What to expect at the PADI instructor exam (IE)

The IE includes two sets of written multiple-choice exams: Standards & Procedures, and Dive Theory. You sit each set in a 90-minute window. You need 75% on Standards & Procedures, and 75% on each of the five Dive Theory sections (Physics, Physiology, Equipment, RDP, and Skills & Environment) — twelve questions per section.

Written Exams

The IE includes two sets of written multiple-choice exams: Standards & Procedures, and Dive Theory. You sit each set in a 90-minute window. You need 75% on Standards & Procedures, and 75% on each of the five Dive Theory sections (Physics, Physiology, Equipment, RDP, and Skills & Environment) — twelve questions per section.

By the time you sit these at the IE you've already cleared the IDC's own written exams, which are built around the same content with the IE versions being a notch tighter. If you've kept up with theory through the IDC — and Will runs theory sessions early enough that any gaps surface in time to fix them — the written exams are the most predictable segment of the IE. Most candidates pass on the first sitting; those who don't are usually within striking distance and clear it on a single retake.

A topic is randomly assigned in the IE orientation. You prepare a 4–8 minute classroom lesson — the length depends on the topic's natural complexity — and deliver it to the Examiner and your fellow IE candidates acting as students. You will be given plenty of time to prepare. You need a 70% score (3.5 on PADI's 5-point scale) to pass.

What separates a 3.5 score here from a 5.0 isn't depth of topic knowledge. By the IE, every candidate knows the content. What separates them is lesson structure — how the introduction sets up the learning objective, how the explanation builds in the right order, and how the lesson’s value is reinforced at the end. The IDC is the place to learn that structure cold. By the IE day, you should be able to walk into any topic, build a clean lesson plan in twenty minutes, and deliver it without surprising yourself.

Five demonstration-quality skills, randomly selected from the twenty-four PADI Open Water skills. You need an average score of 17 out of 25, with no skill less than 3.

CESA — the Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent — is guaranteed to be one of them. The other four are drawn at random from the remaining twenty-three, although typically they are drawn from: Remove and Replace Mask, Regulator Recovery, Neutral Buoyancy, Alternate-air Source Use, and Remove and Replace Scuba Unit. However, there is no skill you can leave unrehearsed. Demonstration-quality skills aren't simply "do the skill"; they're slow, exaggerated, students-can-see-every-step versions designed for a learner who has never seen the skill before. We rehearse all of them to demonstration standard, every IDC, in pool or confined open water sessions. This part will be a slam dunk. By IE day, the five randomly drawn skills should feel like the five you most expected.

Will has YouTube demonstrations of the rescue exercises and other key skills available on the Go Pro Caribbean YouTube channel — useful pre-IDC if you want to see what demonstration-quality looks like before you arrive.

One PADI Examiner per eight IE candidates in open water (more often than not, one per four in Roatan’s generally small IE groups, another advantage of choosing Roatan over locations with far larger IE groups). You teach two skills — one randomly assigned, one of your choice — to a fellow candidate playing the role of a student. You need an average score of 3.4 across the two.

The boat is the boat. The reef is the reef. The Examiner watches you brief the skill, demonstrate it, observe the student perform it, give feedback, and debrief — the same teaching cycle you'll use for the rest of your career. Hours of open water teaching practice during the IDC make this segment feel routine. The candidates who struggle in open water on IE day are usually the ones whose IDCs didn't push enough water time on the actual teaching cycle.

On retakes: if you fall short on any single segment, you need only retake that segment — typically at the next IE — for a fee of approximately $200. You do not retake the whole IE.