images of the back facet junctions - ✔✔Doubling
✔✔light breaking up into spectral colors as it reflects from the boundary between the
diamond and the filling - ✔✔Flash Effect
✔✔crystal form of silicon carbide - ✔✔Synthetic Moissanite
✔✔coating a gem w/ substance to alter its color - ✔✔The one treatment that's always
considered deceptive for diamonds
✔✔1500s w/glass, 1900s there was a growing popularity because of their affordability -
✔✔When gem quality synthetic diamonds were first produced, when they began to
appear on the jewelry market, and their current status
✔✔colorless sapphire, quartz, and colorless zircon - ✔✔Natural gemstones that are
used as diamond simulants
✔✔synthetic spinel, sapphire, and glass - ✔✔The most common simulants in terms of
volume
✔✔flash effect, color zoning, and unusual florescene equates w/ synthetic diamond -
✔✔Tests that can be used to separate diamonds from simulants, or to identify treatment
of synthetic diamonds
✔✔thermal reaction testers separate diamonds from simulants except moissanite -
✔✔The products that can be identified with the instruments and test available in many
jewelry stores
✔✔a flat, triangular crystal resulting from twinning - ✔✔Macle
✔✔the potential to break in crystal directions - ✔✔Cleavage (property)
✔✔resistance to scratching 1-10, 10=hardest - ✔✔Mohs Hardness Scale
