How To Prepare for 2nd Mates Exams

2016
So, now you have completed your sea time as required and have successfully secured a seat for the
2nd Mates functions course in a college of your choice. Now, comes the big part and the turning
point in your life and career, where you will be preparing to step into an officer’s shoes leaving
behind your Cadet’s shoes. You will be preparing to take the responsibilities on your shoulders and
of course for taking responsibilities you should have the required and appropriate knowledge about
your work and your field. This 2nd Mates Functions course will exactly do that, it will impart the
required knowledge in you, but you also would have to ensure that you do your homework in a right
way to acquire the required knowledge and skills.
In this article we will talk about how you should go on with your preparations to achieve success in
this tough exam.
2nd Mates Functions have three type of examinations:
1) Written Examination 2) Oral Examination 3) Signals Examination
Let’s first talk about how to prepare for the written examination.
The first thing you should do as soon as you join the course is that you should make yourself familiar
with the syllabus for the written examination. Though your college will be guiding you throughout,
you should also spare some time in knowing what is going to come and how you will have to prepare
yourself and which topic will fetch you with more marks to pass the examination. So, for finding the
syllabus you can go on Google and type “2nd Mates Syllabus” and select the first result, it will
automatically download the word file on your computer and there you go, now you know which topic
will be coming in which subject and approximate how much marks one topic can fetch you.
You can also directly jump to the syllabus by clicking on the following link:
2nd Mates Syllabus
You should also be aware that how many functions are there in this course and what is the passing
marks in each of them, following are the list of functions for which you will have to go through a
written exam:
TERRESTRIAL AND COASTAL NAVIGATION (TCN) (Total Marks- 200, Pass Marks- 140)
BRIDGE EQUIPMENT AND WATCHKEEPING (Total Marks- 200, Pass Marks- 100)
CARGO HANDLING AND STOWAGE (Total Marks- 200, Pass Marks- 120)
CELESTIAL NAVIGATION (Total Marks- 200, Pass Marks- 140)
METEOROLOGY (Total Marks- 100, Pass Marks- 50)
SHIP CONSTRUCTION, STABILITY, SHIP SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION (Total
Marks- 200, Pass Marks- 120)
Once you know the subjects and syllabus then you would be more confident and could direct your
hard work in one required direction, instead of wasting it here and there.
One advice I would like to give you from my personal and many other friends’ experience is that
what you have been taught at the class, practice it at your own after the college is over, this way you
will come to know what are your doubts, your strong topics and your weak topics on which you will
need to work more hard. If you miss one topic and think you will do it after 5-6 days, believe me you
will lag behind and would have to put a lot of extra efforts to catch up. So, make it a habit of
practicing the topics that have been taught in the class. Saturdays and Sundays, keep them to revise
all the subjects and topics which have been covered in the entire week, you can also utilize these
two days for giving extra attention on the topic or subject in which you consider yourself a bit weak.
This way, your preparations for the written examinations will always be up to date and you will
always be ready to take the examinations (read bull) by its horns.
For booking of examination seat, you will always be assisted by your college, dates and important
announcements will always be posted on the College Board, so always keep a track of them.
Now, once your seat is booked and date sheet is out, which can also be found
on www.dgshipping.gov.in in the “Exam Schedule” Tab. You should start your revisions, by this time
you should have covered all the topics and should be in the revision stage.
This way you can surely ensure success in the written examination.
Now, let us talk about how to prepare and tackle the Oral Examinations.
In orals, there are usually 3 functions and at some MMDs like Kolkata there is a Function 4 as well,
list is as follows:
Function 1: Navigation (Terrestrial, Celestial, ROR, Meteorology, Bridge Equipments, Watch
keeping, Flags, shapes, signals, Construction, Stability (for construction and stability some surveyors
ask these topics in Function 3 also), Emergencies)
Function 2: Cargo Handling and Stowage
Function 3: Safety (This also includes all the maritime laws, conventions etc.)
Function 4: Flags, Signals etc.
Now, I will be very honest with you all, Orals are sheer luck, yes, obviously your hard work do matter
but in orals luck also matters a lot. So, my advice will be with your hard work have faith on God
also 😉 and if you don’t succeed in first attempt don’t be disheartened, it is very normal. But your aim
should always be to clear everything in the first attempt then only you would be able to put up the
required hard work. Your oral preparations should include everything that you have prepared for
written examination plus the in depth knowledge on each topic for which you will have to refer
various Publications like SOLAS, MARPOL, many other (in fact all) conventions and codes.
FUNCTION 1:
One should be completely thorough with the Rules Of the Roads (ROR) and the situations regarding
the above, if you are able to satisfy the surveyor in ROR your function 1 is almost certain. Also, be
thorough with the Bridge equipments, there principle of working and all. Be thorough with the
celestial Navigation too.
FUNCTION 2:
For function 2 i.e. Cargo, don’t expect surveyor to ask question only about the type of ships you
have done, most probably he will ask questions relating to those ship types which you have not
done, so be prepared about that, sit in with your friends who has done different types of ships and
discuss, that’s the best way to learn about other ship types.
FUNCTION 3:
As far as Function 3 is concerned, well, here comes the mugging part, you have to remember so
many regulations of different conventions, so keep revising what you have learnt so far.
The most important thing and the most effective way to prepare for the orals is that you should make
yourself familiar with the type of questions a surveyors ask, you can find out the list of questions
asked by surveyors of a particular MMD either locally or online, and you should also know what
answer satisfies the surveyor, remember some surveyors are satisfied with one answer and some
with others, that could be known by being on the forums like 2nd Mates forum group on Facebook.
Also, mostly each surveyor of a MMD have his sets of questions which he asks commonly, so if you
are able to prepare as per that, it will surely give you an edge and will increase your chances to clear
the examination.
Now, talking about the Signals examination,
It is an exam where Morse codes are transmitted visually and you have to identify and write it on
your sheets. Important thing to remember is that if you miss the sequence, you miss the chance of
passing. So the only way out here is practice, some college conducts classes for the practice, you
can attend them to gain confidence. Other way these days are mobile apps, there are a lot of free
downloadable applications on play store and Apple store which will surely help you to learn and
remember the Morse codes.
Wish you all the luck in the world
Hope this article will guide you in achieving success in you first venture.
Good Luck Mates, May all be successful