About 10% of protests are awarded credit. That number is actually higher than it appears when you consider that it is only a “protest” when the mariner has failed the exam by no more than 2 questions. The mariner knows they failed by 1 or 2, and has had a chance to review their answer and look up anything that might help prepare the protest. In other words, the majority of protests are nothing to lose fishing trips.
The REC should not have thrown your protest in the garbage because you passed or if you fail by more than 2 questions). It is then called a “Comment” and is supposed to be forwarded to this office for review, the only difference in the review is that because it is not a “protest” it doesn’t require an immediate answer and doesn’t have to be faxed or e-mailed from the REC, once a week or once a month is OK. The RECs should be sending them here regardless, but some may not be. In any event, it just looks bad to have done that in fromt of you, it’s suggesting we don’t care about the quality of the question.