AECF FC A school and beyond

Comment

Comment by FC1 (SW) Sean M. Officer on April 6, 2010 at 10:39am

Andrew - Your son is doing quite well. He currently has a 87.7% average and is ranked 5th in a class of 19 with only one test failure. He is currently in the Radar modules which is tha hardest portion of the course and doing exceptionally well scoring a 95% in his last lab and has 100% on his last 2 tests. He is in the hardest module right now which is Radar Displays. If he does well here he has no excuses in the later modules as it's all downhill from there. =)

As far as attending Graduation, I will need to get some information from you as to when you will be here and who all in the family will be attending but we can tackle those issues when the grad date firms up. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at sean.officer@navy.mil.

Comment by Andrew Ross on April 5, 2010 at 9:00pm

Mary,

Thanks for the information ... sorry, I missed reading your post last time I was on.

Andrew

Comment by Andrew Ross on April 5, 2010 at 5:11pm

FC1, I appreciate the offer of your assistance and will most likely take advantage of it. My son has no idea that I'm hoping to attend, but we're already missing his 21st birthday, since he's in school and he doesn't have any accrued leave ... so, hopefully I'll kill two birds with one stone. Each time I speak with him, he is always very excited when he talks about A school ... I'm hoping he's doing as well as he sounds!

Thanks again,
Andrew

Comment by FC1 (SW) Sean M. Officer on April 5, 2010 at 1:48pm

Paul - I was just reading through some of tha previous posts and I realized I missed one of your questions. To answer it, The students are not given a whole lot of information about how things run here. They do get to go to an Indoc class on their first day but that mostly covers my expectations of them while they are here, what they can expect from my staff and the rules they need to be aware of while in "A" school. I try and explain things as questions come up but there just ins't enough hours in the day to fill everyone in...=)

Comment by Mary, Proud Mom on April 5, 2010 at 1:33pm

Nice to hear that the attrition rate is gone down. Our son was there when it was at the 34% level, lots of stress for the students!! I am not a fan of passing students thru the program (my words) you know what the equipment and the job is like, we need motivated and trained sailors in these positions.

Excited for our FC -- at his command's suggestion, he is working on his STA-21 application :-) He is realistic to know he may not make it this time or next time or even the time after than but he is driven to go down that path.

Comment by FC1 (SW) Sean M. Officer on April 5, 2010 at 1:01pm

Mary - Right now the attrition rate is about 5% down from 34% 2 years ago. The change is a result in our new lock step format for teaching as well as some changes in command policy. It used to be that a student was dropped after 2 test failures. That policy has been changed much to my dismay. I think the students don't try as hard now. I have had to graduate students that really should not be in the rate. I just hope thay are able to grow into the role. Wether or not they get to go to another rate(reclassed) depends entirely on why the student was dropped. If they put forth their best effort, take good notes, ask alot of questions, spend time in open learning, but just arent absorbing the information, we usually make sure they get reclassed into a rate where there is more opportunity for them. If they were dropped due to lack of effort or misconduct, they will not be reclassed. Think of open learning as study hall. It is voluntary self study done outside school hours where instructors are available to answer questions and provide more one on one teaching.

Andrew - I am assuming your son is Ian as that is the only Ross I have enrolled at the moment. He will be completing this portion of FC 'A' the week of 3-7 May but he will still need to complete Phase II ATT which is 3 1/2 weeks (if he stays on pace). So his Graduation ceremony won't be untill June 4th. We welcome family members at graduation and I will be more than happy to help out with any arrangements you need to get on base. The grad date will firm up as he progresses through ATT. I have the contacts over there to ensure we keep a fire lit under his rear-end. =)

Comment by Mary, Proud Mom on April 3, 2010 at 10:03pm

Hi Andrew, welcome to the group. We wanted to surprise our son at graduation from A school too- it had been eight months since we seen him but a couple of things for you to know...that graduation date is a moving target so hard to plan ahead or book a trip and ...you cannot just get on base or go to the school house. We were fortunate that a staff member helped us out when our son graduated. The school also likes to know in advance of guest(s) so they can plan accordingly and we got nice certificates for attending the event with our names on them.

Comment by Andrew Ross on April 3, 2010 at 4:01pm

Another of what I'm sure will be an endless stream of questions ... you're a brave man for registering, FC1 ... LOL!

My son is set to graduate from FC A school on May 7th (at least that is the projected date). I was thinking about flying out to surprize him, but I'm not sure if family would be allowed at the graduation ceremony ... nor do I know how solid a date his graduation is ... can you give us some insight into this?

Thanks,
Andrew

Comment by Mary, Proud Mom on April 2, 2010 at 7:19am

FC1 Officer --- new question for you. What is the failure/drop rate for FCs in A school? Are they provided with an opportunity to go to another rate or do they go undesignated to the fleet? When does "open learning" come in to play? Can you explain what open learning means. Thanks!

Comment by Jim Butler on April 1, 2010 at 9:11am

Congrats. Testing is a fine art, as you well know. I've been involved with writing several certification exams for a technology company, and have dealt first hand with the psychometrics of exams. Fun stuff... ;)

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 82
• 83
• 84
• 85
• 86
• …
• 96
• Next ›
• Page