BM Exams, NPS

[floyd_n]

Im getting ready to take BM 4 next week. Just curious, has anyone out there ever 4.0'd a BM exam? Nobody here has ever seen one. Im trying to be the first one. Also, on another general note, a lot of guys are saying that 2.6 gpa guys in NFAS are getting 3.5's in NPS, is the material easier over there or is there just more motivation?

[cincinnatinuke]

Yeah I remember a classmate of mine 4.0'd a BM exam, either the first or second one we took.......FN Sanchez.  Guy was real cool but put in 8 plus hours a day studying 7 days a week.  That was his only real fault if you want to call it that.

I came close on a math exam in NPS and an ETMO exam in NPS also.  Its not unheard of to get 4.0.

As for the guys going from 2.6 to 3.5's.......they learned how to play the game.  Think if you struggle from the begining of NFAS and everything else after that just builds upon day one.  That is why they beat you up in the begining with mando hours and the like.  So some guys took A school as a lesson learned and hit the ground running in power school.

[nicad]

I got a few 4.0s in A school and power school.  finished A school with a 3.8 and power school with a 3.79.

it's not hard really.  I had a knack of just studying what they really wanted to know, and I learn things quickly.  I was one of those guys everyone hated in power school because I did about 2 hours of study a week and was at the beach/bars the entire time.  just try to pick up on the main concepts and learn how things work, not just memorization (although there are few phrases you WILL need to memorize).........harder, stronger, more brittle 

[LaFeet]

I did have to study,  it was the only way I found time for sleep.  Orlando for a Panama City boy was a bit too much temptation

[jsilvavalentin]

.........harder, stronger, more brittle 

...less ductile, less tough.
Damn!! I sure hope some day I'll forget that.
MM2

[rlbinc]

In NPS class 7803, we had a guy named Allen Tonkawicz who graduated with a 3.92. At the time he was one of the highest scoring nukes - ever. You might guess, he dropped out at prototype, couldn't pass an RO board. Back in the day you got one chance for sure and two chances if they really liked you. He tubed two boards and went on to be a fleet ET.

Don't worry about the aces. Spend time learning the concepts. At prototype - the machinery rules instead of the books. If you assimilate the concepts and theory well in NPS, you'll understand the machinery at prototype. All the nukes I knew who were hot runners at prototype, became top shelf nukes in the fleet.


 

[deltarho]

...less ductile, less tough.
Damn!! I sure hope some day I'll forget that.
MM2

That reminds me of a mnuemonic I used to use to remember which properties were related:

Roast ductile is tough to chew.  So, as ductile went...so did toughness.

[93-383]

In NPS class 7803, we had a guy named Allen Tonkawicz who graduated with a 3.92. At the time he was one of the highest scoring nukes - ever. You might guess, he dropped out at prototype, couldn't pass an RO board. Back in the day you got one chance for sure and two chances if they really liked you. He tubed two boards and went on to be a fleet ET.


 

My how things have changed. Prior to my leaving my division we received a nub that had supposedly failed every comp in the program and was academic review boarded through the entire thing. He is a shining example of how far the standards have fallen.

[jsilvavalentin]

My how things have changed. Prior to my leaving my division we received a nub that had supposedly failed every comp in the program and was academic review boarded through the entire thing. He is a shining example of how far the standards have fallen.

You wouldn't believe the quality of the people that qualified in my nptu class. Lest just say that I'm lucky that none of them are on my ship.

[flamatrix99]

I keep hearing how NPS has turned from a filter to a pump. I was in 8707 and we had 30+% attrition rates. A lot of us in Operations are surprised that some of the newer guys out of the Navy somehow made it through the pipeline. When I was an NLO we had an ex-nuke ET2/SS that was fully qualified RO/SRO on a submarine and he failed out of NLO class. He ended up being a utility worker and bid into the I&C shop then he left the company.

[Rad Sponge]

The closest I ever came in power school was a 3.89 on a Radiological Fundementals exam, but I 4.0'd a Mechanical Equipment exam in A-School.

The flip side was barely passing Math in both A and Power School.

[Marlin]

I keep hearing how NPS has turned from a filter to a pump. I was in 8707 and we had 30+% attrition rates. A lot of us in Operations are surprised that some of the newer guys out of the Navy somehow made it through the pipeline. When I was an NLO we had an ex-nuke ET2/SS that was fully qualified RO/SRO on a submarine and he failed out of NLO class. He ended up being a utility worker and bid into the I&C shop then he left the company.

