Exam Retake Wait Period

[Seacowboy13]

Has anyone ever heard of having to wait 10 days to retake a single failed exam at your REC when you took a set of 7? I know about failing 3 of 7 and having to wait either 60 or 90 days depending on Limited or Unlimited Licenses. Asked for it in writing or the CFR and it could not be produced.

[Capt. Nemo]

Hey Virginia,

I'm thinking that, at the examiner's discretion, you can retake it the same day, time permitting.

Certainly you can sit for it the next day after the first failure. It is the first failure, isn't it? If not, the rules are different, I believe.

Hopefully somebody will post up with corrections if I'm wrong.

Good luck,

Nemo

[Capt. Fran]

From the new Deck Exam Guide
http://www.uscg.mil/nmc/training/DeckGuide.pdf

5. Exam Administration. When administering an examination or a complete re-examination for any license
or document:
a. An applicant is to complete all of the exam modules on consecutive days.
b. Applicants may attempt as many modules as can be completed within the normal working hours of the
examination room provided a minimum of two modules are completed per day, with approximately
3½ hours allowed for each module.
d. All of the modules comprising an exam must be completed one time before beginning retakes.
e. Applicants for any license level or document should not be stopped from testing even if they fail one
or two modules. This ensures that the applicant will not be penalized if there is any change to the
crediting of the score of an examination module through the protest process or if a correction to an
exam content is determined to be necessary.
f. If an applicant for an unlimited license fails three (3) modules at any time during the examination,
the candidate is not to be permitted to continue testing of any ensuing module.
6. Retest Policy.
a. If an applicant for an unlimited license fails three or more sections, a complete re-examination must
be administered. On the subsequent exam, if the applicant again fails three or more sections, at least 3
months must lapse before another complete examination is attempted, and a new examination fee is
required.
b. If an applicant fails only one or two sections during their second attempt refer to (c) & (d).
c. If an applicant fails one or two sections of an examination, the applicant may be retested twice as is
necessary on each failed section during the next three (3) months.
d. If the applicant does not successfully complete each failed section within the three (3) month period, a
complete examination must be administered after a lapse of at least three (3) months from the date of
the last retest, and a new examination fee is required.
e. The three (3) month retest period may be extended by the OCMI if the applicant presents discharges
documenting sea time which prevented the taking of a retest during the 3 month period. The retest
period may not be extended beyond seven (7) months from the initial examination.
f. The scheduling of all other deck examinations will be at the discretion of the OCMI. In the event of a
failure, the applicant may be retested twice whenever the examination can be rescheduled with the
OCMI. The applicant must be examined in all of the unsatisfactory sections of the preceding
examination. If the applicant does not successfully complete all parts of the examination during a three
(3) month period from the initial test date, a complete reexamination must be taken after a lapse of at
least 2 months from the date of the last retest, and a new examination fee is required.
g. Applicants failing several portions of an examination or those failing one module with an extremely
low score should be encouraged to study before attempting a re-examination.

[Capt. Nemo]

"f. The scheduling of all other deck examinations will be at the discretion of the OCMI. In the event of a
failure, the applicant may be retested twice whenever the examination can be rescheduled with the
OCMI."

I'm reading that to say that there isn't a minimum waiting period in the event of failure of one module for the first or second time. Is that how you interpret it? I know that a guy I was in school with failed the Rules and took his repeat test that evening and passed, but he was just sitting for a 100 ton Master. I think the Rules module is the same for all levels, but maybe not. Rules is rules.

Maybe Mr. Cavo will chime in with his interpretation.

Thankfully, I've never failed one, so I'm blissfully ignorant of the process. I hope to remain so but I'm confident in my ability to get the long-face from the examiner in the future. I've been told there are two groups of testees: Those that HAVE failed a test and those that WILL!

We'll see what the Saltwater Cowboy comes up with,

Nemo

[Seacowboy13]

Yes Fran those were the guidelines I was going off of and referring to with the test proctor, but she wasn't hearing it. Again I think this is a case of her wanting to make up her own rules for her REC. The LTCDR was out of the office on vacation for the week, and I am sure that there wouldn't have been an issue of the retake being done after completing my other required modules. She did "make a special exception" and let me retake the exam (chartplot) this morning, which I did pass without problem. There were 3 different people that were checking my exams over the week and I have to have a small bit of worry that maybe its possible that my first test wasn't checked against the correct key. One of the proctors was on her 2nd day of this so I have to be leary of mistakes being made there.

Anyways the good news is I have passed all my required exams and will now wait on the NMC to produce my new 3rd Mate Ticket. With any luck when the time comes for my next upgrade there will finally be more consistency in this system. I won't be holding my breath.

[jdcavo]

Before everyone jumps to conclusions, do you know if the exam room was fully booked for people testing by appointment?

[Seacowboy13]

Absolutely not. There were 2 guys in there with me on Monday when I completed the first 5 exams. On Tuesday there was no one there in the morning until about 1230 when one person came in to take a Engineer test, I completed my first 2 tests then, and wanted to retake the chart plot but was worried about time since it was almost 1 and them close up shop promptly at 3 there. Then this morning there was no one, and they are closed on Friday due to the holiday. So having room in the schedule was totally not what they were referring is saying wait 10 days before a retake. There was one guy on Monday that failed all tests he took and was asking about retaking on Friday but was told that they were closed and they then checked the schedule for the following Monday the 6th and I believe got him in. I had also made an appointment 2 weeks prior blocking off Monday thru Thursday to be testing since I had 9 modules to complete, but I completed them much quicker than expected in the 3 days with having to retake one exam.