#chartwork

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Navigation training. #activityholidaysgreece #chartwork #chart #nav #navigation #activity #fun #followforfollow #like4like #crew #tshirts #shirt #yachtylife #miniflotilla #ionian #greece #yacht (at Kálamos, Levkas, Greece)

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25.06.17 - Exam Week 2: The Resits

It was no surprise that I’d failed a couple of exams. I was ill, I was exhausted and I was completely done with exam week by the end of Tuesday. I didn’t do too bad, I passed 4 out of the 6 exams (I’m counting the learning skills essay and the maths exam as separate entities even though they fall under the same unit) but I slipped up on Stability and Navigation.

I failed stability due to silly errors. I was running on fumes and forgot to calculate the GZ figures before plotting the graph (you’re given the angle of list and the KN figures to start with) and applied the free surface moment to all three of the stability tables instead of just the KG.

I failed the Celestial part of Navigation. I’ll quickly run through how the Nav paper is set out. The Navigation exam covers four classes – chartwork, celestial, tides and terrestrial. I was bricking chartwork. I spent so much time revising it that I actually felt confident come exam week. Tides and Terrestrial had clicked with me fairly easily so they weren’t an issue, and after a bit of revision I felt fairly confident in Celestial.

I’d learnt azimuths, plotting, sextant angle adjustments and intercepts. What could go wrong?

Compass errors. I didn’t revise compass errors.

It’s such a simple process. I didn’t think that we’d be given such a simple question. How wrong I was…

So I knuckled down and begun to revise. If I had to offer one piece of advice for anyone facing resits it’d be this – talk to your tutors. Even if you don’t see eye to eye with all of them (which is perfectly natural) they are there to help. Once I knew where I slipped up on Stability it was easy to reduce the revision time down to day of simply focussing on where I slipped up. Could I have done that if I didn’t speak to my tutor? Not at all.

The same goes for Navigation. I did a bit of revision on all the subjects but I focussed on Celestial the most. Now, let’s talk about the actual resits. You’ll be given a schedule a week or so in advance. The times might be a little strange – I had one start at 6pm – but that’s because they have to work around normal lectures. Honestly, it’s exactly same as the first time around. The turn around for the marking was pretty fast too (it was a matter of hours for Stability) but I’d imagine the fact that I was the only one resitting those exams from our class (of seven) helped.

What would have happened if I failed then?

Honestly, I’d have gone to sea as planned and resat again during phase three which would have been a pain. Exams are marked in two ways – there’s an industry pass and an academic pass. The academic pass is 40%, like most degree courses, whilst the industry pass varies. The industry pass for Navigation was 50% in all four areas and 65% overall – it’s a tough one! You can have a maximum of 3 resits if your mark is under 40% - it’s definitely not advisable (and potentially costly) but you could resit an exam any number of times as long as you pass academically. It’s worth noting that they do get tougher with each resit. The first resit is only a little tougher but after that I’d imagine they really start testing you.

That’s about all there is to say about resits really. As usual, drop me a line if you have any questions. Next post will be about my pre sea briefing.

Until then, stay lucky.

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fuckclick

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the Show must go on.

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