USCG Exam Prep vs CBDR
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
USCG Exam Prep
Prepare for U.S. Coast Guard and FCC license exams with a comprehensive study platform. Access thousands of questions, track your progress, and take practice exams offline. Sync your learning across app and web versions.
- Access to USCG and FCC license exam questions
- Progress tracking by study category
- Tag questions for later review
- Search and filter questions
- Fully offline functionality
- Generate random practice exams
- Sync progress with website
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USCG Exam Prep provides recreational boaters and merchant mariners a convenient and accessible platform to study for the FCC and U.S. Coast Guard license exams. Whether you are studying for your Deck, Engine, or FCC Radio license exams, seeking limited or unlimited certification, or just refreshing your knowledge, USCG Exam Prep will help you achieve your licensing goals at a fraction of the cost. You can self-study by browsing through the USCG exam questions and answers across all Deck and Engine subcategories, flagging questions for follow up and random generating practice exams. These exams can also be generated and downloaded or printed for offline use, making practice more convenient for those times when you do not have internet access, such as lengthy times at sea, or when you just need a break from digital platforms. The App also allows you to download the database for study when you do not have internet access. Our app conveniently syncs your progress with our website version (www.uscgexamprep.com) and you will have access to both platforms. The App is great for continuous review of questions, especially for some exam areas such as Rules of the Road / Colregs. However, sometimes you will want to use the larger format website for more involved sections such as Navigation Problems. Whether you are a recreational boater seeking to upgrade to an OUPV or Captain’s License, or a Merchant Mariner increasing your qualifications and ratings, USCG Exam Prep’s extensive database of actual exam questions will help prepare you for your next exam. USCG Exam Prep Provides: - Instant access to all license exam prep areas - Over 20,000 US Coast Guard and FCC questions - Track your progress in each category of study - Tag questions to review or study later - Search and filter questions by key words - Fully offline functionality, syncs your progress when back online - Generate random online exams and track scores - Generate up to 3 offline PDF exams per month - Access to both the app and website versions
CBDR
This app trains junior deck officers and watchstanders in essential radar watch skills, including contact evaluation, COLREGS classification, and generating contact reports. It features a live radar scope, generated scenarios for various navigation situations, and drills for recognition and maneuvering.
- Live radar scope with vectors and trails
- Generated navigation scenarios
- COLREGS classification
- Contact report scoring
- Maneuvering board drills
- Recognition drills
- USCG Rules of the Road test bank
- Offline group testing
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CBDR is a training app for junior deck officers. Twelve subjects cover radar, Rules of the Road, maneuvering boards, navigation calculations, positioning, tides and currents, shiphandling, vessel identification, weather and waves, maritime law, visual signals and testing. RADAR. Practice contact assessment, CPA, relative motion and contact reports. Use the scenario library or build a picture of up to six contacts to share by code or QR. Give a report by voice with on-device recognition, or type it. A Rule 17 drill stops the scope where the stand-on vessel must keep her course and speed, where she may act, and where she must. Eleven explainers and a tuning simulator cover the signal, receiver controls and propagation. RULES. Practice with the 954-question Rules of the Road bank and read the governing Navigation Rules passages in the app. Optional Guided Practice directs questions toward material that needs more work. Lights, shapes and sound-signal drills include their rules and explanations. MANEUVERING BOARD. Work nine Pub 1310 problem types with step-by-step constructions, including CPA avoidance, stationing, limiting range, bearings-only TMA, advance and transfer, and wind. Practice a generated problem, enter your own values, or print a problem set with blank boards and an answer key. CALCULATIONS. Work time, speed and distance, compass conversion, mental minute rules, visibility, anchoring, time zones, ETA and speed of advance. POSITIONING. Step through visual and radar fixes, soundings, celestial navigation, inertial navigation, GPS, AIS, the fathometer, running fixes, dead reckoning, and set and drift, with illustrated plots built step by step. Study aids to navigation with an animated range and recognition practice. Search the bundled Chart No. 1 plates. Star Finder identifies navigational stars from the camera's star pattern without asking for, computing or storing your position. TIDES AND CURRENTS. Animated lessons on tides, reversing flow in San Diego Bay, rotary currents, and hydraulic flow in the Cape Cod Canal. A separate lookup retrieves NOAA and Canadian Hydrographic Service station predictions, saved for offline use and export. SHIPHANDLING. Animated lessons show how a propeller and a rudder work, the pivot point, tugs, and twisting off a pier. Man-overboard recoveries step through the Anderson, Williamson and racetrack turns. Hydrodynamic lessons cover bank cushion and suction, interaction alongside an oiler, and squat, drawn with their pressure fields. VESSEL IDENTIFICATION. Recognize ship classes and vessel types from silhouettes, photographs, or both. This feature is marked Beta. Source and license credits accompany the images. WEATHER AND WAVES. Bowditch's weather on a rotating globe, from the wind belts and fronts to fog, tropical cyclones and Buys Ballot's law. Waves on a three-dimensional sea: how they form, travel, shoal and break. MARITIME LAW. Six pages from UNCLOS, SOLAS, MARPOL and STCW: where the rules come from, the maritime zones, passage rights, flag and port state, and warships and assistance at sea. Each step names the article it follows. VISUAL SIGNALS. Signal flags and pennants, hoists decoded from Pub. 102's examples, and Morse by light from a signal lamp or a ship at night. TESTING. Build a test from any topic in the app, with calculations as multiple choice or typed answers, questions from every explainer page, and questions of your own. Host and join group tests by QR or text code, entirely offline, and export the instructor's record as PDF or CSV. Print a test with its answer key. Hosted exams reveal answers after the test is finished. Training works offline. The station-prediction lookup uses the internet when requested, including Apple's map service. No account, advertising, analytics or tracking. Training settings, optional question-level practice progress, custom scenarios, saved tests and saved predictions stay on the device. There is no history of session scores.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: CBDR at 5.0 against USCG Exam Prep's 3.4. CBDR also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3) and update cadence (weekly vs every 6 months). USCG Exam Prep's advantage is iOS requirement (13.4 vs 17.0). On price, ratings volume, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. USCG Exam Prep sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. CBDR asks for nothing beyond the download.
CBDR holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 10 and 5 respectively.
USCG Exam Prep ships an update every 6 months, CBDR weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | USCG Exam Prep | CBDR |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (10 ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 10 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 13.4 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 40 MB | 80 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Equitable Management Limited | Sean Bowman |
Customer experience
USCG Exam Prep
CBDR
In-app purchases
USCG Exam Prep
- Basic$9.99
- Standard$24.99
- Premium$39.99
CBDR
No in-app purchases








