Written Test

W P Dixon wrote:
I have taken the test 2 more times since posting my question and I have 2
90's ! I just hope I am not going to get to confident and put my guard down.
I am one of those that just dreads test,..always have....


You'll do fine. It seems to me I scored an 86 on private, 89 on instrument , 88
on commercial and 92 on ATP-135. I only attended ground schools for the
instrument and commercial (I lack discipline when it comes to studying).
Really, anything more than 70 is gravy but the better you score, the less
painful the oral will be when it comes time for that. Somebody who just barely
scrapes by is going to get a real grilling compared to those who are on top of
things.

In any case, you've got solid scores and you'll be just fine. Good luck!



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE

I wonder how many people would even pass the written tests, especially
the instrument, if the answers weren't readily available from the
various teaching sources, assuming that's still the case. Makes me smile
a little when people brag about high scores.

Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:



You'll do fine. It seems to me I scored an 86 on private, 89 on instrument , 88
on commercial and 92 on ATP-135. I only attended ground schools for the
instrument and commercial (I lack discipline when it comes to studying).

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

I'll agree with you on the FOI but I'd bet you could pass the IFR
(which is also the CFII).

-Robert, CFI

I'll agree with you on the FOI but I'd bet you could pass the IFR

You sure? I'm not.

Do you remember how to do the wingtip bearing problems? You can't just
solve them exactly as trig problems - that gives you the wrong answer.
You need to use the official, approved approximation.

How about those HSI/RMI problems where you have to remember which way
to turn the knob to fix the slaving error? Remember - it's not like
real life where if it goes the wrong way you can just turn it the other
way.

What instrument is secondary when rolling into a standard rate turn?
For that matter, what instrument is primary?

How many satellites in the GPS constellation? How many miles is the
MLS azimuth information good for? What is the effective radius of an
H-class VORTAC at 16,000 ft?

What about those flight planning problems? The choices for some of the
answers differ by less than 2%, and you better remember how the FAA
wants you to interpolate winds. Hint - the correct method (vector
addition) gets you closer to a wrong answer than to the right one.

Do you remember what all the symbols on all the oddball weather charts
mean? I don't. The only RADAR chart I ever use anymore is the NEXRAD
graphic. For that matter, do you remember the oddball abbreviations in
TAF's and METAR's? Not just the easy stuff, like ceilings and
altitudes, but stuff like A02, SLP, and RAE 54? I know there are some
I forgot.

Too much of the test is useless crap. I've gone through that material
three times - once for my IFR, once for my CFII, and once for my ATP.
I had to memorize a lot of stuff each time, because it was totally
useless and I simply forgot. Maybe I would pass - but it would be a
skin-of-my-teeth pass. And maybe I wouldn't.

Michael

RomeoMike wrote:
You'll do fine. It seems to me I scored an 86 on private, 89 on instrument
, 88 on commercial and 92 on ATP-135. I only attended ground schools for the
instrument and commercial (I lack discipline when it comes to studying).


It would have become a massive PITA to be sure. I know I sure used those sample
question books extensively to get ready for each written.


--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE