Abstract: In order to conduct the performance evaluation of practice examination for inland first-grade captains, this paper proposes a model of fuzzy cognitive maps based performance evaluation method (FCMES).After identifying the 25 influencing factors by using questionnaires, the evaluation grades are first defined.Then, the qualitative expert judgments are transformed to triangular fuzzy numbers, through which the fuzzy matrixes are obtained.Moreover, adjacent matrix is obtained after integrating fuzzy matrixes using fuzzy rule based reasoning and defuzzification methods.Second, the importance of influencing factors are analyzed to select the key factors by using three parameters, which are input, output, and centrality.Finally, Matlab simulation is used to verify the proposed FMCES model, the result indicates that there are four significant factors for practice examination of inland first-grade captains, specifically, they are evaluation of performance, professional quality of evaluator, efficiency of simulator, and rationality of examination process.