Does anyone have any advice on studying for the 3rd A/E license exam? I have taken it twice and have only been failing by a few questions. Are there any good softwares or prep material I could be using? At this point any other way to study will help me.
What is tripping you up? Which sections?
[QUOTE=KPEngineer;100839]What is tripping you up? Which sections?[/QUOTE]
Electrical is definitely my worst out of all the subjects. I missed Motors 1 and 2 by a question. Generals is up in the air because it is such a vast subject so I try and study everything. I have used the Marine Engine Workbooks, seasources, and uscgq.com. Ive also read all of the new questions from the new database on the Coastguard website. I am not absorbing it the way I am doing it.
Go to the MEBA hall near you and ask for the test question disk from the patrolman and join up. I sat for my chiefs motor section last year and it was a big help. I gave some out to the Maine seniors at a job fair there in Oct. KPshould have received some too from the MEBA people at the KP job fair.
.
Get the Mass Maritime Marine Engineering books, roughly $200 and study the hell out of them. I’ve used them for 3 upgrades and felt like every question I had seen before. Mariner Advancement has flash sticks that you can take practice tests on.
I second ForkandBlade’s post…I used the Mass Maritime books (Haynes) and also the mariner advancement software, put a lot of quiet time in studying, and did very well on my exams back in September. Good luck and study hard.
And just as a study tip, don’t try and memorize the questions and answers; take the time to understand them. . . .much easier than memorization.
Electrical really gets me. It has never been my strong subject. I have been using the marine engineering workbooks but now that they have changed the database with a whole new bank of questions everything has changed. I printed out all of those and try to read them but the new illustrations aren’t out yet so it is no help. I used USCGQ but some of those answers were wrong from what I saw by using sea sources. I try not to memorize and i try to understand but I don’t know whatever I’m doing isn’t working.
SeaSources and the workbooks worked for me. Just keep going through random quizzes on SeaSources for each subject.
The mariner advancement flash drives have been pretty good, doing the “Chief Limited” exams right now. Your better off studying the hell out of your weak areas, because for some reason thats what will be on your exam that day. They told me you can expect to do 10% worse on the actual exam than the practice exams. Study the material, memorization only goes so far, and good luck.
With the mariner advancement flash drives did you guys get the standard or premium?
Premium, its got some of the reference material, and diagrams. It includes the navy reference manuals, but theres alot better books out there. I just kept taking it, 3-4 times a watch, and as you progress thru the questions, it removes the material youve gotten correct, was worth the money.
Better books? Anything I should look into.
I just took 1a/e and C/E ltd oceans. For reviewing electrical I watched some YouTube videos on motors (there were some old military ones which were good). For the material they added, I watched some videos on ladder logic and PLCs. There is a lot of good material out there that may not be ship specific, but its all industrial equipment.
[QUOTE=tugbotman;100993]I second ForkandBlade’s post…I used the Mass Maritime books (Haynes) and also the mariner advancement software, put a lot of quiet time in studying, and did very well on my exams back in September. Good luck and study hard.[/QUOTE]
It looks like the Mass books focus on steam, can you recommend any diesel diesel/electric textbooks?
They do not focus on steam. They have every module given in the USCG question bank all the way to Chief Engineer. Like every one else, they just don’t have the absolute newest illustrations and questions that have been recently released. If they are used properly, ie figuring out why an answer is what it its, anyone should be sufficiently prepared to pass all subjects. Know motor controls and ladder logic somewhat as well as hydraulics and refrigeration and the questions can be logically answered. For additional help on these subjects, look to the internet as was previously mentioned, it worked just fine for me. I did very well on electricity, generals, and motors using my system as described earlier.
I found a really good textbook for diesels from going to school and taking a class. Its called Diesel Engineering Handbook 12th edition by Karl W Stinson, M.E. It is a great text book explains everything about motors.
1 Like
I also used the Mass books. Bought them when I was a cadet and have used them for every upgrade to unlimited Chiefs. They cover ALL questions for diesel and steam. Juice always seems to be the one that everyone has a tougher time with.
I still have mine. . .