How Well Do You Really Know Diving? The Serious Test
Fifty questions. Five progressively harder levels. The early questions test foundations; the last twenty require calculations, decompression knowledge, mixed-gas concepts, contingency thinking and human factors. A perfect score should be difficult.
This version is deliberately demanding. It tests more than recognition of the safest-sounding sentence. Expect SCUBA terminology, Boyle and Dalton, refraction, fresh-water displacement, gas mass, MOD and EAD calculations, half-times, Bühlmann concepts, GF99, minimum gas, stage marking, gas density, oxygen exposure, lost decompression gas and incident analysis. It is normal to reach material outside your training. That is not failure; it is the purpose of the test.
The percentage is not a certification grade. Because advanced levels carry more points, the percentage reflects the breadth of this particular test. A recreational diver can be competent within their training and still score modestly on material about trimix, gradient factors or decompression contingencies. Use the breakdown to decide what is relevant to refresh — and what belongs in future formal training.
Technical basis and further reading
The questions use general, agency-neutral principles. Safety-sensitive material was cross-checked against Divers Alert Network guidance on equalisation, controlled ascents, gas management, oxygen toxicity, decompression illness and flying after diving.
DAN — Middle-Ear Equalization
DAN — Ascent Rates
DAN — Estimating Gas Consumption
DAN — Oxygen Toxicity
DAN — Treating Decompression Sickness
DAN — Flying After Diving