CM Unlimited / Lapware chart plot questions

So I’m on the home stretch here while studying to sit for Chief Mate Unlimited Oceans. I’m using Lapware which I’m very familiar with since I’ve used it for 3 other rounds of testing for the Coast Guard. Lapware is great. I finally got around to working on Q107 - Nav. Problems: Chart Plot and I’ve noticed 2 things to be reconciled before I can get started.

Firstly, all of the chart plot tests that can be generated on Lapware have only 9 questions in each exam. If I look on the NMC website there is suppose to be 10 questions for ONC01 exam code. If I look further and pull up a sample examination on the NMC website it also shows 10 questions. Does anyone have any insight into this dilemma? Why is Lapware only showing 9 questions?

Secondly, I noticed that if you go to chart plot page > Management Level > Block Island. The pulldown menu for Block island shows 8 different tests but further down the page it says that there should be 9 total for Block Island.

Why are you agonizing about the chart plot? Been down this road. At this point, you should be spending the bulk of your time and energy getting prepped for the Stability Module.

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Fair question. Im just brushing up on the charts as my last module folding it into my study routine. Should only spend a couple days on it. Stability is relatively simple for me, given my background mainly studying math and physics in college. All the hard math for ship stability is already done for us, god help whoever makes stability books.

The math isn’t the hard part about the stability test, it’s knowing how to use the stability charts and curves.

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I saw this problem come up in June 2018, and reported it to lapware…here was Richard Plant’s response “NO, Management Level chart plots are 9 questions with the 10th question normally a Luminous or Geographic Range. Now, if you are taking the NEW exams, don’t be surprised if NMC changes the 10th question to something else. If they do PLEASE provide feedback so we can keep others in the industry aware of what NMC is doing.”

here’s his guidance for getting a 10 question plot
"GENERATING CHART PLOTS - Management Level - NEW - Long Island Sound - Plot Number as desired.

Whether it is OLD or NEW follow these steps.

From the Main Menu:

Select Generate Chart Plot

You will be asked to select the level (select MANAGEMENT).

You will then be asked to select whether the questions come from the OLD or NEW database. Select as needed by the students.

You will then be asked to select the Chart Plot area:

Block Island Sound (BIS)
Eastern Long Island Sound (LIS)
Chesapeake Bay Entrance (CBE)

Select the area desired - in this example Eastern Long Island Sound

A list of chart plots will be displayed. Go down the list and find the FIRST chart plot and select it. Let’s assume its number is 12345.

Click on that plot number.

MAKE SURE that the MODE is set to STUDY TEST and not a TEST (Real Test which can only be taken ONCE).

NOW THE IMPORTANT PART - Make sure you name the chart something similar to this:

MGMT - NEW - LIS - 12345

where MGMT means Management, NEW is the NEW database of questions as desired, LIS is Long Island Sound and the 12345 (or whatever the number selected was) is the FIRST USCG PLOT NUMBER IN THE TEST. This latter part is the IMPORTANT PART. You will see why in one moment.

On the bottom of the screen you should click on GENERATE PLOT.

You will then be taken back to the default MY TEST SCREEN.

On you MY TEST screen you should see the chart plot labels as we indicated above in RED TEXT. You will be presented with the options of TAKING THE TEST, PDF or ANSWERS. It is best if you click one the PDF and ANSWERS and either PRINT or SAVE them to your hard drive for later use. Taking the test will just present the file on the computer screen and just takes up more space when trying to solve it. A printed out copy works best. They can always come back, click on TAKE TEST and enter in their answers (A, B, C, D) as desired.

VIEW SOLUTIONS:

This is important and follow the instructions carefully.

From the Main Menu, click on REVIEW QUESTIONS.

On the next screen, click on the Rules of the Road button and TEN (10) books will be listed. If you are looking for the OLD questions solution click on Navigation Problems. If you are looking for the NEW questions solution go further down the list and click on NEW NAVIGATION PROBLEMS (NNP).

HERE IS THE IMPORTANT PART.

For the ALL QUESTIONS button LEAVE IT AS IS. The reason for this is that if you select an Exam Code for Navigation Problems ALL CHART PLOT questions will be FILTERED out of the display, since chart plots are a unique animal. So leave it as ALL QUESTIONS and click on GO.

Once the Navigation Problems questions screen display, click on the Question Filter button (top middle of the screen).

When this pop-up box opens up, the SECOND to the last middle entry should be the request to enter the USCG ID Number. Here is where you enter that FIRST USCG ID NUMBER of the PLOT and then click on the ARROW.

That first question will be displayed.

MAKE SURE YOUR STUDENTS UNDERSTAND THIS.

ONLY the first question of each plot contains ALL of the solutions for ALL of the plot and NOT just the first question. ANY OTHER QUESTION NUMBER in the plot will ONLY contain the solution for that ONE question. That is why the FIRST QUESTION number is so important.

The solution cannot be printed out or saved but can be reviewed on the screen.

That’s it. Create as many Chart Plots for the different areas as you want.

For the Management level there are normally not too many SISTER plots going from the same point A to point B throughout the plot. That does occur a lot for the OPERATIONAL level plots with from minor to major differences between questions.

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Thank you so much! Very thorough response here. I did notice that the missing question was relatively inconsequential as it does not link to the other questions. The sample exams on the NMC seam to be coming up as luminous or geographic range like you said. Or basically a theory question.

My pleasure!