   Interesting perspective, I use to feel the same way but my class was 71-02. My A school class dropped the bottom third of the the class no matter what your scores were. We lost 30% of our NPS class and then almost 30% percent of the NPTU class. Only about ten percent of those who enlisted as nukes made it. I made the same statements you did at one time, but that was in the late seventies and early eighties.
   Times change and looking back we had a few goofballs that made it throught he system. The Nuke program has gone through cycles over the years depending on the needs of the Navy up and down. Looking at the numbers for my class is a good example. My Class enlisted in 1970, the only year with more people drafted was 1969. The war started to wind down as my class went thought the pipeline, and as the threat of ending up on a river boat if we failed diminished many lost the drive and desire to succeed. I shook my head when I saw some of the people we got on board my boat later but then I'm sure that there were a few heads shaking when some of our class finally made it to the fleet.
   I've met many young nukes who would have done fine in my class over the years. I think the core of the Nuclear Propulsion School Program is still as good as is was back then with maybe a few here and there that get by on needs of the Navy.   

[Finalman]

BM in power school, or A school, in my A school class there was one guy that made 2 3.9's, one was a .05 off of a 4.0 and another was a .25 off a 4.0, the highest I made was a 3.84 on BM1, the rest were below 3.7's after that, ME1 kicked my butt with a 2.7 (due to it being all math with a load of TE's) but I made it through that school, two more weeks of t-track and I'll be in power school.

[s1wlightning@msn.com]

Closest I ever came to a 4.0 was on HTFF 2 or 3, ended up with a 3.96.  Missed it by a point or so.  As far as the quality of nukes out of the pipeline, it is certainly down.  I was a Work Center Sup and Reactor Training/Drill Team, and these guys were just stupid.  It was either they were stupid or they just didn't want to put the effort in to due their job or get qualified.  It's pretty sad to see what things in the nuke world have come to, they keep pushing out more ships/subs so they can't really have as high of an attrition rate.  That and people are just not staying in, I didn't see a point in doing twenty, just not finacially worth it nor could I put a family that I may have one day through that lifestyle.  IN all honesty, the biggest problem with knowledge is that people aren't sticking around to pass it on to the new guys.  There was such a huge gap between first time sea tours to sea returnees. 

-MM2... out after six.

[Fermi2]

I got virtually all 4.0s in Nuke School. I got a 2.63 in the first math test, (Was out till 230 at the Cover Girl) then got nothing but 4.0s until the Reactor Theory Comp where I got a 3.99 (Where I misspelled a WORD and the guy grading it knew it'd hork me if he took off for it, Senior Chief Walker was a trip).

Mike

[alphacookie]

My how things have changed. Prior to my leaving my division we received a nub that had supposedly failed every comp in the program and was academic review boarded through the entire thing. He is a shining example of how far the standards have fallen.

Conversation between me, SE of Crew "Evil", and the CO of NPTU Charleston during my checkout interview:

Captain:  "So, what do you think of your time here?  What can we improve on?  BLAH BLAH BLAH......"

ME:  "Well, Captain, I think I may have an interesting perspective on things because I have been both a Mechanic instructor and have come back as a Shift Engineer here at NPTU CHASN.  I think the standards have fallen quite a bit in the Navy Nuclear Program".

Captain interrupts with his ANGRY voice:  "The standards have not fallen!  The Admiral (Edit:  I can not remember which one) expects the instructors to........".  BLAH BLAH BLAH(Navy propaganda crap on how it is the instrutors fault if a student does not make it through)

Me with my sarcastic voice:  "OK Captain.  The standards have not fallen.  You guys just waive them".

Captain, now steaming mad, stands up and shakes my hand:  "Have a nice day".

Me:  I leave NPTU forever.

