rya level 2 assessment

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mollykins

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Today i had training for the above power course and tomoroow is the assessment, in a champ I think, how difficult are they?

The practical will be stuff like man overboard, coming along side and securing to a buoy, and we've learnt theory work but how hard will the tests be?
 
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mollykins said:
Today i had training for the above power course and tomoroow is the assessment, in a champ I think, how difficult are they?

The practical will be stuff like man overboard, coming along side and securing to a buoy, and we've learnt theory work but how hard will the tests be?
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Took my RYA PBL2 course and assessment (inland and coastal) about 2 years ago.

Had to hold station next to a buoy for 30 seconds or so.

U turn in a narrow fairway.

MOB.

Compass work.

Coming alongside.

Hard turns without cavitating.

Launch and recovery.

Safety items and preperation.

Can't remember the rest.

Do as you were trained and you will pass easily. SWMBO did.

Remember the RYA Instructor wants you to pass.
 
ok thanks, we haven't done compass work for this, only expedition training, plus i'm good at geography so i'll get past that ok hopefully.

What's swmbo, probably an obvious question but my brains frazzled from all my exams, the boating stuff and the heat.

xx molly
 
oh ok, thanks i haven't failed a proper test ( a couple of mocks or something I have) before in my life but i'm more of a mentally than physically clever person.
 
mollykins said:
Today i had training for the above power course and tomoroow is the assessment, in a champ I think, how difficult are they?

The practical will be stuff like man overboard, coming along side and securing to a buoy, and we've learnt theory work but how hard will the tests be?
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There is no test on a PB 2. It is an ongoing assessment that is designed to teach you a range of small power boat handling techniques - man overboard, coming along side a pontoon in wind on and wind off situations. Tidal awareness and turning in a confined space and securing to a bouy as you have identified..

If your instructor has led you to believe you are being "tested" then he is not doing his job correctly. I trust you have been out on the water today? You should be spending at least 75-80% of your time on the water over the two days. There is a small amount of theory but most of that should be done on the boat or for a short time in the classroom.

The fact that you are not aware at this stage of the day what a champ is or looks like is very worrying. Are you doing this "course" at a local sailing club?
 
Solitaire said:
There is no test on a PB 2. It is an ongoing assessment that is designed to teach you a range of small power boat handling techniques - man overboard, coming along side a pontoon in wind on and wind off situations. Tidal awareness and turning in a confined space and securing to a bouy as you have identified..

If your instructor has led you to believe you are being "tested" then he is not doing his job correctly. I trust you have been out on the water today? You should be spending at least 75-80% of your time on the water over the two days. There is a small amount of theory but most of that should be done on the boat or for a short time in the classroom.

The fact that you are not aware at this stage of the day what a champ is or looks like is very worrying. Are you doing this "course" at a local sailing club?
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Wrong. We took a formal assessment at the end of the course, recapping everything we had covered, only without any advice from the instructor.

Thats with both courses, one on Grimwith Reservoir and one at Whitby.

however it did not have a feel of a test like a driving test, more a "lets see you do this" type thing.
 
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No, I nkow what a champ is, we were using one today, i think I got the grammar of the sentence wrong probably, I meant that the assessments will be in a champ probably, how hard wil lthe tests be?
 
we did the training using my cadets boatshed and the local rya sailing club but the assessment is 50miles away and we have to be there by 9am.
 
tinkicker0 said:
Wrong. We took a formal assessment at the end of the course, recapping everything we had covered, only without any advice from the instructor.

Thats with both courses, one on Grimwith Reservoir and one at Whitby.
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I'm sorry, but that is bull****. While an instructor may recap certain elements of the course depending on how the instructor feels you did over the two days, there is not formal assessment.

I have done over 700 level 2 courses plus my business partner and principle of the school, Jon Mendez, wrote the syllabus and trains the trainers and wrote the Start Powerboating handbook that every level 2 student gets at the start of the course. As a chief powerboat instructor, if I found out that any pb2 instructor who worked for us had led students to believe there was to be a test at the end they would be re-educated.

I find it unbelievable that a student has got herself into such a state about doing the "practical" on day 2 as to be outrageous. It should be fun as well as informative.



Students should not be led to believe that there is any kind of test or exam and the end of the course.
 
Solitaire said:
I'm sorry, but that is bull****. While an instructor may recap certain elements of the course depending on how the instructor feels you did over the two days, there is not formal assessment.

I have done over 700 level 2 courses plus my business partner and principle of the school, Jon Mendez, wrote the syllabus and trains the trainers and wrote the Start Powerboating handbook that every level 2 student gets at the start of the course. As a chief powerboat instructor, if I found out that any pb2 instructor who worked for us had led students to believe there was to be a test at the end they would be re-educated.

I find it unbelievable that a student has got herself into such a state about doing the "practical" on day 2 as to be outrageous. It should be fun as well as informative.



