If you already have 2nd Mate, or are taking it at the same time, you only take a “partial” test for Master 1600 Tons. It’s 50 questions with a 70% passing grade, the questions are the navigation general, deck general, and deck safety questions covered ion the “full” Master 1600 exams but not on the 2nd Mate exam. You can check what exams are needed for any license upgrade, tonnage increase, etc. in the Deck Exam Guide: http://www.uscg.mil/nmc/mmic_deckexquest.asp The section covering this one is on page 2-12, foot note 7. Note that if you’re taking this partial as part of an upgrade to 2nd Mate, you have to take and pass all the 2nd Mate modules before you cqan take the “partial” for Master 1600.
The rules of the road test is required for any raise in grade or increase in scope (route change) if you haven’t taken a rules test in the past year. This is likely why some they had to take one while others didn’t.
By the way, once the USCG publishes regs fully implementing STCW, the traditional “crossover” from 2nd Mate to Master 1600 will shift to Chief Mate for most. One obvious reason is the “management level” traiing for TCW and also because the minimum sea time for 2nd Mate is less than the STCW minimum for Master. So you won’t be able to take the Master 1600 test as soon as you qualify for 2nd Mate.
James D. Cavo
Chief, Mariner Training & Assessment Division
USCG National Maritime Center
[<font color="#3354aa]James.D.Cavo@uscg.mil</font>](mailto:James.D.Cavo@uscg.mil)