Not nuts at all. Some of the FAA plotting exercises back in the day had right and wrong answers separated by about a dull pencil line width. Learned the sharp pencil thing long ago 
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Hello in case it is helpful for anyone studying for 3rd mate exams, I filmed a solution set for one of the publicly available ānewā 3rd/2nd mate chart plot exams from NMC.
I think the exams are fair but just a little different from the older versions which I think was causing some hate and discontent at the academies. If you put in the time and practice, you should be ok on the plot exams.
The sample exam (in early 2023) can be found here:
https://www.dco.uscg.mil/nmc/exams/ONC02-second-mate-third-mate-Q114-Q117/
and then click on āChart Plot.ā
Hope it is helpful if you are studying!
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Azimuth and Amplitude are very simple questions and chart plotting is a breeze once you learn, even a little fun.
You have to learn them to pass Nav questions anyway. If they were added to plotting Iād consider those a gimme.
Plotting takes a steady hand, a sharp edge and a little patience. Also RTFQ/RTFA.
Itās a skill that can can be honed with time and practice.
There was never a āmemorize the question bankā approach to chart plotting either like some are postulating here, you either know it or you donāt, like Terrestrial.
I am a hawsepiper, when I was an AB I asked the Mates and Captains I worked with politely if I could do every chart correction that came out,
when I went to test, i was confident in my ability.
Just practice! Good luck!
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Interesting point, I had heard anecdotally that some cadets were memorizing the C-NAV questions and answers, but in the video linked above the author mentions chart plot (anecdotally) being completed in a very short period of time. Whatās more telling is that the NMC has come up with new chart plot questions and the pass rate for the cadets has plummeted. What does that say?
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I had this captain at ECO years ago. He openly cheated on his masters exam. Back then you had about ten possibly exams to choose from. As opposed to the randomization of he questions nowadays. He memorized the answers to all the exams and used an imaginary sentence to help him recall it. So all he had to do was determine which exam he had.
In the case of this guy poor navigation skills was the least of his problems.
Iām not sure how thatās openly cheating. There were literally books that included every question that was on the test. Everybody just memorized it all. They still do, just that the randomization made it harder where you now have to remember the actual answer and not C.
Going into the exam room with an answer key is cheating. When its written on a sheet of paper its literally called a cheat sheet.
After 36 years on and off. I have a good amount of questions memorized. It makes an exam somewhat easier but I still have to plot and work out math.
Maybe this guy worked out all the questions on his own time, but somehow i doubt it.
Thatās what you said he did. If he had it written down, then yes itās cheating. If he just memorized it, like you and I did, I wouldnāt say itās cheating since it was publicly available information.
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I do know about the C-Nav cheating, I had not heard about chart plotting but there may be something to that. I did heard that many of them were failing chart plotting and asked why and the reason they gave was that they changed the test, so perhaps.
If they spent half the time learning the material as they do devising more ways to cheat they would be much better off.
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I donāt know how it worked at the other academies but I actually had Murphy for license seminar. Calling his prep methods āmemorizationā misses 95% of what we did.
By the time we got into his class weād already had multiple semesters of cel and terrestrial nav and all the other material, plus three or four sea terms.
His class was all about how to take the test. It started with some of the above mentioned stuff. The basic āRead the question and answers.ā We learned to take a beat and identify what was actually being asked, and things to look for to eliminate choices if we couldnāt identify the right answer. We practiced writing protests.
Then there were the practice exams. Obviously at one time there were entire modules floating around out there, but again there was a lot more to it. I remember we picking the model of pencil and eraser I was going to use for the exam and using it for every practice session. Knowing what was my most comfortable remaining set of khakis and what Iād wear weeks ahead of time. Doing practice exams in the order weād do the real ones. I remember memorizing my assigned questions during the exam to help keep the bank current, but I donāt remember any memorization ahead of time. It was all about test taking skills and being comfortable with the process so you didnāt trip yourself up or panic. I didnāt even like him very much, but he was great at getting us ready and there wasnāt any cheating or even ācheating.ā
I ended up teaching my wife a lot of the same techniques years later for an insurance exam. She was nervous at the start and not a great test taker because nobody ever taught her how. She sailed through her certification first try.
And my year USCG through a curveball with multiple different plots. Apparently first time they did that be we had no problems because we first had learned the material and then learned how to take the test.
Lol the man literally had his students memorize questions so he could update his own books and later software to help lots of other sailors memorize all the answers. But sure his method is all about ātest taking.ā
The olā stem and answer technique. Iād call it memorization by repetition.