Dev Examinations

Examinations

The Examination Team develops the questions and illustrations for the examinations required for a national endorsement. The team supports the Regional Examination Centers (RECs) in the administration of the examinations, reviews and issues determinations on Challenges, answers questions submitted by the public concerning the examination process, and are the authors of the “Nautical Queries” feature in CG Proceedings magazine.

Training & Assessment Division

Our goal is to ensure credentialed applicants have the necessary knowledge and quality training to safely operate under the authority of their credential in support of the safety of the Marine Transportation System both domestically and internationally.

Taking Examinations

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Examination Fees

Rules of the Examination Room

Examination Room Materials

Retest Policy

Deck Reference Library

Engine Reference Library

Examinations FAQ

Renewal Examinations

Renewal Examinations are administered in accordance with 46 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 10.227 and are open book examinations issued from the National Maritime Center.

As of May 1, 2020, the NMC will be issuing renewal examinations electronically by email. Paper renewal examinations may still be requested.

In order to receive your open book renewal examination you must:

1. Have received an Approval To Test (ATT) letter from the NMC, detailing the required renewal modules. The ATT letter will have instruction on how to obtain your renewal examination. See a Sample Renewal ATT Letter here.

2. Have paid your examination fee, using Pay.Gov.. Click here for instructions on paying your examination fee. A receipt of payment is needed by the NMC at the time of your renewal examination request.

3. Once Steps 1 and 2 are completed, you can request your renewal examination by:

(1) Emailing your request to the NMC Renewal Exam Team at NMCRenewalExams@uscg.mil or

(2) Contacting the Customer Service Center at 1-888-IASKNMC (427-5662) or by chat.

Helpful Tools:

Sample Renewal ATT Letter

Sample Electronic Answer Sheet

Please select the corresponding hyperlink to view the sample examinations for each module.

Refreshed: August 2024

Examinations Working Group

46 USC 7510, originally published as section 315 of the 2015 Coast Guard Authorization Act (CGAA), requires the United States Coast Guard to commission a working group to review existing and new examination questions for accuracy and availability of examination references. To address the tasks to be performed and in keeping with the membership structure of the group as specified in the CGAA, the working group is to include:

Representatives from Coast Guard-approved training providers
A Deck representative from the State Maritime Academies
An Engineering representative from the State Maritime Academies
Credentialed Deck officers or ratings

Credentialed Engineering officers or ratings
A Human Performance Technology representative
A member of the Merchant Marine Personnel Advisory Committee
A member of MARAD
Members of other Federal Advisory Committees as needed to review industry segment specific subject matter.

Examination working groups may be convened as long as any non-Coast Guard representative is present. Examination review will take place at the National Maritime Center and possibly at some regional locations.

The Coast Guard is continuously seeking applications from interested parties to participate in the Examination Working Group. To be considered, please *email all of the following documents to NMCExamWorkingGroup@uscg.mil:

1. Résumé - Click here for what your resume should include.

2. Non-Disclosure Agreement.

*Email is the preferred method of submission and should not exceed 8MB. If so, they should be sent in separate emails (please put the order of attachments in the Subject line of each email). The system will not accept any compressed (ZIP) files. For other submission methods, please call (206) 815-6893.

For a full legal disclosure, please click here.

The Coast Guard does not currently have appropriations available to support travel expenses for working group members. Participation in the review is voluntary but will provide much needed data to assist in improving the merchant mariner credential examination system.

Refreshed: March 2025

The U.S. Department of Defense is committed to making its electronic and information technologies accessible to individuals with disabilities in accordance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794d), as amended in 1998. DoD websites use the WCAG 2.0 AA accessibility standard.

For persons with disabilities experiencing difficulties accessing content on a particular website, please use the form DoD Section 508 Form. In this form, please indicate the nature of your accessibility issue/problem and your contact information so we can address your issue or question. If your issue involves log in access, password recovery, or other technical issues, contact the administrator for the website in question, or your local helpdesk.

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