Probably an unpopular opinion, but if all of the questions on the test are “linked,” I think that’s ridiculous.
No other test is done that way. Stability? Can you imagine if a 15 question stability test was linked together? You fuck up reading the scan of a copy of a fax of the hydrostatic tables on Question 1 and it’s all over with.
The source was a letter from the Consortium. What more information do you want?
Are you saying we got a fake letter?
Or are you saying the consortium lied about the failure rates?
Also one problem with your organization is very few of your colleagues are willing yo go on the record. I literally was working on a rape case recently a uscg O6 was infuriated about but said I would have to wait 6 months until he retires before I can publish it and even then he probably won’t go on the record.
And some or your organization’s paos take weeks to respond.
Here’s a copy
maine maritime.pdf (920.3 KB)
This was just the State schools, has King’s Point’s students also taken the exam? Be interesting to know the pass rate there. GLMA’s pass rate was 56%.
Not all, but a good majority. There are def a couple all stars, but for the most part, Shit.
Took and passed this exam in December. Compared to the vast majority of sample tests available through most common study resources, (Murphy books, upgradeU, lapware) the exam relied more on linked questions and general question wordiness. I don’t believe this to be unfair in the slightest. I think that the passing rate reflects a variety of factors: The changes, however small they seem, have an outsized affect on the academies perception of chart plot difficulty, creating a psychological barrier. Basically: because the students believe the test is harder, the test is harder. Additionally, anyone in any of the schools whose first exposure to learning chart plotting was during the Covid years of distance learning is kneecapped. Ever try learning chart plotting over Zoom? That’s a skill that has to be learned in person. Many of these students who “learned” that way are now taking the tests for the first time, and we are seeing the result. My advice to anyone preparing to take the chart plot exam is firstly to just read the damn questions. They throw a lot of intentionally confusing wording in there, but if you read and understand the question, you’re halfway to answering it. As for practicing the plotting, if you have access to lapware, use the most recently posted sample tests. I forget the exact number of sample tests uploaded for each chart, but I think it’s around 49. Scroll all the way to the bottom of those lists, and use those ones. The question complexity in those sample tests is the closest to what I experienced. Study hard and you’ll be fine.
Proud of my fellow aggies - 48% - get it. Maybe there is an underlying issue stemming from Covid - which these seniors would of been Freshman/Sophomores, which would have formed a more stable baseline for their future, but instead wasted.
They test immediately before their graduation, in June. Possibly USMMA is the most relevant as they will not have a chance for re-takes before their scheduled graduation.
What happens when a Kings Pointer fails? Do they get to do retakes after graduating, do they graduate without a license, are they held back a year, or expelled? I genuinely don’t know.
I work with a KP’er. He told me he failed Rules of the Road. He received his BS but not the License. He went home, shacked up with his girlfriend and a month later passed the test at REC and received his license.
The Consortium does sound like a bunch of whiny babies in this letter.
T-NAV and Basic Chart Plot is a Freshman/Sophmore course, try and learn that virtual. Again, this is a product of teachers failing these students properly during COVID
We do not advocate eliminating the chart plot exam. Rather, we ask that the recent changes to the exam be modified or eliminated to address the problems. Specifically:
- Questions should not be linked;
- Questions should assess a singular task; and
- Question wording should be standardized across all chart plots.
I agree with point number 3, but points 1 and 2 seem ridiculous. It seems to me that the chart plot exercise is trying to replicate a real world situation. In the real world your problems will be linked and they will not be singular. I’m really disappointed in the academies here.
Also, it’s been a long, long time since I took a chart plot exam but I seem to remember that the questions were linked back then as well. You’d plot a position, there would be several questions based on that position, and then they’d give you a new position as a chance to reset. Is my memory wrong?
So what’s next? The sentences are too long and too many big words used for the questions on the exam?
I just did a spot check of NMC sample exams and I see many instances of old chart plot questions saying something like:
“based on the information in the previous question” or “from your 0939 position” (which was calculated in a previous problem."
To my eye the linked question part is nothing new. I like what user Sameshipdifferentday said above regarding the variety of factors and the perception of newness on the exams.
I would recommend checking out the 2nd/3rd mate sample exam and seeing if you think any of those questions are unfair, or significantly different than the exam you took. To me they are challenging but someone who studied the fundamentals would not have a problem achieving a passing score.
Chris,
First off, thank you for the video you put together on this and linked above. It was very helpful.
As for the chart plots, I consider myself an expert plotter and have probably sat through 4 separate chart plot tests at the REC without previous issue. I fully expected to breeze through one of the samples posted on the NMC site and just wrapped it up. Guess what? I missed 2 out of 10 questions to fail. Uggg.
So one of the problems I missed was just worded poorly and the other I’m convinced that my answer is correct and the USCG given answer is wroing.
Back in the 90’s, the REC refused to let me sit an exam with a calculator that kept pulling up the number 3.14159 … They claimed it was programmable because it stored that mysterious number.
We’ve all taken poorly constructed or ambiguously worded exams.
Perhaps the new test versions purposely debuted at a time other than May/June so the kinks could be worked out prior to KP cadets embarrassing a federal academy will numerous fails?
The true fail is the lack of commercial shipping berths offered to cadets at state schools, either through administrative neglect or financial pressure to fund academies through training ship tuition payments.
I know SUNY does not require cadets to commercial ship at least one summer and is the only academy, I believe, where the majority of cadets do not. Whereas Maine Maritime Academy it’s a graduation requirement and prerequisite for some classes to commercial cadet ship one summer (the summer after sophomore year). I believe it’s also a requirement for Mass Maritime too.
Does anyone know what the cadet shipping requirements is like at the other academies ?
I know at SUNY cadet shipping is encouraged and more desirable by students then sailing 2nd class cruise on the training ship. It is very limited by available slots though. Basically every cadet applies to cadet ship, and a few slots are given to those at the top of the class and with a good disciplinary record.
I was honestly so surprised about failing the first sample (Q125 Chart 12354TR) that I decided to try another (Q107 Chart 12221TR). This time I nailed all 10 questions. But I want to go back to the problem on the first test where I still believe the CG answer is wrong. It was a “determine ETA” problem linked to the previous question that was a current set & drift problem. The whole thing was set up at the start of the test by stating “you are turning for 12.5 knots on a course of xxx.”
When I solved for ETA, I applied the new speed over ground (reduced by current) to get my answer, which of course was one of the ones listed. The CG answer was achieved by applying the original speed of 12.5 knots over ground. If you are “turning for 12.5 knots,” wouldn’t the expectation be that you are spinning RPMs to get that speed through water rather than over ground?
And before we make any more comments regarding the abilities of the current crop of cadets, it may be worth breaking out your own triangles and downloading a sample.
I know at Maine Maritime every unlimited cadet was provided a billet by the school but limited tonnage students have to go out and find their own billets to work 2 or 3 summers as deckhands or cadets. This actually provided limited tonnage and non regimental students with more money while unlimited regimental students had the extra costs being in the regiment, cruise costs for two summers and low cadet wages. Generally limited and non regimental students were able to do quite well during school, pay for rent and have extra money and graduate with less debt.
Back to cadet shipping, the unlimited cadets were ranked and got their choice of a billet based on the ranking. Generally the lower ranking cadets would choose MSC which would allow them to ship out sooner or later in the summer depending on what they wanted and possibly get a PIC.
When I cadet shipped I was on a ship that had paper charts. Got some real world experience charting and guess what I passed the exams the first time no problem.