How To Pass Your MCA Oral Exam.
If you follow all five steps, you’ll smash it.
#1 – Start early.
The first big question is “When should I start revising for my MCA oral exam?” Procrastination is easy but it really does pay off to start early and get ahead. You know yourself better than anyone but, let’s be honest, if you’re reading a blog to try to work out when you should start revising for your MCA oral exam, you’re probably fairly conscientious! Embrace it!
In general, about four to six weeks is a good amount of time to be seriously revising, although you will need to double that if you are trying to work and revise at the same time. However, there’s no reason why you can’t treat the months before as an opportunity to start revising gently, thus reducing the workload on you later on.
Good ways of doing this are to start paying attention to new M-notices and MAIB accident reports that are being issued (you can sign up for email alerts using the links), dusting off your copy of the COLREGs and starting to think a bit more about the why behind what you’re doing onboard. If you can, it’s also a really good idea to take copies of certificates, checklists, SOPs, risk assessments, permits to work, etc. as these will really come in handy later on.
In general, about four to six weeks is a good amount of time to be seriously revising. Double that if you’re working and revising at the same time.
– Paul Naranjo-Shepherd
We see hundreds of candidates a year and the ones that sail through are the ones that allow themselves time, rather than trying to cram. Most of our clients take advantage of our best-in-class eLearning resources for two to three months, start attending our weekly, small-group COLREGs and General Knowledge clinics about 4-5 weeks before and then add in some private sessions for the last 2-3 weeks.
Having said that, everything that we do is about flexibility so please do reach out if you want to discuss a bespoke oral exam preparation plan based on your circumstances.
#2 – Work in a group.
Even though you can’t bring your mates into the exam room with you, preparing for the MCA oral exam really is a team effort. Working in a small group is the best way to pass your orals and if the rest of the group are smarter than you, then that’s even better.
Revising for your orals, especially if you haven’t sat one before, can be very intimidating experience. There are a lot of myths and the format of the exam itself almost seems designed to scare the wits out of even the strongest candidate.
Even though it’s really not that bad, you need a band of brothers and/or sisters around you who understand what you’re going through and can pick you up on the bad days when it all just seems too much. Gathering a small group of people who think differently than you, who will help you to find your weak areas and prevent you wandering off down a rabbit hole is critical to passing your oral exam.
Having said all of that, the most important reason to work in a group is that you’ll have people to practice speaking to; people who will take great pleasure in asking you awkward questions and tearing your answer to pieces if it isn’t solid. Sounds unpleasant but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and it’ll make your answer stronger too.
Even though you can’t bring your mates into the exam room with you, preparing for the MCA Oral Exam really is a team effort.
– Paul Naranjo-Shepherd
Attending our weekly small-group clinics not only gives you the opportunity to answer realistic oral exam questions yourself but it also allows you to listen to, and critique, other people’s answers under the watchful eye of one of our expert tutors to keep things on track. This is invaluable, regardless of whether they are showing you how to or how not to answer!
Don’t forget that our private sessions aren’t just one-to-ones. Bringing some friends along is more fun, makes sure that the whole group is singing off the same song sheet and it also gets a lot cheaper per person too!
#3 – Use oral reports.
For those that are unfamiliar, an orals report is the beer-stained, bleary-eyed remembering’s of those that have gone before. While that may not sound hugely appealing, they are an invaluable resource for understanding the questions that are in fashion in each centre/with each examiner and therefore might appear in your exam.
Whichever MCA oral exam syllabus you are revising, they are too vague to be anything more than a general guide. However, if you go through all of the oral reports for your syllabus for the past few months, you’ll see that quite a lot of same things come up again and again.
Don’t restrict your revision to these alone, obviously, and do treat the contents with a pinch of salt (remember the beer stains and bleary eyes), but if you can answer every question from those past few months with confidence, you’re most of the way there.
A lot of colleges and other prep organisations refuse to share the oral reports that their clients have written but we don’t think that that’s right. That’s why all of our reports are publicly available for everyone, regardless of whether you choose to use us for your MCA oral prep or not, via our groups on Facebook.
We have one for deck candidates and another for engineering candidates. Just ask to join and then follow the instructions to be let in.
Our oral reports are freely available to everyone because it’s the right thing to do.
– Paul Naranjo-Shepherd
#4 – Verbalise!
Your MCA oral exam is, as the name suggests, spoken. It’s a bit like an interview really and it’s critically important to practice speaking out loud. We tell our clients that it is 50% confidence and 50% competence.
Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration but the difference between a correct answer presented confidently, precisely and clearly, and the same answer given by someone who clearly isn’t sure they’re right and which eventually peters out into an inarticulate mumbling, is stark, to say the least.
It’s all very well to have reams of beautifully highlighted notes but if you’re not able to synthesis that information into a coherent sentence on the day, it’s all over.
So, as the old saying goes, practice makes perfect. Once you’ve developed your deep and thorough appreciation of the difference between keeping out of the way and not impeding, practice verbalising it with confidence! Tell your Mum, Dad, girlfriend, boyfriend, dog, mirror, etc. all about it until they are sick of you (the dog will enjoy the attention) and you’re able to confidently and concisely explain the point.
It’s obviously even better if your victim knows whether you’re right or not, so see our earlier point about working in a group or, even better, come and practice with the experts. We work just as hard to get our clients to speak up, shut up, sit up straight and believe in themselves, as we do to teach them the content, and it works. Really well.
If you only take onboard one of these bits of advice, make it this one.
We work just as hard to get our clients to speak up, shut up, sit up straight and believe in themselves, as we do to teach them the content,
– Paul Naranjo-Shepherd
#5 – Don’t Panic!
Yes, trying to pass the MCA oral exam might well be the biggest event of your life and, yes, it’s really hard and, yes, you might fail, but at the end of the day failing is better than being hit by a bus.
Some of our clients work themselves up into a complete mess a few days before their orals, but nobody who has ever gone for their orals knows everything. It’s just not possible.
Yet, if you’ve followed the rest of this advice and tried really hard, you are going to be well prepared and in a position to give it your best shot. The end result? Most of our clients leave the exam and say “That wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be”.
That’s the truth. Some people aren’t ready and they fail, some are ready and get caught out or make a stupid mistake (which sucks!) but most people who have prepared properly get through. If you do fail, just try again in a few weeks/months, a little bit older and a little bit wiser than the last time.
So, don’t panic. Work hard but sleep well. Take some time off to clear your head if you need to. Believe in yourself, go in there and smash it. You’ll be fine.
But if it all does get a bit too much, don’t forget that there are loads of people out there to support you. Family, friends, colleagues, as well as organisations such as ISWAN and, of course, your friends here at Whitehorse.
Most of our clients leave the exam and say “That wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be”.
– Paul Naranjo-Shepherd
We are on your side throughout this entire process, so please do reach out to discuss your prep plan or even just for a bit of reassurance that you’re heading in the right direction.
We’re on your side.
Cheers,
Paul