After a two-year hiatus, the U.S. Coast Guard has decided to put its full database of mariner examination questions back up on the Web.
In 2010, the National Maritime Center (NMC) decided to remove the full bank of deck and engine exam questions from its website, arguing that disclosing all of the questions could harm the integrity of the testing. The complete pool of questions had been available on the Web since the 1980s, when a Freedom of Information Act ruling required it.
The National Mariners Association appealed that decision to Coast Guard headquarters. In August 2012, Commandant Adm. Robert Papp’s office granted the appeal.
Taking down those exam questions from the Web had inhibited the ability of license aspirants — often low-paid deck hands — to prepare for Coast Guard examinations, said Capt. Joe Dady, president of the National Mariners Association.
“That became a problem for the hawsepiper to go out and study on his own and not have to spend a lot of money to go to a school,” Dady said. “It also took away the ability of the schools and the training programs to have up-to-date training materials.”
When the NMC removed the full pool of about 25,000 questions, it replaced them with selected sample questions. Because training programs use the NMC’s website to develop test questions in their own classes, there were fewer questions to choose from. That led to the unintended consequence of abetting instructors to “teach to the test” instead of the full range of seamanship knowledge, said Capt. John Whiteley, director of the Inland Waterways Academy at Mountwest Community & Technical College in West Virginia.
Whiteley’s academy uses an outside software provider to create unique tests from the available Coast Guard questions. Releasing the full bank of questions to the public increases the randomness of those tests.
“It helps in particular because we generate a new test anytime we have a new class,” Whiteley said. “We’ve had problems in the past because we had instructors who were teaching the test. … This is going to make the test more valid and it’s going to make the assessment of the student more valid.”
The questions pertain to areas including general deck questions, rules of the road, navigation problems and safety. Engineering topics include electricity, steam plants and motor plants. For the mariners, schools and creators of training materials, the most useful questions are those that have appeared on the most recent Coast Guard examinations. Previously, diagrams often were included too, said Richard Block, secretary of the National Mariners Association and a maritime textbook author.
“What we were trying to get back up are the latest questions — the recent ones,” Block said. “These are the red-hot exam questions that are actually given on Coast Guard exams, and they’re up-to-date.”
Another benefit is the ability of the industry to see what the Coast Guard considers to be correct answers. With the test questions hidden, mariners could not see what answer the Coast Guard expected. Before 2010, if there were errors, someone would notice.
“All the schools and the mariners would submit corrections and point out problems,” Block said. “They were constantly updated and corrected.”
In a letter granting the appeal, Capt. Paul Thomas, the Coast Guard’s director of inspections and compliance, explained that a 2011 Supreme Court decision regarding Freedom of Information Act exemptions prompted the Coast Guard to reinstate the previous policy of displaying the exam questions on the Web.
NMC commanding officer Capt. Anthony Lloyd couldn’t immediately say when the full pool of questions would be available again on the website. The NMC uses a different document system now for exam questions.
“It will occur,” Lloyd said. “My staff is working on it, but it’s taking a lot of time to prepare it. We manage it differently, and we’re doing a lot of revisions. We’ve shuttered questions that became outdated. … We’re fully committed to keeping it up-to-date.”
The NMC recently improved illustrations accompanying the exam questions, and copyright permissions need to be reviewed for those new illustrations to appear on the Web, he said.
Lloyd became the NMC’s commanding officer 10 days after his predecessor, Capt. David Stalfort, started the policy of publishing only sample questions.
I think it’s a great thing. I just upgraded and on the electrical exam, I didn’t recognize 19 out of the 20 illustrations. I bareley eeked by on that one. I didn’t have the newest marine engineering workbooks either though.
Regarding to a studying guide, it’s good. But the randomness could prove difficult. Wish they would make up their mind and stick to their guns about stuff. Seems like once you figure it out, they change everything.
USCG doesn’t word the question to test your grasp of the theory. They word them to trick and deceive with symantics. I don’t think you could pass without grasping the theory, but having the question bank familiarized you with question format, style, and helps you identify particular areas where you are missing the core concept or you are falling for one of the many wording tricks.
If someone is smart enough to memorize the entire test bank for a 3rd mate then I wouldn’t call that “dumbing down” at all…that would be quite a intellectual undertaking. I guess we shouldn’t use flash cards to teach multiplication to kids either, if they understand the theory of multiplication they should be able to just know the answer…
Just an opinion from a mariner with a teaching degree
Memorizing is not learning. Teaching is not learning.
Did someone teach you to walk? or did you just learn?
Memorize the alphabet and anyone can write as well as Shakespeare, right?
Memorize the multiplication tables and we would all be as good at physics as Stephen Hawking, right?
The flash cards you mentioned, do you have one for 1,769 X 0.6777843 ?
Uh oh, that wasn’t in the study material.
Concerning the earlier statement about not recognizing 19 out of 20 electrical schematics, are there only 20 schematics in the world?
What if a brand new, not in the test bank, piece of equipment is down. What then?
