I am currently studying for my 1600 ton masters NC test. I have passed all the modules except Nav General. My question is, Are the Bowditch books the same? I have the Newer black bowditch that i am using for a reference guide. Does it have the excact information as the Green one that is in the Testing Room? I dont want to study my butt off in the wrong book. I was told its the same, but the page numbers would be different. HELP!
It he one in the testing room is not the same. Get a Murphy book and study what matters.
No. “Bowditch volume 2” is what you have in the exam room. Usually a green cover, full of formulas, tables, and a handy glossary/index that is indeed helpful for nag general. Not the same in any way as “Bowditch” aka whats commonly referred to as the American practical mariner (watch-change correction-navigator) though.
Kind of weird you don’t know your reference material and you’re sitting for a 1,600 master though?
American Practical Navigator, that is, smarty pants. 
Yes, caught me on that one. I will leave my error intact for all to humiliate me!
Get lapware and use it as instructed. Study for a couple weeks and go knock it out. The have a downloadable PDF version of the correct early. 80’s version on Vol. 2.
[QUOTE=JLS;125015]I am currently studying for my 1600 ton masters NC test. I have passed all the modules except Nav General. My question is, Are the Bowditch books the same? I have the Newer black bowditch that i am using for a reference guide. Does it have the excact information as the Green one that is in the Testing Room? I dont want to study my butt off in the wrong book. I was told its the same, but the page numbers would be different. HELP![/QUOTE]
Who told you it was the same? They aren’t the same. The exam rooms have an older version of Bowditch that is in two volumes. The exam troom only has Volume 2, which ahs some formulas and the various tables you need for navigational problems. It sounds like you’re hoping to be able to lloik up all the answers to your Navigation General exam in Bowditch. You’re not going to be able to do that, most of the answers won’t be in the Volume 2 in the exam room.
Yopu probably sghopuld have asked this while you were studying for the rest of the test, not the night before the test.
I would suggest you study your butt off more. If you know the material then it wouldn’t matter what page numbers cover what on various editions of Bowditch. Why is it in our industry people would rather memorize material than learn it.
[QUOTE=“Xmsccapt(ret);125142”]
I would suggest you study your butt off more. If you know the material then it wouldn’t matter what page numbers cover what on various editions of Bowditch. Why is it in our industry people would rather memorize material than learn it.[/QUOTE]
Because the system in place makes that the most effective method.
It may indeed be effective in the short term, but if one were to actually learn the topics: celestial, weather, stability etc one would be better off. If you simply study a question and answer bank do you really know the topic? I don’t think so.
I’ve seen some in the past put hours of work into memorization. If they would have put the same energy into study of the topic they’d know the material and hence have no issues passing a test. I’ve had " mariners" ask me what is the longitude equivalent of a body with a GHA of xxx and was completely stumped. Why? Because this particular question was not in the bank of questions they were memorizing. A simple time diagram and basic knowledge about the subject would solve the question. Hence, I would vote for knowledge over memorizing q and a data banks. Also, oddly the knowledge may actually be of use one day… The q and a data bank being of use? Not past test day to be sure.
I have studied my butt off! I have been prepping for this for 9 months! I do nothing but study! I just wanted to know a simple question! I have tried and tried to get the " green bowdich" I even asked amazon, they told me they would send the green one! I opened the package and it’s the bicentennial verson! I am SURE I am the only one in America that studies the test questions and answer bank! I KNOW that all of you salts have just used your common knowledge to answer test questions!
If your black Bowditch has 2 pages in one on the inside and says Volume II from 1981 on the cover, and is about 1 1/2" thick, then yes they’re the same.
If its page for page and 4 inches thick, it’s not.
There’s lots of answers in volume 2! That glossary is a gold mine. Plus all the sailing formulas and celestial theory.
The glossary saved me on a lot of things I didn’t even know I needed to study for!
[QUOTE=workingirish;125175]The glossary saved me on a lot of things I didn’t even know I needed to study for![/QUOTE]
Ton of stuff in Bowditch II glossary. Having the coast pilot/light list is handy for a few things, and the tide and current tables glossary is helpful. Many of the questions are pretty straight forward. Work through some course to intercept problems, hurricane maneuvering plots. I have found nautical astronomy to have a lot of questions that are tough. Lapware has been great for going through certain topics and printing out a bunch of practice tests is nice. I’ve been getting high 80’s to low 90s on the Nav Gen tests I have been taking. Week and a half till I test at the REC. Can’t wait to be done studying!
[QUOTE=“Xmsccapt(ret);125160”]
It may indeed be effective in the short term, but if one were to actually learn the topics: celestial, weather, stability etc one would be better off. If you simply study a question and answer bank do you really know the topic? I don’t think so.
I’ve seen some in the past put hours of work into memorization. If they would have put the same energy into study of the topic they’d know the material and hence have no issues passing a test. I’ve had " mariners" ask me what is the longitude equivalent of a body with a GHA of xxx and was completely stumped. Why? Because this particular question was not in the bank of questions they were memorizing. A simple time diagram and basic knowledge about the subject would solve the question. Hence, I would vote for knowledge over memorizing q and a data banks. Also, oddly the knowledge may actually be of use one day… The q and a data bank being of use? Not past test day to be sure.[/QUOTE]
I don’t disagree with you at all. However, unless the system makes that more effective than memorizing the question bank people will memorize the question bank.
[QUOTE=GLMASailor;125176]Week and a half till I test at the REC. Can’t wait to be done studying![/QUOTE]
Good luck to you!
Thank you guys for your help! I test in about 3 weeks so I should have plenty of time to get a handle on things!