GMA CoC EOOW study guide
GMA CoC EOOW · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The GMA Certificate of Competency - Engineer Officer of the Watch (EOOW) is a professional marine engineering credential for officers preparing to stand engineering watches in a manned engine room or periodically unmanned machinery space under STCW Regulation III/1. It signals that the holder can run propulsion and auxiliary plant safely, diagnose faults under time pressure, and take charge of the watch. The GMA CoC EOOW study guide has 9 sections and about 4,155 words.
01Marine Engineering Watchkeeping and Safe Operation of Machinery
The watchkeeping domain tests whether you can hold an engineering watch lawfully and safely: taking over, keeping the plant inside its limits, answering alarms, and handing over without losing information. Questions come from STCW watchkeeping duties, company standing orders and the machinery-space requirements of SOLAS.
402 words, about 2 min02Marine Propulsion Systems: Diesel Engines, Steam and Gas Turbines
Propulsion questions test whether you understand why an engine or turbine behaves as it does, and what you may adjust before you must stop it. Coverage runs from two-stroke crosshead diesels with their scavenging and turbocharging, through medium-speed four-strokes, to steam turbine sealing and overspeed protection and gas turbine fouling and load ramp limits.
457 words, about 2 min03Auxiliary Machinery and Shipboard Systems
This domain tests command of the machinery that makes propulsion possible: pumps and their limitations, compressed air, boiler water and combustion, steering gear redundancy, and accommodation services such as ventilation and refrigeration. Centrifugal pumps are not self-priming and lose head when air enters the suction; available NPSH must exceed required NPSH or cavitation erodes the impeller.
496 words, about 2 min04Electrical, Electronic and Control Engineering; Automation and Instrumentation
This domain tests whether you can operate and troubleshoot generation, distribution, control loops and alarms as a engineer rather than an electrician: paralleling machines, keeping protection selective, reading instruments and proving safety systems. Ship's distribution is normally an insulated-neutral system: a single earth fault does not trip the supply, but the earth fault alarm must be investigated because a second fault produces a short circuit.
450 words, about 2 min05Maintenance and Repair, Materials and Workshop Practice
This domain tests planned maintenance, defect diagnosis, workshop practice and materials selection: whether you can keep machinery within maker's tolerances and choose the right repair, fastener and material for the service. The planned maintenance system is driven by running hours and calendar intervals; work is raised, executed, signed off, and defects are carried forward rather than closed on paper.
458 words, about 2 min06Ship Construction, Stability and Damage Control for Engineers
Engineers are examined on the structure they cut, weld and bolt to, and on the stability consequences of ballast, free surface and flooding: bulkheads, watertight boundaries, KG and GM, loll, and damage control. The double bottom, hopper and topside tanks, transverse frames and longitudinal girders carry the hull loads; a hot work repair needs the adjacent structure checked and the classification surveyor involved.
455 words, about 2 min07Maritime Legislation, STCW, MARPOL, SOLAS and Survey Requirements
This domain tests the legal framework an engineer officer of the watch works inside: STCW certification and rest hours, MARPOL annex controls and record books, SOLAS certification and surveys, and the interface with class and port state control. The engineer officer in charge of a watch holds a certificate of competency under STCW regulation III/1, with valid medical fitness, basic safety training and the required seagoing service.
497 words, about 2 min08Health, Safety, Environmental Protection and Emergency Procedures
This domain tests the practical safety and pollution-prevention decisions an engineer officer makes: permits, atmosphere testing, fire response, spill response and abandonment drills. Enclosed space entry requires a permit, isolation, ventilation, and testing before entry and at intervals during the work: oxygen near 20.9%, hydrocarbons below 1% of the lower flammable limit, toxic gases below the exposure limit.
471 words, about 2 min09Engineering Watch Administration, Records, Communication and Human Element
This domain tests the paperwork and the people: log books and statutory record books, defect and near-miss reporting, bridge to engine room communication, drills and familiarisation, fatigue and human error. The engine room log records times, parameters, changes, tests and defects; entries are made at the time, in ink, and are never altered by overwriting or back-dating.
469 words, about 2 min