- What NM1GI Training Actually Means
- The Five Preparation Groups at a Glance
- Rules of the Road: Choosing Your Route Correctly
- Deck General (Q347): Seamanship and Vessel Handling
- Deck Safety (Q348): Stability, Fire and Emergencies
- Navigation General and Chart Plot (Q349 and Q350)
- Where Q352 Fits, and Where It Does Not
- Sequencing Your Training Across the Groups
- Anchoring Your Training to the Right Documents
- Frequently Asked Questions
- NM1GI training covers five route-aware preparation groups: Rules, Deck General, Deck Safety, Navigation General, and Chart Plot.
- The Rules group is either Q100 (International and Inland) or Q300 (Inland), depending on your approved route.
- Heavy-weather handling and lifeboat/liferaft launching topics are footnoted as Great-Lakes-specific on the NMC table.
- Q352 is a separate raise-of-grade module, not a sixth group for a full original exam.
What NM1GI Training Actually Means
National Master 100 GL and Inland (NM1GI) is the U.S. Coast Guard credential for a Master or Mate of vessels less than 100 gross register tons on Great Lakes and Inland waters. The exam program is administered by the United States Coast Guard National Maritime Center (NMC), and the published listing for this credential is GLI06, Master or Mate less than 100 GRT. Training for it is not a single course or a single textbook. It is the work of getting competent across a defined catalog of deck topics, and then confirming that your preparation matches the modules you are actually approved to take.
That second part is where many candidates lose time. The NMC does not publish one common mandatory examination that every applicant sits. Instead, the module list is route-aware. Your individual approval to test determines the assigned modules, the applicable route, and any credit you may already hold. Good training starts by reading that approval carefully and building your plan around it. If you are still working out whether you qualify at all, the NM1GI requirements guide walks through eligibility and prerequisites before you invest study hours.
The Five Preparation Groups at a Glance
For planning purposes, NM1GI preparation divides cleanly into five full-route groups. The NMC does not publish percentage weights for these, so any claim that one group is worth a specific share of the exam would be invented. Think of them as unweighted preparation groups and give each real attention. For a deeper look at how the groups relate, see the NM1GI exam domains guide.
| Group | Module | Core Focus |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rules of the Road: International and Inland (Q100) OR Inland (Q300) | Watchkeeping, COLREGS, Inland Navigational Rules |
| 2 | Deck General (Q347) | Seamanship, vessel handling, maritime law, shipboard management |
| 3 | Deck Safety (Q348) | Stability, firefighting, emergency procedures, signals |
| 4 | Navigation General: Great Lakes and Inland (Q349) | Piloting, compass, electronic navigation, weather, tides |
| 5 | Navigation Problems: Chart Plot (Q350) | Fix or running fix, distance off, bearing problems, dead reckoning |
Notice that the Rules group is counted once even though the catalog presents two route options. You study the one that matches your approved route, not both as separate subjects.
Rules of the Road: Choosing Your Route Correctly
The first group is Rules of the Road, and it is the clearest example of route-dependence. The catalog lists Q100 (International and Inland) or Q300 (Inland), according to the approved route. A candidate whose route calls for Inland only has a different rules scope than one whose route includes International. Getting this wrong means either studying material you will not be tested on or, worse, skipping material you will.
Rules of the Road (Q100 or Q300)
The published topic list for this group centers on three areas.
- Watchkeeping: the responsibilities and practices of keeping a safe navigational watch.
- COLREGS: the international collision regulations, relevant if your route includes the Q100 option.
- Inland Navigational Rules: the rules governing inland waters, central to both route options.
A useful training habit here is to learn the rules by situation rather than by rule number. Practice describing what each vessel must do in crossing, overtaking, and head-on scenarios, and which vessel is the stand-on and which the give-way. When a question asks about a light configuration or a sound signal, you want recall that comes from understanding the encounter, not from rote lists.
