What’s the MCA Oral Exam Really Like?
The MCA oral exam is like an interview… but you have to pay for the pleasure.
There are a lot of fear and rumours surrounding the MCA oral exam, probably because it can be a pretty traumatic experience if you haven’t prepared properly and can seem a bit arbitrary sometimes. The truth is that although there are some awkward Examiners, the majority are nice, reasonable people who want you to pass.
Effectively, you are being given around an hour to prove that you’re good enough to drive a ship while everyone else is asleep or, if you’re going for a higher ticket, to run that ship safely and compliantly.
You are not expected to know everything, nor are you expected to have experience beyond your years or ticket. You are, however, expected to keep everyone safe. That is why safety-critical areas, such as COLREGs, buoyage, emergencies, enclosed spaces, etc. are very much trip-wire pass/fail questions. However, non-safety, non-COLREGs areas are more of a holistic assessment of whether, on balance, you know enough.
Remember that there’s no way that they can ask you everything you’ve learnt in the space of an hour or so, so the Examiner will commonly focus on key areas and keep their questioning to a fairly high-level. They are likely to move on very quickly if you appear competent in a certain area but if they detect any weakness in your knowledge, they will start probing to see how much you know. That is both the beauty and horror of the MCA oral exam.
You are being given around an hour to prove that you’re good enough to drive a ship while everyone else is asleep or, if you’re going for a higher ticket, to run that ship safely and compliantly.
– Paul Naranjo-Shepherd
Imagine a skimming stone.
The point of skimming stones is to get them to “bounce” as many times as possible and go as far as you can make them. Imagine that your answers are the water, the Examiner is skimming the stones and every time the stone touches the water, that’s a question.
We’ve agreed that the Examiner can’t cover everything but they will try to cover as much ground as possible. The Examiner will ask a high-level question (“What is MARPOL?”), you give your strong, high-level answer, they are impressed and the stone skims onto the next subject.
If your answer is weak or hesitant, the Examiner is likely to want to see how much you know (or don’t know). The stone stops skimming and starts sinking deeper and deeper into that subject, which is where things get awkward.
That’s why, when we’re planning our revision, we must make sure that we have a solid, high-level answer for every likely question.
Give it a gentle push.
To extend the analogy a bit too far, the water can sometimes have a small say in which direction the stone bounces. My point is there are two ways of examining a candidate. The first is that the Examiner has the questions they want to ask and they go through them one by one. Not much we can do there.
However, the second type tends to take more of a storytelling, ”voyage of disaster”, discussion-based approach, where the answer to one question can guide the next. If your Examiner takes this approach, it may mean is that you can bring the conversation onto a topic you’re hot on, and subtly steer away from one you aren’t. It takes practice but it’s possible.
As an example, I tend to do mock orals in the latter way. I’ll ask a vague, open-ended question and dig into whatever I fancy along the way. So, if I ask “You’re joining your new ship and you’ve just got out of the taxi…”, then I’m expecting to hear something about the ship’s condition, mooring ropes, load lines, gangway, security, blah, blah, blah.
Anywhere through that answer, I might ask a pointed question about a particular thing (“What’s the maximum angle for the gangway?”) or something vague (“Tell me about the security procedures onboard”).
With this style of examination, you may be able to steer it by not mentioning the load lines if you aren’t confident with them. Conversely, you could spend a lot of time talking about the security watch at the top of the gangway, in the hope that I’ll ask you more questions on that subject. It’s not a fool-proof strategy by any means but it’s worth considering how an answer can lead to the next question.
Can I go now?
In your MCA oral exam, it’s common for the non-COLREGs part to come first and make up around 2/3 to 3/4 of the exam. COLREGs and buoyage then brings up the rear. This is not guaranteed though, so don’t worry if your exam takes a different direction. One oddity about the oral examination is that there’s no set length. Most exams are about an hour long, although some people are out in under half an hour and others are in there for a lot, lot longer.
Don’t despair if your exam goes on longer than normal; this is not a bad sign. If oral exams drag on it is invariably because the candidate wasn’t particularly strong but they also weren’t a clear fail. The Examiner is actually trying to give you more of an opportunity to make it over the line. If they wanted to fail you, they would have already done so.
Stand up, brush yourself off and keep going.
You will make mistakes in your exam. I guarantee it. The question is what are you going to do afterwards?
If you screw up one of the tripwire subjects, you may have fluffed it, but don’t give up just yet. Assuming that you realise your mistake, correct yourself immediately. Then, apologise and expect a serious grilling in and around the subject.
If you’ve performed well but made a silly mistake on something important, the Examiner could ask you the same question again a while later; don’t just blurt out your last answer but instead think very, very carefully.
If you mess up a non-tripwire question, try not to let it get to you. This part of the exam is normally assessed on a holistic view of your overall competency, not any one question. Maybe that last question didn’t go great. Don’t worry; take a breath, have a sip of water and treat the next question as a new exam. Trust me, fretting over something you said half an hour ago isn’t going to help you tackle the next question.
On a similar note, if you don’t know something, please don’t try to blag the Examiner. If you’re not sure what they want, ask them to clarify or rephrase the question. If you simply don’t know, just say but perhaps reference where you would find out or what else you know about the subject.
They will be much more impressed by someone who knows what they don’t know and asks for help, rather than someone who’ll try to bluff their way through.
You will make mistakes in your exam. I guarantee it. The question is what are you going to do afterwards?
– Paul Naranjo-Shepherd
You’ve got this.
This blog isn’t meant to scare you. Quite the contrary, I figure that forewarned is forearmed. Now you have an idea of what the MCA oral exam is really like, hopefully you’ll feel more in control of the experience.
The key thing is that gaining the confidence that underpins everything that I’ve just mentioned requires you to prepare for the MCA oral exam in the right way. Too many candidates forget that this is an oral exam and they just sit at home and study, study, study in a dark room, by themselves, until their eyes bleed.
In contrast, the best candidates recognise that it’s as much about confidence as competence and make sure that their prep encompasses both elements; detailed, interactive, up-to-date eLearning resources to get the competence sorted, combined with lots of practice verbalising their knowledge, tackling tricky questions and justifying themselves using our weekly small-group clinics or private sessions.
Finally, don’t be a stranger. If you’re reading this article then reach out and say hi on WhatsApp using the floating button in the bottom corner.
We really are here to help.
Cheers,
Paul