I've successfully put off sitting my Y2 Engineering oral for a couple of years (been busy) but now the big day is looming large. So I'd thought I'd ask you esteemed members for their experiences, specifically what sort of questions have been fielded lately and where the emphasis has been. Any takers?
Hi, You should be familiar with regulations, Marpol, IMO etc M Notices are also often referred to, you should also be up to date with recent MAIB Things in particular anything engineering related. On top of all that just try to stay calm and only talk about boats and things you are familiar with when asked questions about how something is done. Don't say you don't know something if you don't know the answer just make sure you can tell the examiner where to find it. Safety and Competence are key parts of Engineering Orals ( Commercial ones anyway as I haven't done any yacht ticket ones)
Yup, done a couple of them which were fairly straightforward and commonsensical really. Just wondering if anything new had come along in the last year; often the examiners will base questions on recent incidents/legislation. Cheers for the reply though.
Hi, MARPOL Annex IV and the latest M Notices is a good place to start memorizing things you might need over and above your base knowledge ( assuming you have some that is ) If you are doing it in a commercial centre you might always get some steam questions to throw you. From what I understand there are still examiners who don't really know what a yacht is so choose your examination centre carefully. I finished my Commercial Chiefs in 1995 and haven't been in a hurry to undergo the ordeal any more than I have to. Good Luck and don't panic when the questions start.
Hey K1W1 This is not a reply to your post really, more a general info to anyone viewing. Your points about the steam questions (happened to me when they just started off the Yacht tickets) and examiners being unaware of the yachting industry are valid. Thats why I've always done my orals at South Shields - examiner there is a pretty reasonable guy and was surveyor on one of my builds; heard some horrible stories about Spring Place in Southampton and Glasgow - old crusties who sailed on the Titanic etc.
Have done orals both commercial and yacht upto Y2 and just did my commercial Class 2 unlimited last week, commercial I would say are probably alot more broader and a bigger range of questions, yacht orals have been more from the content of your courses and pretty straight forward. P.S if the examiner asks you if you would like a cup of coffee and asks you to turn on the kettle, check it has water in it....... as I know someone who failed an oral within 5 minutes from walking in, was asked same question and told can you put the kettle on behind you, he got up turned it on and was instantly told come back in 6 months you fail, as he didn't check if the level of water in the kettle (a boiler) not safe and not safe as a watchkeeper/ oow
