How to pass the PER theory exam in a month

Is your PER exam just around the corner and you feel you’ve run out of time? Relax! 😌 With a focused, methodical study plan, it’s perfectly possible to pass the theory in a month. Here’s our Rapid Attack Guide to studying efficiently. 🚀

Week 1: the skeleton! (Collision regulations and buoyage)

• Focus: spend 70% of your time on the heaviest topics (collision regulations and buoyage). You must pass these to pass the exam, and they carry a lot of weight in the mark.
• Technique: memorise the navigation lights, the signals and the COLREGs right-of-way rules (the give-way vessel).

Week 2: safety (engine and navigation)

• Focus: compulsory safety equipment (lifejackets, flares), VHF radio and engine theory.
• Technique: run mental emergency drills (fire, man overboard) to take the procedures on board.

Week 3: the nautical chart (practice makes perfect!)

• Focus: compass correction, courses, bearings and distances.
• Technique: do at least 5 complete exercises a day. Working with the parallel rule and the protractor should become almost automatic.
• Start with coordinates: if you can’t plot a point correctly, everything else comes out wrong. It’s explained step by step, with animations, in how to plot and read coordinates on a nautical chart.
• Before you start: review how to read the chart, variation and total correction and the typical mistakes on the exam chart.

Week 4: general review and intensive tests

• Focus: stop reading theory and concentrate only on official tests. Time your answers.
• Technique: go back over the topics you keep getting wrong (usually weather or tides). Get a good night’s sleep before the exam.