Everyone asks me for the latest information when they start LAPWARE, which is why I regularly ask for feedback from test takers after their exams. This has to be one of the most comprehensive reports I’ve ever received and it is greatly appreciated. He was taking the CM/MA AGT Oceans series of exams–posted without changing content–just adjusted to protect the mariner’s privacy:
- Rules of the Road (Q100): The bank appears mostly new at the rec. I don’t believe that just going through the bank is enough anymore . They’re asking some very niche questions which border on theory and it’s imperative to go through each rule individually and understand the ins and outs, whereas when I took my third mate, it was enough to go through the bank and you could pass. I failed my first attempt with an 84 and needed to do a retake not that it’s a LAPWARE issue per se but I think it needs to be noted that a student needs to read through the book and use LAPWARE as a supplement to see some problems.
- Deck General 1&2 (Q101 & Q102): Part 1 it has a mixture of deck gen 1/2 questions in there, and it is not limited to just the 500 question deck gen part one bank. I also got an 80 on this. Part 2 a decent amount of CFR questions pretty similar to the NMC sample test. An acronym that I use to know where to look in the cfrs is as follows
TCDPULP
DINOCET
That translates to tanker in D, cargo in I , certain dangerous in N , pollution in O , uninspected in C, loadline in E , Passenger in T . It doesn’t cover everything but the bulk will be in there and I think if you include that people will have an easier time knowing where to look (general idea).
- Deck Safety (Q103): pretty similar to the deck safety nmc w a few cfr questions but all in all pretty straight forward.
- Stability (Q104) was a carbon copy of the 2024 nmc sample . I don’t think the practice tests should include a salmon page anymore . The test was a legit 1:1 copy with different questions. Skated out of there with an 80.
- Nav General (Q105?) The practice tests look NOTHING like the test you will see on test day. They are very similar to the nmcs . My recommendation would for people to go through both sets of sample tests Nav Gen Oceans and Nav Gen Near Coastal which are both under student resources . There was probably 30-35 questions between those 4 tests that came up on my actual test.
- Chart plot (Q107) Chesapeake bay, same as the LAPWARE practice one but the answers were in different locations.
- Near Coastal Nav Problems (Q108)
- Speed of advance
- Long distance eta
- Mercator
- Amplitude (visible horizon moon (extremely gay))
- Fuel conservation
- Time tick
- Tide ( new with diagram )
- Current (new with diagram )
- Course correction (course made good)
- Azimuth by Polaris
- Oceans Nav Problems (Q109)
- High altitude sailing
- Azimuth of Venus
- Course correction (course to steer)
- Great circle initial course
- Sunrise,
- Great circle trivia
- Msv three body fix
- Lat with HO
- 2 azimuth was the sun
- Time of lan
- Minor star
- Three body best fix
- Parallel sailing
- Azimuth angle with assumed position
- Gnomatic chart question
- Latitude at LAN
- Latitude by Polaris
LAPWARE Comment: Hope this helps your exam preparations. The NMC is continuing to change questions–and not involving the expected review. As you can see, LAPWARE accurately has the right mix of questions and will continue to work on all available information to improve the mariner’s exam preparation. Please consider sending a summary of your REC experience to and we’ll post it for the other mariners so they can prepare better.