information on the mate 500 GT test

[malik]

Greetings,
I first got my Mate 500 GT in the ealy 1980's. Then, for various reasons, I let the license lapse beyond the grace period. so now I am preparing to re-sit the exam to reinstate the license. As the exams have changed so much, I am in need of information on the actual content of the exam.

I have Capt. Joe's license perep program, along with other study material, I'm just not clear on what exactly to expect on the test.

For example, are there sailing triangle calculations, mid lat sailing, rpm / speed, azmiths etc?

Thanks,

Robert

[seadawg]

might start here:http://www.uscg.mil/nmc/checklists.asp
with the appropriate checklist and the exam guide

**also there is a wealth if material contained here all free for the effort of "searching" for it!!

[malik]

seadawg, i'm familiar with the nmc check list, however, i am unable to find specifics.... i am in the process of searching this site, and it is taking some time. so i'm just looking for pointers, will i need to calculate speed based on rpm etc?

[malik]

so, to answer my own question, just in case someone else finds them self in the same situation... it is proably best to just get the better study guides, as some of them will allow you to filter for the test or tests you are taking. Lapware allows one to filter for any of all of the tests, which is helpful to me as i am testing for 3 areas, AB, 100 ton master and 500 too=n mate. i am also using capt joe's uscgexam program, which is very user friendly except that one can not filter for their specific license. i am also going to use hawsepipe.net program, tho i haven't started this one yet.

there are still some conflicting information though, as the copy that i have of 46CFR 10.910 states that subjects such as time of meridian transit, zone time, azimuth by sun, and amplitude of sun are not required for 500 ton mate NC, but the lapware includes them in their lists of subjects for this exam.

[Conspearasea]

Page 3-19 has the subjects for examination. Navigation problems-Near Coastal is the Terrestrial navigation test....I just finished the 500/1600 Masters test and I can tell you that all of those subjects are on the 205xx module TNav for Masters. I would bet that they are on the mates TNav test too, but cannot verify that.

Good luck and do you already have your approval to test letter? Once you have it , the modules you need will be listed and I found the Lapware modules to be very close to the actual tests w/ the exception of the Navigation general test. I had 5 questions out of 50 that were about ocean currents, yet lapware never populated any of those questions in my prep tests....there were a couple other things that slip my mind now also.

[malik]

conspearasea,
does that mean that your exam included meridonal parts, great circles, mid-lat, etc?
was your exam nc or o?

[Conspearasea]

Yes, my NC 500GRT Masters exam did include all of those you have mentioned. The Terrestrial Navigation (coastal navigation) test actually has quite a bit of topics that would be Celestial topics. Azimuth, amplitude, sunrise/sunset, ETA, Fuel consumption, RPM, Meridional parts and the sailings are all topics you will see on that module. There are more, I just don't remember everything off the top of my head.

Again, this was for the masters, but the mates take a coastal navigation module also.....probably the same stuff.

[malik]

thank you!