SSI specialty diver training

This forum is provided for the further edification of our club members seeking to improve their knowledge and diving skills. (recreational diving only)
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JJHACK
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SSI specialty diver training

Post by JJHACK »

Hi folks,

I have been interested in some of these additional classes from SSI. I realize that there are several agencies and all recognise the level of divers somewhat differently based on their own particular requirements. When I was living in South Africa only PADI existed and there was not really any other options or credible choices. When I moved back to the states there were lots of options. At my local Dive shop which is SSI, that became my only real option here in Eastern Wa. I'm not at all curious about which agency is better or which is preferred or such. That will be mostly personal opinion and for the majority only having experience with the agency or organisation they chose. I'm just sharing the level of training and skill needed with SSI for anyone interested.

I have taken 4 optional advanced classes now. They are sold, not free to take. It's a business after all! One of them is called the Science of Diving. It takes 10-12 hours of on line class and then there is a quiz at the end of every segment. The quiz questions range in difficulty from very easy, to quite mathematically complex. Also a fair amount of facts and " physics laws" to either memorize or truly understand.

There are 8-10 questions on each quiz and you can only make one mistake to pass the quiz. However I recall somebody saying you could miss 2 and still pass? that may be true, but I know that I had two wrong on one quiz and it told me I failed? The Science of diving is their longest most all inclusive on line class. I finally completed it a couple weeks ago.

While at the dive shop I asked about the on line status change for the classes that have been passed, the shop owner told me you don't get credit until you pass the exam. I replied I passed all the quizzes on line and it said " congratulations you have completed the course" He replied, but you did not pass the exam yet. You have to do that here, it's a 100 question test! Wow..... I was both surprised and actually impressed that this is not just something you pay for and they hand it to you. There is a fairly strict level of knowledge required before this can be completed. This on site written exam is compulsory for all the on line training courses. Although this one is the longest exam they have.

I have not actually gone in to take this exam yet, I figured I better go take the quizzes again and verify my certain knowledge of all the content! I must say that I have a new found respect for the SSI organisation to go this far to be certain that the person getting credit is actually taking the tests closed book on site to prove they know the material!
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60south
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Re: SSI specialty diver training

Post by 60south »

Too bad you can't publish the exam online here for us to critique.

For some reason, written diving exams often seem to have errors in them. :computersmash: When I was taking classes I found a few, and also lots of incorrect descriptions in the materials. It was almost like they threw together a manual or exam and never bothered to proof read it.
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JJHACK
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Re: SSI specialty diver training

Post by JJHACK »

Well I passed the science of diving class today. It's 100 questions with dive tables and physics problems.

It's involved but not as tough as I thought it would be or maybe my paranoia made me prepare better!
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JJHACK
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Re: SSI specialty diver training

Post by JJHACK »

Here are some of the example questions. There were plenty of questions as well for multiple dives and proper surface interval from the charts, or the max dive time and depth allowed for the second dive. All answers needed to be derived from the dive charts. None were just simple questions, all required the use of a partial answer from chart one and or two, with the final answer coming from chart three or variations of this kind of chart use.

Other questions were something like this:

Absolute pressure at a depth of 131 fsw is:

The ocean depth at which the PPO2 in air is equal to 1.6 ATA is how many feet deep assuming 21% O2

breathing .5% carbon monioxide at 131 feet is equal to what percentage at the surface

What Percentage of O2 is required to remain concious at Sea level.

These were the kinds of questions on this 100 question exam. You could get 20 wrong and pass, ( 80%) There are a lot of things involved with this type of class that greatly exceed the typical interests people do for recreation and entertainment. The math could leave an average highschool student perplexed. Should be reasonably challenging for a college grad, and for me at 59 years old having been out of both for a very long time, quite a refresher on study habits and practice.

Even though I have a EE degree, this was more than I expected in the courseware. I also do not use this kind of math even in my job frequently. I think this is important information to know and understand for some types of careeres in Scuba. However, for the majority of recreational divers much of this course may not be helpful to you. I enjoy the complete understanding of the science regarding this process, connecting all the dots to understand the entire event even from a mathmatical perspective. I can say that I have not needed to calculate much of the data that was required to know in this class in a decade. It's much easier to learn how to use a dive computer and trust that device than to try to remember and calculate all the data from the charts required to derive a dive plan within your NDL.
The best things in life are not things
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