Students should not be led to believe that there is any kind of test or exam and the end of the course.
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Sorry that you have the opinion that I am bull****ting.

I can only go on my experience and we DID have an assessment at the end. Even shown a map of the course we would be taking during the assessment.
Two different locations, two different instructors.

Perhaps you don't, it does not mean that others don't too.

I notice you deliberately ommited the "it did not feel like a test" in your quote for further effect.
 
mollykins said:
we did the training using my cadets boatshed and the local rya sailing club but the assessment is 50miles away and we have to be there by 9am.
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Hmm, this all sounds very dubious to me. To have to send you off to do an assessment at a venue 50 miles away from where you started your course is all rather strange. How much boating have you done prior to doing this course? The person instructing you today is he/she an RYA instructor or somebody in the club who has been teaching you some basic theory knowledge? Is the same person doing the assessment?
 
tinkicker0 said:
Sorry that you have the opinion that I am bull****ting.

I can only go on my experience and we DID have an assessment at the end. Even shown a map of the course we would be taking during the assessment.
Two different locations, two different instructors.

Perhaps you don't, it does not mean that others don't too.

I notice you deliberately ommited the "it did not feel like a test" in your quote for further effect.
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You had edited your post while I was responding to the original poster. Being shown the nature of what may be required is fair enough, it is in the Powerboat log book.

Secondly I did not say you were were bull****ing, rather that the way in which the course is being run was.

Anybody can opt to do the PB 2 as an assessment and we do a number, but there is no teaching involved and then it could be said to be a test. However, before accepting anybody to do an assessment we ask a number of questions about their theory and practical boat handling skills within the structure of the PB2 syllabus. People do that at their own risk and I have failed a YM sail examiner on a PB2 assessment because his powerboat handling skills were not up to standard. When this person came back to redo it, he said that if I'd have passed him first time he would have been very surprised! On an another occasion a guy came to us saying he been driving boats for years etc etc and that all he needed to do was an assessment. Cutting a long story short, he ended up doing the full 2 day PB2 and learnt shed loads.

While it is possible to "fail" a two day PB2, it is more likely that the candidate will be asked to come back and have another day, but it is very rare that happens ( I have done it, but I can count of the fingers of one hand) and the candidate would be told this at the end of the first day, not left hanging until the end of the course. And that is what it is, a course.
 
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Solitaire said:
There is no test on a PB 2.
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No reason why PB2 should not be done as a Direct Assessment, and no reason why there shouldn't be some preparation for that assessment.

However, if spending 2 days doing it, it does seem a little strange not to be doing it by continual assessment as part of a training course.

Solitaire said:
If your instructor has led you to believe you are being "tested" then he is not doing his job correctly.
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Not at all. Whether by Direct Assessment or by continual assessment throughout the course, the candidate is being tested and the instructor is quite right to point out that PB2 is a competence-based award and not a course-completion certificate. As it is a certificate that can be commercially-endorsed to allow the holder to skipper a boat with up to 12 passengers, it's absolutely right that it is assessed. IMHO of course
 
Doghousekeeper said:
No reason why PB2 should not be done as a Direct Assessment, and no reason why there shouldn't be some preparation for that assessment.

However, if spending 2 days doing it, it does seem a little strange not to be doing it by continual assessment as part of a training course.



Not at all. Whether by Direct Assessment or by continual assessment throughout the course, the candidate is being tested and the instructor is quite right to point out that PB2 is a competence-based award and not a course-completion certificate. As it is a certificate that can be commercially-endorsed to allow the holder to skipper a boat with up to 12 passengers, it's absolutely right that it is assessed. IMHO of course
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See the additions I made to my post. The question of CE'ing a PB2 is an interesting one. But there is a limit to 3 miles from a designated base and in good weather.

That is why changes were made to the commercial endorsement of the Advanced Powerboat certificate in that it is now an examined endorsement to bring it in line with the CS and YM commercial endorsements.
 
Doghousekeeper said:
Agree again. But for the sake of the readership, perhaps you should define what you mean by "interesting"
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I tried to make it clear by saying that to get an Advanced Power certificate commercially endorsed the holder now has to take an exam - if the certificate was issued after 1st January 2005. No such exam is required as far as the PB2 is concerned and it means that somebody who had never driven a boat, does the PB2 course and provided they they get the other certificates, sea survival and medical can then drive a boat commercially up to 3 miles from a designated departure point. Not very far I grant you but........... ? This is an MCA regulation, nothing to do with the RYA. But would you want to be on a boat skippered by such a person?


Anyway, the poor girl who originally posted is hardly being helped by all this. I just wish her luck tomorrow, but feel it could have been done much better and with less stress. The quality of the equipment she is being asked to use is by the sound of it not great either. Plus as far as I'm aware, champs are displacement boats and her ticket should be endorsed as such. But I stand to be corrected on that matter.
 
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