Safety and operational training should not be a waste of time or money.
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I had a terrible experience with northeast maritime years ago with radar renewal and BRM. Never again. Has anyone had a positive experience with any of their online offerings? They did try to not be a certificate mill 20 years ago but Iām sure it was bad for business and the instructors were mostly Newport/Block Island noncommercial guys.
Mitags is stil the gold standard IMO. MPT is decent but the classes are cluttered with young unserious yachties who rarely know much beyond where to find girls and pills in the Caribbean.
Dont use nemo for meteorology. Barely any of the course material is on the exam. All the practice questions and quizzes that are being asked to prepare you for exam are on it either. It was a horrible class to take through them.
I have been tempted to use that schoolās overpriced, and reportedly underwhelming, online courses to save time and travel expenses, but I just couldnāt stoop low enough to do it.
Iād rather spend more for a quality course and not feel ripped off.
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Guess im in the minority. Iāve used NEMO twice and iād give them a 7/10. At this point in my career if i can do things remotely and be home more ill jump all over it. It wasnāt the shit show for me that others experienced. Guess i got lucky. Do it remotely is a plus and if i can save a few bucks too its a win.
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I had a pretty horrible experience with these guys. Would not recommend them to anyone. To the contrary, I am actively trying to dissuade anyone from using them. Pretty crappy product, even worse customer service. Glitchy. Cumbersome. And to top it all off, if you look away from the computer during the āEXAMā you will be accused of cheating.
Theyāre pretty clear on what the criteria are for the third party proctors. They donāt write the rules for the exams, they have to comply to meet the standard.
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Itās their course, they do write the rules. And if monitoring software is used, they chose which to use.
So thereās no minimum requirement for USCG approved exams?
Thereās nothing that says a studentās eyes may not deviate from the screen for even a nanosecond.
Fair enough, but there is something that says exams must be proctored?
Iāve taken a few of their online exams, anything the software detects is supposed to be reviewed by a human. I canāt speak to the poster aboves case, just my own, and I had no issues.
Enclosure(5) of NVIC 03-14.
Thanks for the info.
Awful!!! DO NOT TAKE ANYTHING ADVANCED with this school!!! not a single question from any practice exams is on the final. The study material given is SO VAGUE that when it comes time to take the exam, you will not have seen half of what is being asked. They then want more money for you to re-test after you failed due to their lack of detail in the study material itself.
So, in shortā¦ Go somewhere else! donāt waste your money or your time.
Now that the STCW gap closing requirements are behind us, and there are more barriers to hawsepiping, is the maritime industry ready for a shake out among license prep schools?
If a quality school with a 100 year history and reputation like Crawford could not find a buyer when the 5th generation owners retired, that suggests to me that there are far too many license prep schools and not enough students.
I think itās time for the USCG to crackdown on these license prep schools and eliminate about half of the poorer quality schools.
The USCG really needs to end allowing the schools to give the USCG Exams. This allows too many schools to basically sell USCG licenses to people that shouldnāt have them.
Iām sure many of us have been in courses with clueless guys that flunked the first test in a room full of people, but miraculously passed the retest a hour later when they were alone with the instructor. We all know how they do that.
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