Getting worried about taking my ASA 101 exam

[Rob_P]

Lesson 4 is this afternoon (supposed to be anyway) and I'm told I need to schedule my ASA 101 exam for after lesson 5 (which, if it goes according to plan, will be next week).

Lesson 4 is sailing to the dock/stopping the boat on the mark and prep for MOB (which is lesson 5).

I haven't had a lesson in 3 weeks because of Wx and now I'm not remembering the bookwork part like regs, required equipment, etc. The sailing part I can do, but the information from the books isn't staying in my head. I keep rereading the books but I'm not retaining the information. It's like my brain is full.

Which is making me freak out about the exam.

I can put it off until after the entire 101/103 course is completed but then I have 2 exams to take. That doesn't sound smart to me.

Anyone have any pointers about the exam that might lower my stress levels?

[Stu Jackson]

How did you do it in school?


Seriously.

[jimbojonesbos]

Sailing schools are in the business of certifying students, don't worry I have never heard of someone who did not pass an ASA test.


Also as an educational professional (college prof) when you get that brain is full feeling its time to take a break! Do something else for awhile, take a walk , watch a movie, do a craft. Then pick up the books again.


But to repeat, ASA is not a university, Bar, or medical boards. Its a commercial enterprise that gives people pieces of paper and some instruction in exchange for money. You're going to be fine! :-)

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

How did you do it in school?


Seriously.

Yes, everyone learns differently...what learning methods/study habits work for you?

Something Ive learned from teaching is that you should (not all do) change your teaching methods to match the learning style of the student. If a student just isnt getting a concept, I present it a different way.

[Bill O]

Rob,
Try some practice exams and see how you do. Looked quickly and saw some free online ASA 101 exams. This will show you that you probably know more than you think and get you to practice taking exams again. This will help reduce some stress before taking your exam.

An added bonus by taking the practice exams will be some of the actual exam questions may be in the practice exams. So then you will have seen the question and the correct answer!
I'm sure you will do fine.

[sailorboy1]

the school knows that if you fail the test that it is unlikely you will take any more classes with you. So ................................

When I took ASA the instructor basically went over the whole test before I took it.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Bill O

Rob,
Try some practice exams and see how you do. Looked quickly and saw some free online ASA 101 exams. This will show you that you probably know more than you think and get you to practice taking exams again. This will help reduce some stress before taking your exam.

An added bonus by taking the practice exams will be some of the actual exam questions may be in the practice exams. So then you will have seen the question and the correct answer!
I'm sure you will do fine.

THIS ^^^^

We went over and over and over the test/review questions in the books which are fill in the blank and multiple guess. If you do well on the review/test questions in the book, the real test is easy.

We did not have practice exams to take, other than what was in the book, and we would have taken them if we had had time. It certainly will help. We did 101/103 in the same week while living on the boat. It was a lot of work. Fun. But a lot of work.

Later,
Dan

[GreenWave]

There are phone apps for practicing and many have flash cards. Try Quizlet.

[Rob_P]

The exam is scheduled for next week, unless something comes up, so 7 days...

I didn't know there are practice exams on the WWW. I'll do some googlefu and practice on them. That will show me exactly where I'm weak. Still need to work on my knots, my cleat hitches suck. It's hit or miss on doing it right the first time.

On a good note: I didn't bend or break the boat today even though it's been 3 weeks since I was sailing last. I did make one of the dock bumpers squeal during the lesson but other than that, yay.

[Knotical]

I didn’t realize anyone taking the ASA 101 test considers it a real exam! As others said, you will be totally fine. My ASA 101 was a 3 day affair and I took the test on the 3rd day before leaving the marina.

[requiem]

If you know the material it should be pretty easy. That's been my general approach, as if you're solid on most you can afford to miss a few that just happen to be poorly worded or where your brain tries to get too clever for your own good.

Some people love mnemonics for memorizing stuff; I don't unless it's very obvious. That said there are a few aids out there that can help (e.g. THC, 7-up cans are green, etc). Similarly I still have to use a little mental trick to get the locking turn right on a cleat hitch; sometimes it's obvious but every so often I need that.

One other approach is to work out how you might explain the material to someone else, using the idea that "if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough". The books do try to keep the material pretty limited, so be careful you don't try to learn too much additional material before the test. Run through the review questions, and if you're having trouble with a particular spot it's likely someone here knows a convenient way to approach it.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Rob_P

The exam is scheduled for next week, unless something comes up, so 7 days...
...

If you have seven days to study for ASA 101, you have plenty of time.

We took ASA101/103 in a 6 or 7 day time frame. So we had to sail, learn knots and study the books during those days. Seven days should be plenty of time to learn the material in the book.

