QMED Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows

What "Pass Rate" Can and Cannot Tell You About This Exam

Searching for a QMED pass rate usually means one thing: you want to know how risky the test is before you commit months of study and sea time to it. That instinct is reasonable. The honest answer, however, is more useful than a made-up percentage.

This article is about one credential specifically: the National QMED: Electrician/Refrigerating Engineer endorsement, formally the QMED02 rating issued through the United States Coast Guard National Maritime Center (NMC). It is not the Junior Engineer, Oiler, Boiler Technician-Watertender, or Machinist-Pump Technician rating, and it is not a general "engine room" certificate. Because the scope is that narrow, any pass-rate figure only means something if it was measured on this exact rating.

Here is the practical problem: the NMC publishes the exam topic lists for Q802 and Q803, but we have not verified a current, official, published pass rate for this endorsement. So rather than invent one, this guide shows what the data does support: the structure of the exam, the breadth of its content, and the factors that realistically separate candidates who pass from those who need to retest. If you want the broader picture of difficulty, see our companion piece, How Hard Is the QMED Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.

What the National Maritime Center Actually Publishes

The NMC maintains dedicated pages for the engine-room exam ratings, including a page for the QMED02 Electrician-Refrigerating Engineer exam (Q802-Q803). What that page and the related engine-ratings page provide is a topic list for each module, which tells you what the exam is allowed to ask about. It is a content map, not a performance report.

That distinction matters for how you interpret "the data." The verifiable data about this exam is structural:

Because the two headings are modules rather than weighted domains, you cannot assume that a "light" topic is safe to skip. There is no published blueprint telling you that a given subject is worth a fixed slice of the exam. For a closer look at how the content is organized, read QMED Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 2 Content Areas.

Two Modules, Two Different Hurdles: Q802 and Q803

The single most important thing to understand about "the QMED pass rate" for this rating is that it is not one exam in the way many credentials are. It is two modules that test overlapping but distinct knowledge, and a candidate's real-world odds depend heavily on which module's subject matter matches their background.

Think of these as two different mixes of the same ingredients. A seasoned shipboard electrician will find Q802 feels like an extension of daily work and Q803 feels more foreign, while a refrigeration specialist faces the opposite. Neither is inherently "easy," which is another reason a single blended pass percentage would be misleading even if one existed. Our QMED Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt breaks down how to approach whichever module you are attempting.

Where Q802 Candidates Tend to Struggle

The Q802 topic list is long and spans far more than wiring. The published subjects run from electrical theory through machinery and emergency response. Candidates commonly find that the breadth, not any single concept, is the difficulty.

The electrical block

The electrical-specific subjects are the heart of the module: A/C circuits, D/C circuits, batteries, calculations, distribution systems, generation equipment, motor controllers, motors, electronic principles, measuring devices, communication devices, troubleshooting, maintenance, and safety. Candidates who learned the trade on the job often know how to fix a problem but have not practiced the written, calculation-driven style of question. Working through electrical calculations on paper, rather than relying on instinct, is where that gap closes.

The general machinery block

Q802 also covers topics a pure electrician might not touch daily: auxiliary machinery, bearings, deck machinery, pumps, fans, and blowers, compressed air, lubrication, steering, remote control equipment, and instrumentation principles. These are easy to under-prepare because they feel secondary to the "electrician" label, yet they are explicitly on the published list.

Where Q803 Candidates Tend to Struggle

The Q803 module leans on thermodynamic and mechanical reasoning. Its distinctive subjects are refrigeration principles, refrigeration, air conditioning, heating/ventilation, heat exchangers, hydraulic principles, and pipes, fittings, and valves.

System-level understanding

Memorizing component names is rarely enough. Candidates are expected to reason about how refrigeration, air conditioning, and heating/ventilation systems behave as complete circuits, and how heat exchangers and hydraulic principles interact with them. If you can trace a system from component to component and explain what happens when one part fails, you are studying at the right depth.

The electrical overlap

Q803 is not purely mechanical. It includes electrical, electronic principles, motors, motor controllers, measuring devices, maintenance, safety, and troubleshooting. A refrigeration-focused candidate who skips the electrical topics is leaving a meaningful slice of the published scope uncovered. This overlap is one reason the two modules feel related, and why candidates sometimes prepare for both together. If you are weighing your overall options, QMED Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify explains how candidates qualify for the endorsement.

The Shared Core Both Modules Test

A large portion of both topic lists is identical, which is good news: preparing the shared core pays off twice. These areas appear in both Q802 and Q803.

The safety and environmental protection group deserves particular attention. Fire prevention, firefighting equipment, firefighting principles, damage control, elementary first aid, emergency equipment, hazardous materials, and environmental awareness are all published topics. Candidates who treat these as common-sense material sometimes lose points on precise terminology and procedure. These subjects are also the easiest to study efficiently, since they do not depend on your specialty.

Who Sits This Exam and Why It Shapes Outcomes

The population taking an exam strongly influences any aggregate success figure, which is another reason a single pass-rate number should be read cautiously. The QMED02 endorsement serves mariners working in the engine department who want to qualify as electricians or refrigerating engineers aboard merchant vessels. Employers that hire for these ratings include operators of deep-sea cargo ships, tankers, passenger vessels, and other large commercial vessels that carry significant electrical plants and refrigeration or air-conditioning systems.

Candidates arrive with very different preparation. Some come from years of shipboard engine-room work; others from shoreside electrical or HVAC-refrigeration trades; others from maritime training programs. A candidate with hands-on shipboard experience and focused written-exam practice is in a very different position from one relying on experience alone or on reading alone. For a look at how the endorsement connects to employment, see QMED Jobs and the earnings overview in the QMED Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis.

Turning the Topic List Into a Preparation Plan

The most defensible way to improve your odds, since no official pass-rate benchmark is available to guide you, is to use the NMC's published topic list as your checklist. Every item on it is testable. A simple approach ties the schedule to the module structure rather than to generic study habits.

Practicing with realistic questions is the fastest way to expose gaps in the written style. You can work through exam-style questions on the QMED practice test site and use the one-page QMED Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts for last-minute review.

Retakes, Risk, and How to Avoid Needing Them

Because the exam is split into modules and covers a wide published scope, the most common reason candidates fall short is uneven preparation rather than a single hard question. Someone strong in electrical theory but weak in firefighting terminology, or someone fluent in refrigeration cycles but shaky on motor controllers, can be undone by the topics they ignored.

Specific scheduling windows, fees, and score thresholds are best confirmed directly with the National Maritime Center, since we have not verified those details from the current official sources for this article. For related planning, you can review QMED Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass, QMED Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling, and QMED Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown. If you are still deciding whether the endorsement fits your career, Is the QMED Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 lays out the tradeoffs.

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