Not All Examiners Are Created Equal
By: Fred (organised by Emma)
Why “examiner awareness” could be the difference between pass and fail
I’m about to tell you something that might make you slightly uncomfortable.
After analysing over 1,400 exam records from my students, I've discovered that your pass rate can swing by up to 53 percentage points depending on which examiner you get assigned.
Yes, you read that right. Same exam. Same syllabus. Wildly different outcomes.
Now before you start panicking and refreshing your exam booking page hoping for a "good" examiner – stop. That's not why I'm telling you this. You can't choose your examiner anyway. But you can choose how thoroughly you prepare.
The Cold, Hard Numbers
Let me give you the headline stats from Fred's Oral Prep records:
• OOW overall pass rate: 90.8% (810 passes from 892 exams)
• Master 3000 overall pass rate: 88.0% (435 passes from 504 exams)
Sounds pretty good, right? Here's the problem – these averages hide a lot of variation.
Some examiners have pass rates above 95%. Others? Let's just say they're keeping you on your toes at around 50%.
One examiner in particular – I won't name names here (okay, fine, it's Captain Robert Jackson) – has a 47% pass rate for Master 3000. That's nearly a coin flip, folks.
“But Fred, That’s Not Fair!”
I can hear you now. And look, I get it. Part of me agrees with you.
But here's the thing: fair or not, this is the reality you're walking (clicking) into. And the candidates who fail with the challenging examiners? They almost always knew the material at a surface level. Enough to pass with a lenient examiner, but not deeply enough to handle rigorous questioning.
The examiner isn't trying to fail you. They're testing whether you actually understand what you're talking about – or whether you've just memorised a bunch of answers and hoped for the best.
The Captain Robert Jackson Standard
Here's my philosophy, and I want you to tattoo this on your brain:
"Prepare as if you're getting Captain Robert Jackson. If you can satisfy him, you'll sail through with anyone else."
(Nautical pun intended. I'm not sorry.)
This means:
1. Understand the 'Why', Not Just the 'What'
Don't just memorise Rule 19(d). Understand why you don't alter to port for a vessel forward of the beam.
Don't just know that slow roll means low GM. Understand the relationship between metacentric height and roll period.
Demanding examiners probe deeper. They want to see you think, not recite.
2. Anticipate the Follow-Up Questions
For every answer you give, ask yourself: "What would a demanding examiner ask next?"
If you mention boundary cooling for an engine room fire – be ready to explain heat transfer principles.
If you cite a COLREGs rule – be ready to quote the actual rule number and wording.
The chain of questions is where candidates come unstuck.
3. Know Your Weak Areas (and Own Them)
Demanding examiners can smell uncertainty like a shark smells blood. If there's a topic you're shaky on, don't just hope it won't come up.
Spoiler alert: it will.
Identify your 2-3 weakest areas. Spend extra time on them until you can explain them confidently – out loud. Verbal fluency matters in an oral exam. Shocking, I know.
4. Practice Under Pressure
The difference between passing with an easy examiner and failing with a hard one often comes down to performance under pressure.
Do study sessions with someone who will challenge you. Practice staying calm when you don't immediately know the answer. Learn to think out loud – examiners appreciate seeing your reasoning process, even if you're finding your way to the answer.
This is exactly why I bang on about study buddies. Find one. Grill each other. Get uncomfortable.
Why Tough Doesn’t Mean Unfair
“I’d rather disappoint a candidate in an exam room than read about them in a casualty report”
While nobody enjoys facing a tough examiner with a low pass rate, I’m not a fan of overly easy examiners either.
In fact, I’m more uncomfortable with the overly “lenient” examiners than I am with the brutal ones.
Passing an oral exam isn’t the finish line - it’s a licence to operate safely at sea, with lives, vessels, and millions of dollars under your responsibility. An examiner who waves candidates through without probing depth isn’t doing you, future crew, or the industry any favours.
We don’t need easy exams - we need fair exams that confirm one thing: you're safe to be there.
Before COVID, it was well known that I sent many of my students to Belfast for examinations. Some people assumed that was because it was “easy”.
The reality was the opposite. The examiners there weren’t easy, but they were fair, consistent, and thorough - exactly what I want for my students.
When you hear someone say, “that exam was easy” - be cautious
Most Candidates don’t experience it that way.
In most cases, it isn’t that the syllabus is easy — it’s that circumstances lined up on the day. A well-prepared candidate, a good exam flow, and sometimes a more straightforward examiner can all make an exam feel easier than expected.
For the majority of candidates though, this is not an easy exam. And when someone insists it was, more often than not, it comes down to the examiner's “variation” rather than the standard itself.
That’s why preparing to a higher standard matters. You can’t control the examiner — but you can control whether you’re relying on luck or depth.
And the irony is, the candidates who prepare properly don’t just pass — they become the First Mates and Captains everyone actually wants on board.
The Good News
Here's the silver lining in all of this: if you prepare properly, examiner variation becomes almost irrelevant.
My students who follow the full system – videos, past papers, study buddies, webinars – they're passing at over 90% regardless of examiner. They've built the depth of knowledge to handle whatever comes their way.
The candidates who struggle? They're usually the ones who tried to shortcut the process. Skimmed the videos, ignored the past papers, studied in isolation.
Don't be that candidate.
Want the Full Picture?
I've put together a comprehensive Examiner Awareness Guide with detailed pass rate breakdowns by examiner for OOW, Master 3000, and Master 200. It's based on real data from real exams, and it tells you exactly who the high-risk examiners are.
Every month, we analyse new exam debriefs and update our past papers. I personally review and annotate them, then Emma orders them deliberately — stretching you with tougher questioning, rebuilding confidence, and challenging you again from a different angle. There’s always a system behind it.
More importantly, it gives you the examiner-proof preparation strategy to walk into that exam room ready for absolutely anyone.
My subscribers and course members get full access. If you're not already part of Fred's Oral Prep, now might be a good time to check out what we offer.
Final Thought
You don't get to choose your examiner. But you absolutely get to choose how prepared you are.
Prepare for the worst. Expect the best. And whatever you do, don't leave your exam success to chance.
