I often get asked this question so thought I would do a quick post to reach as many people as possible.
During your last few months of sea time, start using your Bridge and Cargo time as though you are an already qualified Officer of the Watch. Half the battle is convincing the examiner that you are confident and knowledgable and they’d feel confident leaving you in charge of a ship if they were the Master. Get used to speaking out loud and running through your thought process. You soon will realise where you need to brush up on when you go blank!
Start practicing identifying the lights and saying them out loud when you’re on the bridge e.g. that’s a power driven vessel, probably over 50m in length, underway and possibly making way, seen from the port side. The wording matters! Don’t just say “that’s a power driven vessel” show you really know the COLREGS by fully identifying it by length, aspect and any other special features (e.g. constrained by draught).
Identify the buoys as you’re coming into port and the actions you need to take on seeing them e.g. that’s a north cardinal mark, I am on a westerly heading so I need to alter course to starboard.
When you’re on cargo watch, shadow the Cargo Officer. Start thinking, what would I do in this situation? Where possible, ask the Cargo Officer where they would have done things differently and why.
The other bit is to start thinking about your MCA orals, knowing what types of question that could come up can really help your confidence and the perfect place to practice being quizzed is on board (especially during those quiet times on board!). I’ve written a free blog on the types of question that could come up.
When it comes to your orals, ensure you’re really confident with what could come up in the exam. You can use previous orals reports to do your own mock exam – form a study group and get people to quiz you and you can then critique each other on your answers. Having confidence in speaking out loud is one of the biggest hurdles!
SafeSeas Training have built a two different practice tools to help you prepare for you MCA orals. The SafeSeas Training part A mock assessment allows you to practice the different styles of questions that will be in part A of your orals, whether this is a matching question, multiple choice or fill in the gaps. This costs £3.99 for 30-days access, you can sign up here.
Our next offering is the part B orals simulator, which features over 400 real UK MCA questions. Each question gives you a model answer. You can use this by either typing in your answer and comparing it to the model answer, or you can practice answering out loud and then comparing your answer. Have you thought about practicing being the examiner and someone else being the examinee using the simulator as this can help build confidence? You can sign up here for £2.99 for a 30-day access pass.
I have a free version as well at the bottom of this page, as well as tips on how the part A and B works.
I hope that’s helpful but any other questions please feel free to reach out.
All the best for achieving your Officer of the Watch Certificate.
SafeSeas Training 