Wrote the PADI Nitrox exam today ...

[JackD342]

For SDI eLearning -

You can't skip around. You have to get 100% on a chapter quiz before you can go on to the next chapter. The final exam is part of the eLearning, not done separately at the shop.

If you want to go back and review after you've finished, you can skip around however you like.

I took my OW and Nitrox classes more than 2 years ago. I did eLearning for both. I still have access to them.

PADI eLearning final exams are online too; I describe the required follow up quiz at the shop after completion as a “quality control” measure. I wasn’t an instructor when PADI launched eLearning, but I was told they wanted to have it completely online but membership pushed back, resulting in the quizzes with an instructor as a final step.

 

[dmaziuk]

I can check the book when I get home, but I'm fairly certain my PADI OW book says "less nitrogen = more NDL" and "oxtox", and has everything you need to know to figure out your MOD.

So I was wrong: I don't see the magic "1.4" in there. Mine's the in-between edition with the separate booklet about dive computers, oxygen toxicity is in the main book next to nitrogen narcosis, but it's only mentioned briefly without much detail. The computer booklet lists "benefits of nitrox" and tells you to do PADI EAN course to reap them.

I guess I must have read the wikipedia article...

 

[turkeyphant]

Interesting how different these course experiences can be.

I logged on to the woeful PADI elearning page and completed some dead easy multiple choice questions, which takes about 5 minutes, then went on a couple of Nitrox dives after analysing the tanks and that was it.

I actually researched Nitrox beforehand out of interest and was shocked how shallow the PADI questionnaire was. As long as you remember the number 1.4, you could pass it by common sense alone.

I mean we all know this is the most box ticking of all the certs but I was surprised by the OP here. The PADI book is about 30 pages so including filling out the questions and the mini-tests on the way let's call it half an hour. Then a chat with an instructor and some practical analysis and talk a bit more about that an you're at an hour tops. I'm at a loss how you can stretch it out to 2 hours even if your instructor goes really in depth about peripheral stuff.

Why metric/imperial would make a difference or which part of the calculations (practice or otherwise) you can "muff" is utterly beyond me...

 

[JackD342]

I mean we all know this is the most box ticking of all the certs but I was surprised by the OP here. The PADI book is about 30 pages so including filling out the questions and the mini-tests on the way let's call it half an hour. Then a chat with an instructor and some practical analysis and talk a bit more about that an you're at an hour tops. I'm at a loss how you can stretch it out to 2 hours even if your instructor goes really in depth about peripheral stuff.

Why metric/imperial would make a difference or which part of the calculations (practice or otherwise) you can "muff" is utterly beyond me...

Because the OP took a course that required learning to use tables, not a dive computer. The PADI course does provide RDP tables for two mixes, I think they are 32% and 36%. If that plus an MOD chart were the only practical skills to learn it would still be pretty simple and straightforward.

Where it gets messy is learning to use the DSAT Oxygen Exposure Tables, which allow you to:

1. Dive any mix between 30% and 40% without a dedicated table, and to
2. Track Oxygen Exposure for multiple dives within a 24 hour period.

 

[TMHeimer]

Because the OP took a course that required learning to use tables, not a dive computer. The PADI course does provide RDP tables for two mixes, I think they are 32% and 36%. If that plus an MOD chart were the only practical skills to learn it would still be pretty simple and straightforward.

Where it gets messy is learning to use the DSAT Oxygen Exposure Tables, which allow you to:

1. Dive any mix between 30% and 40% without a dedicated table, and to
2. Track Oxygen Exposure for multiple dives within a 24 hour period.

It's more complicated, but no much that a dope like me can't do it. I do review them though, even when I use the DC.

 

[Alan Browne]

I mean we all know this is the most box ticking of all the certs but I was surprised by the OP here. The PADI book is about 30 pages so including filling out the questions and the mini-tests on the way let's call it half an hour. Then a chat with an instructor and some practical analysis and talk a bit more about that an you're at an hour tops. I'm at a loss how you can stretch it out to 2 hours even if your instructor goes really in depth about peripheral stuff.

Why metric/imperial would make a difference or which part of the calculations (practice or otherwise) you can "muff" is utterly beyond me...

I read the book twice through before doing the examples in the table guide. That all tolled was probably a few hours - not that I was rushing.

1) The course was laid out per the instructor's plan. Also went into things beyond the PADI material. Multilevel dive planning, comparing table outcomes using the PADI tables v. using the formulas v using a computer. Practical discussions and so on. I don't feel my time was wasted at all. Some discussions went outside the scope of the whole thing.

2) I didn't muff the imperial/metric stuff, someone else did. I'd give him the benefit of the doubt since everything was presented in class in imperial but his tables and books were in metric - probably made it hard for him to follow along. The fellow was an orthopaedic surgeon so I don't think stupidity was his issue. I don't know if he passed the written test.

 

[gcarter]

Because the OP took a course that required learning to use tables, not a dive computer. The PADI course does provide RDP tables for two mixes, I think they are 32% and 36%. If that plus an MOD chart were the only practical skills to learn it would still be pretty simple and straightforward.

Where it gets messy is learning to use the DSAT Oxygen Exposure Tables, which allow you to:

1. Dive any mix between 30% and 40% without a dedicated table, and to
2. Track Oxygen Exposure for multiple dives within a 24 hour period.

Just checked. Tables I got with my PADI course:
EAN32
EAN36
DSAT PP & EAD

 

[TMHeimer]

I only got the DSAT, had to buy 32 & 36 back in '06. Guess things changed.

 

[gcarter]

Did mine in 2012.

 

[Alan Browne]

Because the OP took a course that required learning to use tables, not a dive computer. The PADI course does provide RDP tables for two mixes, I think they are 32% and 36%. If that plus an MOD chart were the only practical skills to learn it would still be pretty simple and straightforward.

Where it gets messy is learning to use the DSAT Oxygen Exposure Tables, which allow you to:

1. Dive any mix between 30% and 40% without a dedicated table, and to
2. Track Oxygen Exposure for multiple dives within a 24 hour period.

Yep. Which were also class exercises and exam questions.