Study for the U.S. Coast Guard exam with practice questions that show their source. CaptainsGround is exam prep for the USCG captain's license and the other credentials the National Maritime Center tests: OUPV (six-pack), Master 25/50/100 ton, Mate, AB Seamanship and QMED. Every question is written from the regulation it tests, and every answer shows you the rule behind it — 33 CFR, 46 CFR, the COLREGs and Inland Navigation Rules, Bowditch and the USCG Boat Crew Handbook — with a citation you can look up yourself.
WHAT'S IN IT
• Daily drills that come back to what you keep missing
• Full-length timed mock exams in the real NMC format, marked at the 70% pass line
• Flashcards on a spaced-repetition schedule (FSRS), which brings a card back the day before you would have forgotten it
• A week-by-week study plan built from your exam date and the hours you can actually give it
• Progress by topic, so the weak ones get the time instead of the comfortable ones
• A readiness score before you sit the exam
MODULES
Rules of the Road (COLREGs and Inland) · Deck General · Deck Safety · Navigation General · General Knowledge and Regulations · Chart Plotting · AB Seamanship · QMED (Oiler, Junior Engineer, Electrician/Refrigerating Engineer)
WHY THE CITATION MATTERS
An answer with no source is just a claim, and a wrong one costs you the exam fee. Every question here is written from a specific passage of the regulations and checked against it; anything whose source does not hold up is not published. When you disagree with an answer, you can open the rule and settle it.
SOURCES — THE ORIGINALS, ON THE GOVERNMENT'S OWN SITES
• 33 CFR — Navigation and Navigable Waters: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-33
• 46 CFR — Shipping: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-46
• Inland Navigation Rules (33 CFR Part 83): https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-33/chapter-I/subchapter-E/part-83
• COLREGs and Inland Rules, amalgamated (USCG Navigation Center): https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/navigation-rules-amalgamated
• USCG Light Lists: https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/light-lists
• Bowditch, American Practical Navigator (NGA Pub. 9): https://msi.nga.mil/Publications/APN
• USCG Boat Crew Seamanship Manual and the other Commandant Instruction Manuals: https://www.dcms.uscg.mil/directives/
• DOE Fundamentals Handbooks, behind the QMED engineering topics: https://www.energy.gov/ehss/doe-technical-standards-program
The whole corpus, and what each source grounds: https://captainsground.com/sources
In the app: Settings → Sources & citations, and a link to the original on every citation.
FREE
20 practice questions a day, one full-length mock exam, the whole flashcard deck, and the explanation and citation on every answer.
PRO
Unlimited drills, every mock exam, the study plan and readiness scoring. $39/month, or pay once: Exam Prep Pass — 90 days, $79. Until You Pass — 12 months, $149. One-time purchases do not renew.
CaptainsGround is an independent study aid. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced by the U.S. Coast Guard or the National Maritime Center. Terms: https://captainsground.com/terms Privacy: https://captainsground.com/privacy
USCG captain's license exam prep — every answer shows the rule it came from.