For those current (and more recent graduated) Middies .... Reef Points??

By the way, if my recollection serves me -- BlueJacket's Manual may be a better resource for big picture Navy background material than Reef Points.
Reef Points focuses on USNA trivia, but BlueJacket's Manual has information that is relevant and useful in the real Navy.
 
My DS did not want to read it early. And after the fact was glad he didn't. He felt that if he had read it early he would have been cheating the process.
 
brewmeist said:
If USNA thought it was cheating the process, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be selling the book at their gift shop or shop.navyonline.com.
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Yeah this is a good point. Also if having prior knowledge of the rates was cheating, it would also implicate the prior enlisted who will already know all the ranks, articles of the code of conduct, general orders, and the Sailor’s Creed. Even at Summer Seminar they give the candidates a little poster that have some rates like “How Long Have you Been in the Navy?”, “Man in the Arena”, and “How’s the Cow?”.

If this stuff were meant to be kept a secret, they’re not doing a very good job at it. Ideally the Plebe Summer staff should probably be changing many of the rates from year to year to keep all the incoming plebes on their toes, but perhaps they have judged that it doesn’t really matter all that much.
 
It's not cheating in the eyes of USNA. Some plebes-to-be may consider it such in their own minds and I understand that view. Others consider it a way to "get ahead" just like being meticulous in working out. The bottom line is that, is USNA wanted plebes to memorize large sections of RP prior to I-Day, they would send RP with the pre-I-Day materials. If they didn't want plebes to be able to memorize things in advance, they would change up the rates every PS. As Kierkegaard says, I don't think USNA really cares either way.
 
usna1985 said:
It's not cheating in the eyes of USNA. Some plebes-to-be may consider it such in their own minds and I understand that view. Others consider it a way to "get ahead" just like being meticulous in working out. The bottom line is that, is USNA wanted plebes to memorize large sections of RP prior to I-Day, they would send RP with the pre-I-Day materials. If they didn't want plebes to be able to memorize things in advance, they would change up the rates every PS. As Kierkegaard says, I don't think USNA really cares either way.
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Just like the real world "stuff" that I found memorizing rates to have helped me with, the rates that I had to learn were split between enduring rates and temporary/changing rates.

As a Plebe, How is the Cow, Navy Ranks, The Laws of the Navy, General Orders, etc were enduring rates
Officers of the Watch, Menus, Sports Scores, The Days, etc were temporary/Changing

As a SWO, my "rates" included: Casualty Control Procedures, Capabilities and Limitations of my ship, location of all bridge equipment (sight unseen), CO's Standing Orders, etc as enduring rates
Current Equipment lineup, scheduled events for the watch, weather, Location of the Guide, anticipated/scheduled maneuvers, etc, etc, etc were temporary/changing

Getting an advanced copy of Reef Points would not help with the temporary/changing stuff
 
It doesn't matter. If you finish Reef Points, you just continue on to Ships and Aircraft. If you finish that, someone will find a copy of Jane's or something.

If anything, it's detrimental because the books get heavier.
 
As a parent who went through this last year, I would encourage you and your son to enjoy these last few months before he heads off to USNA. He will learn his rates all in due time after he arrives for Plebe Summer. He has enough on his plate right now trying to finish his senior year strong, he should spend his "free" time doing things he enjoys.
 
One of my favorite photos of DD during plebe summer (courtesy of USNA Alumni Association) shows her sweating in white works, a tired yet determined grimace on her face, jotting something down in a small notebook while shipmates around her are holding aloft their copies of RP. To this day, I’m curious what she’s writing, but don’t want to ask.
 
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