What should you expect to happen at the PADI Instructor Exam (also known as the IE)? You’ve completed your PADI IDC and are now ready for the final verification by PADI that you are a diving instructor.
We often comment that IE actually stands for “It’s Easy”. And it should be if you have prepared right over the IDC and working with your PADI Course Director.
The PADI Instructor Exam in Kenya is normally spread over two days and is conducted by a PADI Instructor Examiner from the PADI office.
What is the PADI Instructor Exam Schedule?
The PADI Instructor Exam is split into 4 components:
- Written exams
- Knowledge Development Presentation
- Confined Water Teaching
- Open Water Teaching
Written Exams
The written exams are split between the General Standards & Procedures Exam and the Dive Theory Exam.
General Standards and Procedures is an open-book exam consisting of 50 multiple-choice questions. Yes, you get to use your PADI Instructor Manual and PADI Guide to Teaching to find the answers. You will have been practicing locating standards during your PADI IDC. You have 90 minutes to complete the exam and the pass mark is 75%. In the unlikely event, you score below 75%, unfortunately, you will have to return to complete the whole written exams section at another IE. (The fee for this is £263)
The dive theory exam is broken up into 5 sections. These are Physics, Physiology, Equipment, Dive Skills & The Environment, and The Recreational Dive Planner (RDP). Each section has 12 questions (a total of 60 for the exam). You have 90 minutes to complete the exam and the pass mark is 75%. During this exam, you are allowed to use a calculator, eRDPML, and RDP table. If you slip up and get less than 75% on one of the sections then you will be allowed to make up that section and reattempt it later during the IE. If you fail 2 or more sections then you will have to come back to a later PADI Instructor Exam and repeat all the examination written sections again.
Knowledge Development Presentation
The knowledge development presentation is a classroom presentation given by you, demonstrating your ability to use the PADI materials to assist students who are having difficulty understanding a concept in their dive course knowledge section. At the IE Orientation, you will be assigned a question from a PADI course knowledge review or quiz to answer. This could be from the Open Water Diver course, Advanced Open Water Diver course, Rescue Diver course, Divemaster course, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Project AWARE, or AWARE coral reef conservation specialty courses.
You will use the PADI materials including lesson guides, manuals, and digital products such as the PADI apps and eLearning to teach your fellow IE candidates. The presentation should be 4-8 minutes long depending on the depth of the content you are required to teach. As well as using the materials to teach the concept you will also be required to interact with your students and give real-life examples of when they will use the information.
During the PADI IDC, you will be taught how best to approach and prepare for this presentation so you should be able to score highly.
You will need to score over 3.5/5.0 in this section to pass. If you don’t manage to gain that on your first attempt, you are allowed another attempt with a new question.
Confined Water Teaching
The confined water teaching section of the PADI IE is split into two sections.
The first is that you will teach a skill in confined water from a PADI Course. This could be from the Open Water Diver course, Advanced Open Water Diver course, Rescue Diver course or Peak Performance Buoyancy specialty. You will brief and then demonstrate the skill then evaluate your “students” performance of it. The students will be assigned deliberate problems for you to identify and correct. Once you are happy they’ve done it correctly you end the water session and debrief them. You will need to score 3.4/5.0 on this to pass. During the Ocean Tribe PADI IDC you will run through many presentations to get you familiar with the scoring system and format to use.
The second section of confined water teaching on the PADI IE is to assess your dive skills are demonstration quality. You will be assigned 5 basic skills from the Open Water Diver course to demonstrate.
Open Water Teaching
The Open Water teaching section of the PADI IE is split between an Open Water teaching presentation and a rescue demonstration.
In the open water teaching presentation, you will teach two skills from a PADI dive course. These could be from the Open Water Diver course, Advanced Open Water Diver course, Rescue Diver course, or Peak Performance Buoyancy specialty. You will set up the training site and brief your divers and assistants about the way the session will operate. The students will be assigned deliberate problems for you to identify and correct. Once you are happy they’ve done it correctly you end the water session and debrief them. You will need to score an average score of 3.4/5.0 on this to pass. During the Ocean Tribe PADI IDC, you will run through many presentations to get familiar with the scoring system and format to use.
The rescue demonstration is where you demonstrate Exercise 7 from the PADI Rescue Diver course. You will do this as though you were addressing real rescue diver students. This will be done using the mouth-to-pocket mask method and you will practice this during your IDC as well.
What if I fail a section of the PADI Instructor Exam?
In the unlikely event of failing one or more of the segments described above, you would only have to return to a later IE to retake the segment/s you failed. The approx costs of retaking a segment is £280.
How much does the PADI Instructor Exam Cost?
The whole PADI IE costs £655 and this fee is paid directly to PADI by you. PADI will send you a payment link during the IDC for you to arrange so there is no stress during the IE about it.
If in the unlikely even you do have to retake a module of the PADI Instructor Examination then it is £280 for a single module.
