ATPL Air Law (AALW) Study Technique

[Arch Angelos]

Morning fellas,

I know this has been asked before but I am curious as to the best way to tackle this subject.

I have sat AHUF and AMET using Nathan's AFT notes and found them spot on the money, however I am struggling a tad with the Air Law since it isn't really notes but rather a Index to all the document references.

I have started going through each and every reference and making my own notes from each reference, I guess trying to put all the law into my own words. As you can imagine this is taking quite some time.

Would this be the best method, or should I just go through the practise revision questions, use the index/s provided and learn how to answer questions that way (bearing in mind I have no completed my IREX or any instrument flying as yet)?

The reason I ask is because I found the Bob Tait book quite structured to go through the CPL Air Law since it was more of "study guide" sort of book.

Thanks in advance.

[WannaBeBiggles]

Do the practice exams and them often. Get fast at finding the information and get used to reading wordy questions and figuring out what the question is actually asking. :ok:

[kalavo]

Aviation Theory Centre (Trevor Thom) had a big book of ATPL Air Law questions... as above, the more you do the quicker you get at interpreting the question properly and finding the relevant reference

[Arch Angelos]

Cheers guys, the advice is much appreciated :)


Bought a copy of the Rob Avery ones too which should be good as they are more difficult.

[rocket66]

Mate I struggled with this one too. I basically learnt the "rough" where abouts to look. You do have to memorise the locations to some extent as it will save on some time in the exam. I knew both the AIP and CAO's pretty well but had to learn the where abouts of a lot of stuff in the CAR's.

It also pays to understand words and phrases they use like the old classic "not withstanding" etc etc

The last piece of advice is to keep reading!! Once you think you have found the reference continue to read the rest of the paragraph/page or whatever. The answer to a lot of questions lies way toward the end!

Goodluck:ok:


Rocket

[training wheels]

Do as many practice exams as you can (I also purchased Rob Avery's after doing the AFT online practice exams). That way you'll get an idea of where to focus most of your study time when preparing for the real thing. It's probably one of the easier ATPL exams once you know where to look for the references. During the exam, even if you think you know the answer, look it up anyway in the appropriate sections of the CAO's etc.

The hardest part about the exam is carrying all of the reference materials up the stairs to the exam centre. I actually brought all of them with me in a small suitcase.

[triathlon]

No need to memorise. Although it helps. Just know where to find the answers. Open book, can't go wrong!

[Arch Angelos]

Thanks for the all the input guys. Will take all the advice on board.

Training wheels, I too almost suffered and injury carrying them to my CPL exam so I know how you feel haha; and rocket thanks for the advice just read this now, certianly wouldn't have got a couple wrong just now on my practise exams if I had kept reading on. Some of the sections have a number of clauses that require stringing together.

Not having done any IFR yet could prove a bummer given the large amount questions that seem to be drawn from AIP GEN 1.5 in the Avery Exams. Hopefully I can get my head around it.

Thanks again :)

[major_tom]

best thing to do is to simply learn the rough idea of where everything is.

eg: know the layout of the CAR

Vol1-maintenance
Vol2-licensing
Vol3-day to day stuff & ops
Vol4-schedules

do the same for the CAOs and for AIP

Aip:
Enr1.1-navigation and ops
1.2-VMC stuff
1.4-airspace stuff
1.5-IFR stuff
1.6 transponder
1.7 altitude info
1.10- flight planning etc

Do this and u can knock the exam out in 2 weeks :ok:

[WannaBeBiggles]

One of the areas I had a fair number of questions from was Permissible unservicabilities and instrumentation required for various ops.

[Arch Angelos]

Fellas thanks for all the replies, passed AALW today, 87%, 30 questions only 4 wrong, so not too much room for error.

Spot with all the advice, lots of CAO 20.18 equipment required, wind screen clear vision equipment, duty times, DME arrivals, DME limit, SIDs, SARWATCH cancellation, IFR cruise levels, Transponder requirments.

As has been said AFT spot on.

Onwards and upwards to Aerody/systems and Nav :ok:

[Capt Fathom]

If it's an open book exam, how do you get 4 wrong?

[kingRB]

Fathom perhaps you are not up to speed with the way CASA write their questions in these exams?

It becomes more a point of being able to derive what they are actually asking to the degree of needing to be a lawyer, and the ridiculously subtle differences in the answers they provide, more than actually having knowledge of the subject or where to reference things in the documents.

Not saying it's an excuse for not being able to interpret the docs but I can sympathize with anyone who gets 4 of CASA's questions incorrect out of 30.

[Wally Mk2]

'AA' good to read you passed, that's all you need to do with any of the exams, then the best part,memory dump as you use about 10% out there in the real world !:ok:
Flying the plane is the easy bit,understanding CASA's exams is the hard part about aviation!
In the real world all you really need to know is the AFM of the machine yr flying,typically limitations etc. The A/C's MEL(if that applies)
How to read & decipher WX/Notams etc as these are used daily. Some basic Flt Planning req's & a good dose of proper airmanship with proff R/T procedures,the rest of the junk can stay in the bottom of yr Flt bag:ok:

If it wasn't for Nathan at AFT I'd be flying rubber dog sh1t out of K-Mart now:-)


Wmk2

[aUserName]

Thanks for the all the input guys. Will take all the advice on board.

Training wheels, I too almost suffered and injury carrying them to my CPL exam so I know how you feel haha; and rocket thanks for the advice just read this now, certianly wouldn't have got a couple wrong just now on my practise exams if I had kept reading on. Some of the sections have a number of clauses that require stringing together.

Not having done any IFR yet could prove a bummer given the large amount questions that seem to be drawn from AIP GEN 1.5 in the Avery Exams. Hopefully I can get my head around it.

Thanks again :)
Old thread... Im now studying AALW, any new advice for this exam?

[john_tullamarine]

Not really.

Over the past year or so I have found myself back in the theory teaching arena (one of my early loves from the 70s/80s back at Noel Lamont's AAA at EN) and, for my sins, I guess, I end up scoring a fair bit of air law at all levels (life can be a bit cruel, I guess).

Points I would offer -

(a) it's open book. While you (eventually) need to know a lot of the stuff as memory material just for the practical side of things, the fact that the exams are open book allows you to work up progressively to the end goal.

(b) read, and re-read, and then re-read some more, all the relevant books. While you are reading, you are (or should be) thinking about what it is you are reading and, progressively, the stuff sort of sinks into the back of the brain cells. Open book is fine, but there is this little nuisance of a time limit so you really do need to have a good facility to find things .. and that requires a pretty good knowledge of what is where and so forth. There is no short cut - the various texts on the market are fine but they don't cut the mustard unless you end up knowing the books pretty thoroughly inside out.

(c) it is an unfortunate fact that CASA, over the past decade or two, has moved more resolutely to a legalistic turn of phrase in the rule books and that doesn't make it easier for any of us to work out what it is that the rules might mean (excluding the likes of John M, Guy P. and like ilk who have a foot in each camp) No easy way out of this other than just to read and re-read and keep reading and think about things (with a dictionary to hand, at times).

Several folks have made similar observations in the earlier days of the thread and those comments still win the day.

[layman]

Suggestion about exam technique in general

Hand write or type a ‘cheat sheet’ (2 pages?) of the important (!) areas and you probably won’t need it.

Used to find students that did this, even for closed book exams, usually achieved higher grades.