I stand by my argument that if you learn the material, you should be able to pass a damn multiple choice test.
Memorization has a key role in the learning process. For example, there are words in the English language that defy traditional rules for spelling. Those words are memorized. Understanding and having a complete grasp of the rules of spelling will never allow you to learn these words.
You learn to walk via trial and error, exactly the same way as using the question bank. The motions are then committed muscle MEMORY(memorization).
If you don’t understand the very nature of learning, you won’t get my point. Very few things beyond breathing are not taught.
The cream always rises to the top. A guy may pass the test, but if he doesn’t prove his worth when he is in the engine room…he’ll be signing off in the next US port.
I have mixed feelings on this. I have a good and extensive library of texts and I’ve been hitting the books a lot lately. I do take practice tests on seasources to check myself. I think it’s important to understand how things work the way they do, and memorizing test questions alone is not a sound foundation for success. It can be a useful tool for self-evaluation, however. Just make sure they become one of your learning tools, not the only tool.
[QUOTE=catherder;82106]I have mixed feelings on this. I have a good and extensive library of texts and I’ve been hitting the books a lot lately. I do take practice tests on seasources to check myself. I think it’s important to understand how things work the way they do, and memorizing test questions alone is not a sound foundation for success. It can be a useful tool for self-evaluation, however. Just make sure they become one of your learning tools, not the only tool.[/QUOTE]
My feelings aren’t mixed at all. In any other endeavor having access to the questions and correct answers before the examination is called cheating.
In any case it is a dumbing down of the process which makes the license not so valuable which is one reason I got somewhat amused when people were complaining that the USCG did away with the license suitable for framing.
The learning/memorizing argument aside, the Freedom of Information Act demands they be public. Either change the LAW…or take the licensing and testing out of the USCG’s hands.
[QUOTE=tengineer;82131]My feelings aren’t mixed at all. In any other endeavor having access to the questions and correct answers before the examination is called cheating.
In any case it is a dumbing down of the process which makes the license not so valuable which is one reason I got somewhat amused when people were complaining that the USCG did away with the license suitable for framing.[/QUOTE]
I sat for my 2nd asst through Chief Motor in the early '80s in Houston. The CG tested 3rds and 2nds on certain days of the month and a week later the 1st and Chief.
It was SOP for everyone sitting to go to the MEBA hall during lunch for debreifing, cataloging questions and critique. No matter what your union affiliation. There were always many to help with any questions.
While a bunch of us were waiting for our 1st and Chief’s licenses to be printed, we were talking amongst ourselves about some of the questions. The yeoman behind the counter told us that the question pool was available on a floppy disc. We all looked at each other and said, “what the hell is a floppy disc”??
…one of the first things i learned (and it seems to be reinforced regularly in my experience) is that a license is not necessarily an indication of a person’s competence or ability. granted, there are MANY competent, professional sailors out there, BUT there are a fair number of paper mates as well. just my $.02
[QUOTE=tengineer;82131]My feelings aren’t mixed at all. In any other endeavor having access to the questions and correct answers before the examination is called cheating.
In any case it is a dumbing down of the process which makes the license not so valuable which is one reason I got somewhat amused when people were complaining that the USCG did away with the license suitable for framing.[/QUOTE]
I agree with you on this. It has been several years since I took my last test, and I am thankful that all that is behind me now. I fail to see how people simply memorizing a bunch of answers is accomplishing anything besides them passing a test. It does not teach theory, or trouble shooting. All that does is prove that they are capable of memorizing something. I hear my assistant engineers coming back after taking a test and talking about trick questions. I tell them there is no such thing, it just seperates the people that think they know form the people that actually do know.
When I passed my chiefs test, to me the entire thing is about 20 to 40 years behind the industry. So how does this really help people now by memorizing prehistoric answers that have little relevance to anything we do nowdays. Very few of the people actually learn the theory, they just want to pass the test and never pick up a book again.
I am looking at the book shelf in my control room right now, there are 51 manuals on the book shelves down here. It is a rare sight for any of the young people to be caught reading anything from this book shelf, unless something breaks. Then it is always what do we do now chief???
[QUOTE=tradsailor;82136]…one of the first things i learned (and it seems to be reinforced regularly in my experience) is that a license is not necessarily an indication of a person’s competence or ability. granted, there are MANY competent, professional sailors out there, BUT there are a fair number of paper mates as well. just my $.02[/QUOTE]
A license means you have the minimum amount of time it takes to get it, and the minimum knowkledge to pass the test (on the day you took it). So all it means is that you are at least as experienced or smart as the newest and/or dumbest guy with the same license.
[QUOTE=Knots;82133]The learning/memorizing argument aside, the Freedom of Information Act demands they be public. Either change the LAW…or take the licensing and testing out of the USCG’s hands.[/QUOTE]
At the time the questions were removed, FOIA did not require them to be posted. AFTER NMC removed the questions, the law changed. The Supreme Court decided a case that changed how FOIA is applied. The previously valid exception used to FOIA that allowed non-disclosure of the questions was invalidated.