Deck General (Q347): Seamanship and Vessel Handling
Deck General is the broadest of the five groups, and it rewards candidates who have genuine time at the helm. The catalog organizes it into seamanship, vessel maneuvering and handling, and a general section covering maritime law and shipboard management.
Seamanship and Marlinspike
Expect to be comfortable with marlinspike seamanship and with purchases, blocks, and tackle. These are practical subjects where understanding mechanical advantage and proper line handling matters more than memorizing definitions.
Vessel Maneuvering and Handling
Maneuvering Topics in the Catalog
The published list is specific, and each item is worth dedicated study.
- Vessel handling in rivers and estuaries
- Maneuvering in shallow water
- Interaction with a bank or a passing ship
- Berthing and unberthing
- Anchoring and mooring, including dragging of anchors and clearing fouled anchors
- Heavy weather operations
- Maneuvering for launching of lifeboats and liferafts in heavy weather
- Turn circle, pivot point, advance and transfer
- Wake reduction
One detail deserves emphasis. The NMC table marks heavy-weather handling and the launching-lifeboat/liferaft topics with footnote 3 as Great-Lakes-specific. That makes the Great Lakes versus Inland distinction a live training issue. If your approved route is Inland only, those footnoted topics may not apply to you; if it includes the Great Lakes, you should treat them as required study. Confirm against your approval to test rather than assuming.
Maritime Law and Shipboard Management
The general portion covers national maritime law, credentialing of seamen, shipboard management and training, ship sanitation, vessel alteration, repair and hot work, safety, ship's business, and the certificates and documents a vessel must carry. These topics are less glamorous than maneuvering, but they are the kind of material where careful reading pays off, since answers often hinge on what the regulations specifically require.
Deck Safety (Q348): Stability, Fire and Emergencies
Deck Safety is where the credential's responsibility for lives and vessels becomes concrete. The catalog divides it into several clusters.
Stability, Construction, and Damage Control
Principles of vessel construction and trim and stability. Candidates should be able to reason about how weight, free surface, and flooding affect a small vessel, and how damage control priorities follow from that.
Vessel Power Plants
The catalog lists small engine operations and maintenance. For a master of a small vessel, practical familiarity with engine basics is part of safe operation.
Fire Prevention and Firefighting
This cluster includes organization of fire drills, classes and chemistry of fire, firefighting systems, and basic firefighting and prevention. Know the fire classes and which agents suit which, and how a drill should be organized and evaluated.
Emergency Procedures
The published list includes collision, temporary repairs, passenger and crew safety in emergencies, fire or explosion, abandon ship procedures, rescuing survivors from ship or aircraft in distress, man overboard procedures, and emergency towing. Sequence matters here. Practice stating the first action, the second action, and the reasoning behind the order.
The group also touches communications and signals, including storm, wreck, distress, and special signals. Candidates sometimes treat this as an afterthought; it is a compact, memorizable area where steady review earns reliable points. A one-page recall sheet can help, and the NM1GI cheat sheet is a reasonable model for condensing that kind of material.
Navigation General and Chart Plot (Q349 and Q350)
Navigation is split into two groups, and understanding the difference between them shapes how you train.
Navigation General: Great Lakes and Inland (Q349)
This group is conceptual and reference-driven. The catalog covers navigation and position determination, piloting, distance off, bearing problems, fix or running fix, chart navigation, dead reckoning, electronic navigation, instruments and accessories, aids to navigation, and charts, navigation publications, and Notices to Mariners. It also includes compass work (magnetic and gyro, magnetic compass error and correction, and determination of compass error), terrestrial observation, and meteorology and oceanography covering weather systems, weather charts and reports, and tides and tidal currents.
Navigation Problems: Chart Plot (Q350)
Chart Plot is the hands-on counterpart. Its topics overlap with Q349 in piloting, distance off, bearing problems, fix or running fix, chart navigation, dead reckoning, electronic navigation, instruments and accessories, aids to navigation, and charts and publications, but the skill being tested is execution rather than explanation. You are working problems on a chart, not just describing methods.
