We’ve designed our courses to get someone with little or no marine experience to get to the required level with no pre-study required.  
If English is not your first language, you may want to familiarize yourself with some marine terminology, so below is a PDF of our SVOP/ SDVBS course manual. Please do NOT read the whole book, the following pages are all you need to read to familiarize yourself with some basic marine terminology:
    • pages 32-38 (Basic Boat Terminology and Vessel Hull Types),
    • pages 58-60 (Lateral Buoys),
    • pages 102-108 (Collision Regulations Definitions) 
Datum SVOP SDVBS course manual download (read only)
 
You can also bring a dictionary to class. You can even use a printed dictionary during the exam. Electronic dictionaries (such as on smart phones) are NOT permitted during the exam.

For the ROCM course it is useful to learn the Phonetic Alphabet (alpha, bravo, charlie…), here’s link to a PDF or see below :

 
 
 

A – alpha

B – bravo

C – charlie

D – delta

E – echo

F – foxtrot

G – golf

H – hotel

I – india

J – juliet

K – kilo

L – lima

M – mike

N – november

O – oscar

P – papa

Q – quebec

R – romeo

S – sierra

T – tango

U – uniform

V – victor

W – whisky

X – x-ray

Y – yankee

Z – zulu