So you're a Plebe at the Academy? When service assignment comes up, please stay away from the submarine force.
If he's at USNA, he might not have a choice. I had quite a few mediocre academic performers in my power school class who had Submarines at the bottom of their URL job lists, and only because after you eliminate Marines and SEAL, then you're only left with 5-6 that you can possibly put down (they all failed, so hopefully the nuclear Navy has learned its lesson).
Let me clarify my point in a more tactful manner: 2.5 knowledge in school is passing, but I would argue far less than adequate for operators in the fleet. Everyone should have the goal of striving to be the best they can. For some that's 2.5, for most that's somewhere between 2.5 and 4.0.
I disagree. There are more topics I learned in Nuclear Power School that I never used in the fleet than topics that I did. Using double-triple substitution to solve reactor dynamics problems in the fleet? Not done. Solving solid-state cirtcuit diagrams to include drawing output waves? Not done. Calculating the heat flux received by the coolant given a certain amount of crud/corrosion? Not done.
It's always good for a laugh when you ask a nub how the control rods are arranged and they regurgitate the skewed-divergent bs he learned in power school. The poor guy probably spent a good hour or two memorizing that arrangement and its advantages, and we don't even use it in the fleet anymore.
I am thankful that the Navy thought it was worth their while to give me a strong fundamental theoretical foundation in nuclear power, but I can't say that I've used much of that knowledge to perform my duties. The most you do in the fleet is use the SUR equation or polo-shirt equation, maybe draw some graphs about how reactor power follows steam demand, and judging by ORSE reports that kicks everyone's ass for some reason. That's 0.01% of what I learned in power school. The principles behind operations can be learned by reading the front matter to the OPs and CPs and the italics corresponding to the steps.
Let's not forget ARPO, where you have to regurgitate how to operate an S5W plant, without having ever even seen one, and no S5W plants exist in the fleet. Yea, that's REAL representative of how a person will perform on an S6G/S8G/S9G sub or A4W carrier.
I have seen enough operationally smart but theoretically stupid (and vice-versa) nukes that I wouldn't dare make a statement that a 2.5 student couldn't survive in the fleet. If 2.5 weren't enough to be successful in the fleet, it wouldn't be the passing score at NNPS/NPTU.
/break
OP, everyone is different. One thing I learned for myself is that re-writing notes to attempt to memorize them was wasteful (and there simply wasn't enough time in power school to be inefficient like that). It was far more efficient for me to look at them and then try to repeat them in my head while looking away. Basically, quiz yourself over-and-over-and-over until you can 4.0 it.
Also, seek run-time. Just do it.
