Thread: Written Test
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Old August 23rd 05, 05:46 PM
Michael
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I wonder how many people would even pass the written tests, especially
the instrument, if the answers weren't readily available


The lucky ones.

The FAA written tests are hideously bad. I've become something of a
reluctant expert on them because I've taken over a dozen different
ones. On the one hand, the way they are administered they are
ridiculously easy. I'm convinced that if you give me a Gleim book and
two weeks to study, I can pass an FAA exam on Chinese Brain Surgery. I
passed an FAA powerplant exam that was primarily focused on turbine
engines, and I've never even touched a turbine engine. However, I can
still tell you that the basic combustion chamber designs are the can,
the annular, and the can-annular.

The flip side to this is that the test questions are often so obscure
or convoluted, they might as well be about Chinese Brain Surgery. The
FAA publishes the Aviation Instructor's Handbook (used to be the Flight
Instructor's Handbook, but it got changed). It's not a bad book. It
actually does a reasonably decent job of introducing someone who has no
teaching experience to the basic concepts of learning (even if the
psychology involved is a bit dated), motivation, lesson planning, test
taking and developing tests, etc. There are even examples of good and
bad test questions. By the time I read the book I had well over a
decade of teaching experience in subjects as diverse and thermodynamics
and skydiving, and I still found it a somewhat worthwhile read. In
order to hold any FAA instructional rating, one must pass a test on
what is purportedly the material in the book. The test is the FOI
(Fundamentals of Instructing) and most of the questions on it could
legitimately be used as examples of bad test questions.

Much the same is true of the other FAA exams to some extent. The
instrument is pretty bad - a lot of the stuff there is utterly useless
to the pilot, confusing, or both.

How many statellites are required for effective 3-D navigation without
barometric aiding, the test DOESN'T ask. That would be a sensible sort
of question, since most GPS units allow the pilot to monitor the
satellite reception status and thus know how close to the limit he is.
Further, anyone with an understanding of how GPS works can immediately
answer that question. But instead, the test asks how many satellites
are in the GPS constellation. I can go on with bad questions like
these all day long.

This is why I tell my students that the best thing to do is get the
written out of the way before you start flying, and put in only the
minimum effort required to pass. When you study for an FAA written,
you don't learn important things about flying. You learn how to pass
an FAA written. Any overlap between the two is strictly coincidental.
And honestly, even though I file and fly IFR routinely, and teach it,
and could easily pass an IFR (or CFII) checkride tomorrow on no notice,
I doubt I could pass the IFR written - and I KNOW I couldn't pass the
FOI written.

Michael