What AMSA says about the questions
On its pages about preparing for and sitting an oral exam, AMSA describes the exam as a conversation in which an examiner asks you questions based on the knowledge and skills for your certificate. You may be asked how you would respond to a situation, to give examples from your sea service, to explain your decisions, and to refer to relevant legislation, procedures or guidance.
AMSA also says the examiner is assessing how you apply knowledge safely in real situations. That tells you what a good answer looks like. Reciting a definition is rarely enough. A good answer shows what you would do, why you would do it, and what supports the decision.
The exam is scheduled for two hours and is mostly held online on Microsoft Teams, with face-to-face sittings on request and subject to examiner availability. Two hours is long enough for the examiner to cover many headings and to follow up wherever your answer is thin. Check the current arrangements on AMSA’s own pages before you book.
Where the questions come from: the checklist and syllabus
For each certificate AMSA publishes an examiner checklist, a syllabus and a study sheet. The checklist lists topics and rates them by the level of knowledge expected. AMSA describes the ratings like this: A is safety-critical knowledge you must demonstrate to pass, B is thorough operational knowledge and C is general knowledge.
The practical consequence is simple. If a topic is on your checklist, it can be asked. If it is rated A, you should expect to be able to discuss it with confidence and in depth. Your preparation questions should therefore be written from the checklist for your exact certificate, not from a general list of seamanship topics.
Each certificate page on this site summarises the checklist headings for that certificate and links to AMSA’s own documents, so you can start from the right one. The Master, Chief Mate and Watchkeeper Deck checklists are different documents, and the near coastal exams have their own syllabi.
Five styles of question to be ready for
The five styles below are our own way of sorting the kinds of question AMSA describes. They are a practice framework, not a list of what you will be asked. Real questions are phrased in many ways, and one topic can be asked in several styles in the same exam.
1. A situation: what would you do?
The examiner describes a set of circumstances and asks how you would respond. The strongest answers state what governs the situation, put the actions in order, say who is informed and what is recorded, and explain the priorities. Collision-regulation scenarios are the classic example, and our COLREGs reasoning guide shows a repeatable method for them.
2. Your own experience: tell me about a time
AMSA says to be ready to explain what happened, what you did, why, the result and what you learned. Prepare real examples from your sea service for each major heading. A true, specific example is more convincing than a general statement, and it is hard to fake.
3. Explain and justify: why that?
You give an answer and the examiner asks why. This tests whether you understand the reasoning or only remember the result. Always keep the reason ready alongside the action: the risk it controls, the rule that requires it, or the good practice behind it.
4. Which rule or procedure applies?
AMSA says you may be asked to refer to relevant legislation, procedures or guidance. You do not need to recite clause numbers for every item, but you should know which instrument governs a topic, such as a convention, an Australian law or a Marine Order, and be able to say where company procedure and the safety management system fit.
5. The follow-up: what if it changed?
Once you answer, the examiner may change one variable: the weather, the time of day, the vessel type or a piece of equipment that has failed. Follow-ups are where scripted answers collapse. Practise changing one variable at a time in your own preparation.
Write your own practice questions from the checklist
The most reliable way to prepare for questions you cannot see is to write your own from the documents AMSA does publish. Take one checklist heading at a time and apply the five styles to it.
- Pick one checklist heading, starting with the A-rated ones, and say it in a short phrase.
- Write one question in each style. For a situation, begin with a set of circumstances and ask what you would do. For experience, ask about a time you dealt with the topic. For explain-and-justify, take your own answer and ask why. For rule or procedure, ask what governs it. For the follow-up, change one variable and ask again.
- Answer each question out loud and without notes, for two or three minutes. Write down where you hesitated or had to guess.
- Check the gaps against the official sources and your course materials, not against a stranger’s notes, then repeat the question a day later.
- Mark the heading green only when you can answer all five styles from a standing start.
Shapes of practice prompt you can reuse
These are blank templates. Put any checklist topic into the brackets. They are deliberately generic, they are not examiner questions, and they will not match the wording you are given.
- You are on watch and [a situation developing under this topic] begins. What do you do, in what order, and who do you tell?
- Describe a time in your own sea service when you dealt with [this topic]. What happened, what did you do and what did you learn?
- Why would you take that action rather than [an alternative]?
- Which convention, law, Marine Order, procedure or company instruction governs [this topic]?
- Now suppose [one condition changes: night, reduced visibility, a failure, a different vessel]. What changes in your answer?
Mistakes that cost marks
- Looking for leaked or recalled questions. There is no reliable list, the examiner can rephrase anything, and memorised answers fail on the first follow-up.
- Answering with a definition only. State what you would do and why, using your own experience where you can.
- Skipping the A-rated topics because they feel uncomfortable. AMSA describes them as the knowledge you must demonstrate to pass.
- Guessing when you do not know. It is better to say what you do know, how you would find out and who you would ask than to invent an answer.
- Never practising out loud. Silent revision hides the gaps that speaking exposes.
Next steps
Build the plan with the study method guide, then use the themes guide for your level to see how the checklist topics group together. The certificate pages show the checklist headings for your exact certificate. AMSA Examiner is independent of AMSA, and its practice tools are separate from official AMSA content.
Official sources
This guide was written from the following sources. Requirements change, so confirm the current position with the source before relying on it.
Independence note
Independent AMSA exam preparation platform by Navisailor Learning Centre. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. This guide is general study material. It is not legal advice, it is not official AMSA exam content, and it does not replace AMSA’s checklists, syllabi or the current legislation.