Because the two navigation groups share so much vocabulary, a good approach is to learn a method conceptually in Q349 terms and then immediately drill it as a plotting exercise. Fix versus running fix, for example, is easy to explain and easy to botch under time pressure. For perspective on why navigation often feels like the hardest stretch, the NM1GI difficulty guide discusses where candidates tend to struggle.
Where Q352 Fits, and Where It Does Not
Q352, Navigation and Deck General/Safety, is separately listed by the NMC as a raise-of-grade route module. It is easy to misread. It is not a universal sixth group that gets appended to a full original exam, and it is not a second Rules subject. If your approval to test assigns Q352, that tells you your route is a raise of grade and the module structure differs accordingly. If it does not, you should not spend training time preparing for it as though it were required.
| Item | Full-Original Preparation | Q352 Raise-of-Grade Route |
|---|---|---|
| Module structure | Five route-aware groups (Rules, Q347, Q348, Q349, Q350) | Separately listed Q352 module |
| Rules subject | Q100 or Q300 by approved route | Not a second Rules subject |
| Who it applies to | Candidates assigned the full set | Candidates whose approval assigns Q352 |
Sequencing Your Training Across the Groups
General study technique is not the point of this article, but NM1GI's structure does suggest an order. Start with the group that governs everything else, then build outward toward the skill-heavy modules last.
Rules of the Road
- Confirm whether your route is Q100 or Q300
- Learn encounters by situation, not rule number
Deck General and Deck Safety
- Cover seamanship, handling, and law in Q347
- Cover stability, fire, and emergency sequences in Q348
- Flag footnote 3 topics if your route includes the Great Lakes
Navigation General then Chart Plot
- Build compass, weather, and tide knowledge in Q349
- Drill plotting problems daily for Q350
Navigation comes last because plotting benefits from the rules and handling knowledge you have already absorbed, and because it needs the most repetition near the end. If you want a fuller methodology around this skeleton, the NM1GI study guide expands on pacing and review.
Anchoring Your Training to the Right Documents
Because the catalog and the exam guide are the foundation of any NM1GI plan, it helps to know what they are and what they are not. The NMC Examination Guide referenced for this credential reflects regulations effective 2014-03-24. It should be used alongside the current published NMC module-topic index and your own approval to test. It is not a new 2026 universal exam specification, and you should not read it as one. When the guide, the topic index, and your approval seem to disagree, your approval and the current index take precedence.
Practical training also means knowing the logistics. Costs, scheduling windows, and scoring all affect how you plan. The certification cost breakdown, the exam dates guide, and the passing score guide cover those details so your study calendar and budget line up with reality. When you are ready to test your recall under realistic conditions, the NM1GI practice tests let you drill each of the five groups separately.
Frequently Asked Questions
The full-route preparation covers five groups: Rules, Deck General, Deck Safety, Navigation General, and Chart Plot. Your approval to test from the NMC controls which modules you are actually assigned, so study the full map but confirm your itinerary against that approval.
Both are the Rules of the Road group. Q100 covers International and Inland rules, while Q300 covers Inland only. Which one applies depends on your approved route, and you study only the one that matches.
The NMC table marks heavy-weather handling and the launching-lifeboat/liferaft topics with footnote 3 as Great-Lakes-specific. Whether they apply to you depends on whether your approved route includes the Great Lakes, so check your approval.
No. Q352, Navigation and Deck General/Safety, is a separately listed raise-of-grade route module. It is not appended to a full original exam and is not a second Rules subject. Only prepare for it if your approval assigns it.
Official percentage weights are not published for these groups, so treat them as unweighted. Give each meaningful preparation time, and let your approval to test and your own weak areas guide how you divide your hours.
For a broader orientation to the credential itself, including what it is and how it connects to career paths, see What Is NM1GI?, and for the career side of the picture, the NM1GI jobs overview.