We did not use any Internet sources. We just studied the book, and the questions in the book, over and over and over. If you can answer the questions in the book, you can easily pass the test. I got 100 on the ASA 101 and my wifey, who knew next to nothing about boats and sailing, only missed a couple of questions. And she only had a few days to study.

I personally, and I think many people, can only study for 30 to maybe 90 minutes at a time. Any more than that is likely a waste of time. Study for 15-30 minutes and take a break. Do something else. Come back later and study some more. If you can study for more time, great. If you need less time, that is fine. Just break up the study time. If you find your mind wondering, it is time for a break.

Knots you just have to practice. We constantly practice knots and still do. Or at least I do. On the boat this was easy. At home, I bought some 3/8 pipe to quickly put together a "cleat" to help with learn/practice the knots. The pipe was expensive but a fast way to get the "cleat" into service so to speak. One could do it cheap with some wood as a base and a real cleat if easily available. Our practice "cleat" is big enough for us to tie a few hitches too, at the same time, as well as a cleat hitch. I use it almost daily to just practice so I don't loose what I learned. Even learned some more knots on my own. Kinda fun to do. Meditative it is...

For the cleat hitch, one the instructors gave us this little hint. If you are having a problem with the last loop around the cleat, you have to flip your wrist to get a loop. Think of the wrist flip as a flip to look at a watch. Hard to read, but in person, easy to see. Check out videos for the cleat hitch.

It is funny that during the class, when tying up the boat at the end of the day, we would kinda putter around making sure we were doing things correctly. Checking and rechecking. Especially the cleat hitches and the dock lines. Now that we have done it a bunch of times, it amazes us how fast it gets done. We certainly do not hurry the process, but with practice, it all goes faster. Eventually.

Practice is the only way to learn the knots. When we got home after the classes, I bought some rope and cut them into practice knot length. I have a pair of practice rope as does the wifey. I would carry mine to work to practice during the day. Only takes a few minutes here and there and makes a good break from work. People might look at you with strange looks but f..... em!

Later,
Dan

[boatman61]

DON'T PANIC.!!!
Its what's causing the block.. just take a break for a couple of days and focus on other things.. on the day as the questions come, so will the answers.
At the moment your going through the pre trip "what if".. imagining the worst.
But "what if"... its a piece of cake..

[DMF Sailing]

Originally Posted by Rob_P

Lesson 4 is this afternoon (supposed to be anyway) and I'm told I need to schedule my ASA 101 exam for after lesson 5 (which, if it goes according to plan, will be next week).

Lesson 4 is sailing to the dock/stopping the boat on the mark and prep for MOB (which is lesson 5).

I haven't had a lesson in 3 weeks because of Wx and now I'm not remembering the bookwork part like regs, required equipment, etc. The sailing part I can do, but the information from the books isn't staying in my head. I keep rereading the books but I'm not retaining the information. It's like my brain is full.

Which is making me freak out about the exam.

I can put it off until after the entire 101/103 course is completed but then I have 2 exams to take. That doesn't sound smart to me.

Anyone have any pointers about the exam that might lower my stress levels?

Do the 101. If these tests are standardized and yours will be like the one I took, it's all multiple choice and you only need to get 81 out of 100 right.

Just from our conversations on threads I know you know half of it.

It's parts of a boat, rules of the road, very simple stuff about boat handling.

This study guide

https://www.studystack.com/flashcard-2265613

has a lot of the stuff on the test. But remember, if a test is multiple choice, you don't need to generate the answer. It's sitting there on the page in front of you.

So memorizing or partially memorizing the above is much harder than the test you'll take. Posters recommended making flash cards out of the answers and I concur.

Three other dum pieces of advice in addition:

1) even if you see the answer, look at all choices to make sure it's not "all of the above;" " Sometimes people (like me ) see their answer in A, check it and move on, and get the answer wrong.

2) The trickiest thing about a multiple choice exam is clerical error. As your eyes move across the page, you accidentally check the box on the next line down. (I did that, too )

3) Even if you don't know the answer, check a box and raise your chances of getting it right. (This is really obvious, but since you're a bit nervous, might as well say it.)

Lastly, it's $35 I think. Even if you fail, which I doubt you will, the cost of failure is pretty low.

[Dave Lochner]

Educational psychologists will tell you that distributed learning is more effective than cramming.

20 minutes of study 3 times a day is more effective than one 60 minute session.

Get lots of sleep. It is during sleep that information learned during day is consolidated and stored. The all-nighters we did in college did little to increase our long term learning.

And relax, anxiety interferes with the learning process.