Skills Assessed

MarTEL offers the tests at three different phases. There is one test in Phase 1 for those wishing to enter formal Maritime education at tertiary level; two tests in Phase 2 (one for Deck Officers and one for Marine Engineering Officers), and two tests at Phase 3 (one for senior Deck Officer and one for senior Marine Engineers). All test takers have a similarly structured test with all skills tested in the same format. The skills to be tested are Grammar, Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing. At Phase 2 and 3 level, SMCP is assessed rather than Grammar. Each test will take approximately 145 minutes. The diagram below provides details of the testing format.

Figure 1. Structure of Phase 1 Martel Standard.

Each skill is tested independently. However the MarTEL tests also include integrated skill questions in order to prepare the test taker for real life situations at sea where more than one skill is required on some occasions. For example in order to respond to a question from a senior officer or from a port official you must first listen to the question and then answer using the speaking skill. For the officer (Phase 2) and Senior officer (Phase 3) levels, questions are based on real life scenarios where possible, with a wide variety of different accents used to represent the multi-cultural nature of the crew on board ship and at ports.