[Marlin]

  I'm not sure how the curriculum today compares to when I went through (see my post 7/21) but there was a sign over the entrance to the Mare Island NPS school entrance that read the "smartest must try as hard". Each section was placed based on previous scores and schooling, the first section was taught the minimum required and the twelfth section got the full load. To some extent this negated the curve for scoring as a 4.0 in section one could be achieved much easier than one in section twelve. Even with this section one scored higher entry scores that 95% of the rest of Navy recruits. We almost lost one of our class due to lack of strength, we were required to operate certain valves (feed pump discharge) in minimum period of time, he was put on a program and finally passed. The "NEEDS of the NAVY" may cause a certain amount of ebb and flow to the pipeline but I think we all tend to look at our own experience through tinted glasses.
   Many of us had our own pet peeves while in, mine was the introduction of women into the program. I had no problem with women doing any particular job, but then they were not allowed on warships and still are not assigned to subs. We were told that they would not take up any of the shore rotation billets but just before I got out there were very few available for the next few years and guess why. The Navy has fixed this problem, assigning women to warships, as it does any other problem I guess we have to accept that it's not a perfect world.

[JustinHEMI05]

Conversation between me, SE of Crew "Evil", and the CO of NPTU Charleston during my checkout interview:

Captain:  "So, what do you think of your time here?  What can we improve on?  BLAH BLAH BLAH......"

ME:  "Well, Captain, I think I may have an interesting perspective on things because I have been both a Mechanic instructor and have come back as a Shift Engineer here at NPTU CHASN.  I think the standards have fallen quite a bit in the Navy Nuclear Program".

Captain interrupts with his ANGRY voice:  "The standards have not fallen!  Admiral Bowman expects the instructors to........".  BLAH BLAH BLAH(Navy propaganda crap on how it is the instrutors fault if a student does not make it through)

Me with my sarcastic voice:  "OK Captain.  The standards have not fallen.  You guys just waive them".

Captain, now steaming mad, stands up and shakes my hand:  "Have a nice day".

Me:  I leave NPTU forever.

Thats funny. Those are similar sentiments I got on my way out. No one wants to admit that the standards have fallen and we are waiving (aka pumping) people through at a... dangerous rate. My CMC told me on the way out that the reason everyone hires navy nukes is because they want to copy the standards of the nuclear navy. Although I have exactly 2 months of commercial experience, in that time I have seen just how skewed the standards are. The standards in the commercial world are WAY WAY WAY higher than in the nuclear navy these days. I don't see anyone wanting to try to copy anything that the navy is doing. As I have read here many times and have been told at work... I was hired for my ability to learn a lot of information fast... not because my navy nuclear experience has anything to do with the commercial industry. In fact... only the first 3 weeks of my license class were comparable to nuke power school. After that, the level of knowledge required in the commercial world diverged from the navy very fast. And then I saw that they didn't let people go on to take the general fundamentals exam if they didn't score higher than 85 (thats a 3.4 for you Navy folk) on an audit exam. Although it sucks for the folks that worked very hard, it just shows that the commercial world they aren't pumping people through to get licenses, which is a good thing. I am thankful the navy gave me the opportunities that it did, and allowed me to open some other doors, but to say the commercial world tries to live up to the navy standards is laughable. The navy only wished it had the standards I have seen so far. It is sad because the nuke program was once, and I think can be, a great program.

Justin

[Cycoticpenguin]

As Adm. Bowman stated when asked about much lower attrition rates -

"We have NOT lowered the bar. We have made the bar easier to obtain"... not sure what that means, but ok

[mlslstephens]

Conversation between me, SE of Crew "Evil", and the CO of NPTU Charleston during my checkout interview:

Captain:  "So, what do you think of your time here?  What can we improve on?  BLAH BLAH BLAH......"

ME:  "Well, Captain, I think I may have an interesting perspective on things because I have been both a Mechanic instructor and have come back as a Shift Engineer here at NPTU CHASN.  I think the standards have fallen quite a bit in the Navy Nuclear Program".

Captain interrupts with his ANGRY voice:  "The standards have not fallen!  The Admiral (Edit:  I can not remember which one) expects the instructors to........".  BLAH BLAH BLAH(Navy propaganda crap on how it is the instrutors fault if a student does not make it through)

Me with my sarcastic voice:  "OK Captain.  The standards have not fallen.  You guys just waive them".

Captain, now steaming mad, stands up and shakes my hand:  "Have a nice day".

Me:  I leave NPTU forever.

How funny, please tell my the CO's name...PM me if you don't want to put it on the forum.  Or, tell me when you left NPTU Charleston and I can look it up.