Rating: 
Summary: Don't Buy This Book
Review: "Get Your Captain's License" is wholesale disaster from McGraw-Hillunder the International Marine label. From their web site International Marine cannot be reached by phone or email. The CD, supposedly generic, runs on Windows, not on Mac and if you dont like it,according to McGraw-Hill dont buy this hyped up book (ALTHOUGH this discrepancy does not appear in any of the ads). The text is rife with errors and misprints. Surly people at McGraw-Hill admit that if you bought the book you can send it back postpaid, a process that takes weeks for a refund on a book you bought to use, not to bicker over.It just ain't worth it!
Rating: 
Summary: Truth in advertising
Review: From the intro: "The instructional text and illustrations provide an answer to an estimated 95% of the questions". Nonsense. Maybe 65%, in sketchy outline at that. But either you're just cramming answers to the questions, (which are available online for free) and can use the somewhat awkward CD or you are a serious student of the sea and will have or want a complete reference library to back this volume up.
So, it's a valuable book, but not as valuable as they say it is or as it could be.
Rating:
Summary: Not Enough
Review: I read the reviews of the first edition and thought I would give the author the benefit of the doubt - I should not have. The diagrams appear to have been corrected but I would not suggest this as a study guide. The practice questions contain more information which is omitted from the text than is actually included. The better description would have been a practice test a la SAT and GRE practice tests. If you think you are ready for the test, get the CD for practice. Otherwise, find another resource.
Rating: 
Summary: Get Your Captain's License Ed. 3
Review: I received this volume in the mail about two weeks ago and have been hard at work using it to prepare for my exam. While not yet licensed, I have boated and sailed much of my life and am familiar with most of the material in it already.
The new edition is quite thorough. It not only presents all the questions, but has substantial guides preceding each section to help you understand the principles, which I find to be the most helpful feature of all. The volume's only weakness is it is written in a very dry, technical manner making it somewhat laborious to read. Also, if you are not already familiar with some of the concepts, you need to read more basic, outside resources to prepare you to study them in this book, otherwise it will leave you behind. However, if you are not familiar with the material in this text, you probably should not be applying for licensure yet either.
Finally, the new version of the software is very good. It still does not offer to test on the navigation problems. The author correctly states it cannot do this because one cannot plot with compass and parallel ruler from charts on a computer screen. However, I wish the software offered the tests anyway so that I could at least put my answers down and have it confirm them. It would just be more convenient for practicing.
Cliff
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Study Tool
Review: I recently used this book to help me pass my Unlimited Master's Exam. I wholeheartedly recommend it as a study guide and as a drilling tool. I did not have access to the CD-ROM and only used the Questions and Answers Sections. I agree with other reviewers in that you must already have advanced knowledge in the subject areas to get the maximum out of this book. I like the fact that all the questions and answers are in one book and that the price is quite cheap compared to "Murphy's" 6 volumes and ... price tag. I would also recommend "Formulae for the Mariner" and getting a 1981 Nautical Almanac from the start to study with.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Study Tool
Review: I recently used this book to help me pass my Unlimited Master's Exam. I wholeheartedly recommend it as a study guide and as a drilling tool. I did not have access to the CD-ROM and only used the Questions and Answers Sections. I agree with other reviewers in that you must already have advanced knowledge in the subject areas to get the maximum out of this book. I like the fact that all the questions and answers are in one book and that the price is quite cheap compared to "Murphy's" 6 volumes and ... price tag. I would also recommend "Formulae for the Mariner" and getting a 1981 Nautical Almanac from the start to study with.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good But Be Advised:
Review: I used this book and CD to prepare for an inland master's exam. The CD is very helpful and allows you to rapidly practice the exam and receive a score. Two major warnings:1) The "master and mate inland rules of the road" practice exam on the CD doesn't really test the USCG "inland only" questions. You have to set it up to do a "custom" exam and select inland only. 2) All the navigation problems on the CD were just course - speed - time problems not involving a real chart. On the real exam the problems were specific to an actual chart as in "Starting from a point two miles due East of Ferndorf Light plot a course......". You are therefore probably going to need some other source of training on the navigation problems besides this book and CD.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good But Be Advised:
Review: I used this book and CD to prepare for an inland master's exam. The CD is very helpful and allows you to rapidly practice the exam and receive a score. Two major warnings: 1) The "master and mate inland rules of the road" practice exam on the CD doesn't really test the USCG "inland only" questions. You have to set it up to do a "custom" exam and select inland only. 2) All the navigation problems on the CD were just course - speed - time problems not involving a real chart. On the real exam the problems were specific to an actual chart as in "Starting from a point two miles due East of Ferndorf Light plot a course......". You are therefore probably going to need some other source of training on the navigation problems besides this book and CD.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good But Be Advised:
Review: I used this book and CD to prepare for an inland master's exam. The CD is very helpful and allows you to rapidly practice the exam and receive a score. Two major warnings: 1) The "master and mate inland rules of the road" practice exam on the CD doesn't really test the USCG "inland only" questions. You have to set it up to do a "custom" exam and select inland only. 2) All the navigation problems on the CD were just course - speed - time problems not involving a real chart. On the real exam the problems were specific to an actual chart as in "Starting from a point two miles due East of Ferndorf Light plot a course......". You are therefore probably going to need some other source of training on the navigation problems besides this book and CD.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Start
Review: No single text is going to allow you to ace the test, but this should be one of the ones you use. This is the second edition and supposedly updated as of 2000. While much of the information is available on the Coast Guard web site, Wing does a good job of "packaging it" to make it much more readable. I found the light and signal summaries worth the price of the book. Without these two summaries, memorization of the many, many lights and signals would be much harder. Another plus is a "plain english" version as well as the original rules - much more readable and easier to learn.
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