During my PADI basic OW class, our instructor led a discussion at the end of our training that was filled with "What would you do if...?" scenarios. In retrospect, these were synthesis-type assessment questions. Some were tricky. Some were straightforward. All were designed to test the extent of our understanding of the training. It's been quite some time, but several of those scenarios have been burned into my memory:
That's all I can remember now. We discussed all of this over lunch. The best part about the discussion was that he didn't just spoon-feed us the answers. We came up with possible courses of action -- some more sensible than others. Furthermore, he asked us to come up with ways we could avoid getting into such tough situations in the first place.
- What would you do if you lost sight of your buddy underwater and couldn't find him/her?
- What would you do if you're in a buddy team of 3 divers and one buddy went left while the other went right?
- What would you do if you're in a buddy team of 5 divers and, all of a sudden, you only counted 3 other divers in your field of view?
- What would you do if you're diving in two buddy pairs and you lost sight of the other buddy pair?
- What would you do if the DM leading your boat dive went into a cave or other overhead environment?
- What would you do if your buddy inexplicably descended deeper (100+ fsw) than the two of you had discussed during pre-dive planning?
- What would you do if your computer stopped working during a dive?
- What would you do if you exceeded your NDLs (table or computer)?
- What would you do if you were trying to change a setting on your dive computer and you and your buddy missed part of the DM pre-dive briefing on a boat dive?
- What would you do if you're finning hard to keep your head above the surface of the water...and you're getting tired?
- What would you do if you got a leg cramp but your buddy didn't notice and left you behind?
- What would you do if your buddy gave you "the thumb" on the dive but everything seemed like it was OK?
- What would you do if your buddy started making fun of how much air you use?
- What would you do if your buddy wanted to go diving but you weren't comfortable with the dive conditions (high surf, current, low vis, rough seas, etc.)?
- What would you do if your buddy kicked your mask off of your face?
- What would you do if you started feeling really cold on a dive...so cold that it was difficult to think clearly?
- What would you do if you found yourself breathing really fast/hard underwater and the reg felt like it wasn't giving you enough gas?
- What would you do if you reached your agreed upon turnaround pressure and your buddy or the DM pushed on with the dive (rather than turning around)?
FANTASTIC!!!
Would you mind starting this as a new thread in the New Divers section, or allow me to? If not, shoot me a message and we can discuss the format I'v got in mind for it.