60 laboratories ship today across five subjects. Eleven more subject areas are being built. And because a roadmap that lists only what we intend to build is an advertisement, the last section names what the certificate requires that we have not planned yet.
Every row carries its syllabus reference. Where our research could not reach a primary source, it says so rather than inventing one — this page is written to be checked against the real syllabus, not skimmed.
Four examined subjects and one open door. The two highest-marks written papers a Second Mate candidate sits — celestial navigation and ship stability — are among them.
In this order. Each one is a working instrument before it is a page of notes — the test every laboratory here has to pass is whether a cadet can do the thing, not read about it.
Syllabus: STCW A-II/1 Fn 1 and A-II/2 Fn 1 — “thorough knowledge of the content, application and intent”. Oral Function I.
Lights and shapes from any aspect, risk of collision by compass bearing, and the rule that applies with the action it demands — then the CPA it actually produced. Restricted visibility too, where “stand-on” does not exist.
Syllabus: STCW A-II/1 Fn 1. Separately, the Radar Observer Simulator Course — 33 hours, of which 13 are collision avoidance.
Gain, sea and rain clutter, range scale, head-up / north-up / course-up, EBL and VRM, manual plot AND ARPA vectors for the same target, a working trial manoeuvre — and target swap, so a cadet learns when not to believe it.
Syllabus: A dedicated written paper at 70% pass, distinct from the celestial paper the product already covers.
Position lines and the running fix already exist in OP-17. This completes it: the sailings under one roof, coastal passage planning, blind pilotage and parallel indexing, and the day’s work end to end.
Syllabus: Not an STCW artefact — the oral is the Indian delivery mechanism. Functions I, II and III, 100 marks each.
Examiner-style questioning that follows your answer where it goes, scored per function against the real thresholds, with “show me on the chart” prompts. A question bank is not an oral.
Syllabus: STCW Table A-IV/2 — not A-II/1. The certificate is issued by the Ministry of Communications, jointly examined.
An operable DSC controller: compose a distress alert with the right nature and position — then cancel a false one correctly, which is its own competence and the thing crews most often get wrong.
Syllabus: STCW asks only for SOS by flashing light and single-letter signals. India examines alphanumeric Morse monthly, 100 marks, pass 70 — the harder gate.
A flashing-light receiver at variable speed, groups marked whole as the exam marks them, single-letter signals, and the Code flags.
Syllabus: STCW A-II/1 Fn 3 and A-II/2 C16–C17. MARPOL has six annexes; ISPS sits in STCW Chapter VI, Table A-VI/6-2.
Not chapter recitation. A discharge-decision scenario with position, distance from land and special-area status, and the Record Book entry it obliges; a security level 1→2→3 drill; a certificate that has quietly expired.
Syllabus: STCW A-II/1 Fn 3 — “principal structural members and the proper names”; A-II/2 C15 and C18.
The exam is nomenclature-heavy, so: name the member on a sectional hull, with synonyms accepted. Dry-docking arithmetic already ships as ST-06 and the hull-girder stresses as ST-07; this is the structure around them.
These are required by STCW or examined in India, and are not on the list above. If your college needs one of them, that is worth telling us: it moves.
| Area | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| ECDIS | A mandatory prerequisite course and a full STCW competence at both levels. |
| Bridge resource management | An explicit knowledge block, and the Chief Mate oral is literally called Bridge Team Management. |
| Ship handling, anchoring and mooring | STCW A-II/1, and heavily at management level. |
| Fire fighting, survival craft, medical first aid | Three separate mandatory certificates and three oral topics. |
| Search and rescue / IAMSAR | Its own competence, and six of the radar course’s 33 hours. |
| Emergency response | Collision, grounding, flooding, damage control, emergency steering and towing. |
| IMO SMCP and maritime English | Its own competence — and the language the oral itself is conducted in. |
| Load Lines, IMDG, ballast water, the Polar Code | Convention knowledge the cargo and legislation papers reach into. |
Three of them — fire fighting, survival craft and medical first aid — are hands-on certificate courses. A simulation can prepare a cadet for them. It cannot and should not replace standing in a smoke house.
Two questions, in this order. What does the exam weigh most? — a 200-mark paper at 70% pass outranks a 100-mark one. And what does a simulation add over a book? — the Rule of the Road is first because an evolving encounter you have to act on is a completely different thing from a rule you have read.
Regulator references on this page follow the Directorate General of Maritime Administration (DGMA), formerly DG Shipping, renamed under the Merchant Shipping Act, 2025.
A cadet or a serving officer starts free and is inside a laboratory in a minute. A college talks to us first, because enrolment and faculty tools need setting up properly.