I’m an AB with about 700 days. I plan on testing for my 3rd mates near coastal once I hit 1,080 probably a little over a year from now.
I’m studying and reviewing the coast guard questions using seatrials. I understand when you test for near coastal you essentially knock out everything except Cel Nav and then have the option to take cel nav afterward.
So my question is, in just preparing for the near coastal license, which categories of questions on sea trials will not pertain to the exam I’m going for?
Under “Navigation General” there is a subcategory called “CelNav”. I’m assuming at least that can be skipped for now…
If you want to use the 3rd Mate license, you are probably going to need an STCW endorsement as Officer in Charge of a Navigational Watch. That means courses and assessments. More info is here.
For the national examination, I recommend that you spend some time looking at NMC Sample Exams for Near Coastal. I think you will find celestial style questions requiring use of the Nautical Almanac and Pub 229 for solving compass error by Azimuth, Amplitudes Anybody and Polaris. These style of questions are found in exam modules Q113, Q114, and Q116.
For the STCW portion of your license, I highly recommend you follow the any advice from Mr. Cavo.
The courses that you will have to take for STCW will help you prepare for the exams. Terrestrial Nav, for example, helps you prepare for Nav Problems Near Coastal. It also forms a good basis for Cel Nav.