ATPL theory questions
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Runway surface factors in Perf
Hi all,
Anyone recently sat Perf? Did you need to remember all the runway surface factors? Our tutor says they are aircraft specific and should be given to us in the question. I don't want to take the chance and as we don't have the caps anymore.....wondered if anyone else knew the best plan.
Don't like the way changes are being introduced. It's great to have new questions but as long as they sensibly fit in the taught syllabus.
Anyone recently sat Perf? Did you need to remember all the runway surface factors? Our tutor says they are aircraft specific and should be given to us in the question. I don't want to take the chance and as we don't have the caps anymore.....wondered if anyone else knew the best plan.
Don't like the way changes are being introduced. It's great to have new questions but as long as they sensibly fit in the taught syllabus.
Contacting your MEP/MP a complete waste of time, they do nothing...The exam system is a profit making device, nothing to do with knowledge...
Its tweeked only when people are getting to higher pass mark, the profit generated goes down , no retakes....
Hence add new questions , retakes go up......
Its tweeked only when people are getting to higher pass mark, the profit generated goes down , no retakes....
Hence add new questions , retakes go up......
Join Date: May 2011
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A quick update on this, thanks to Phil I have now found all of the questions from the OPS exam in the document that he linked to earlier in the thread. Unfortunately for myself and others on my course this document was only mentioned once at the very beginning of our OPS book. We had not been told by our training provider to pay attention to it and so focussed on studying our material.
Also I would like to mention that I do not study the question bank but rather read through the material multiple times eventually summarising it into study notes then focussing on those. The exam has taken a different direction and without being told to change your focus then it would be next to impossible to get a pass mark.
I am all in favour of making exams more difficult and weeding out those who rely solely on question banks however students need to be directed to the correct material in order to prepare themselves for an exam.
Also I would like to mention that I do not study the question bank but rather read through the material multiple times eventually summarising it into study notes then focussing on those. The exam has taken a different direction and without being told to change your focus then it would be next to impossible to get a pass mark.
I am all in favour of making exams more difficult and weeding out those who rely solely on question banks however students need to be directed to the correct material in order to prepare themselves for an exam.
Join Date: May 1999
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Despegue, I taught these subjects in the '90s, The syllabus was completely inappropriate for modern aircraft. No MNPS was examined, no RVSM, no modern systems at all (with the exception of GPWS and TCAS). There was no mention of Op Procedures as a subject at all, in General Nav candidates were required to plot routes on a 1:5,000,000 North Atlantic chart, we had only just stopped plotting on Mercators .... we have come a long way since then, but not without some pain.
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Regulator Involvement
I actually went to OFQUAL with the appalling standard of questions in the professional pilot question bank and the equally appalling standard of examination management within the UK.
They could not have been less interested if they had tried!!
Let's see what happens when OFQUAL's chief exec is directly involved in an incident which trails back to the exam system!!
They could not have been less interested if they had tried!!
Let's see what happens when OFQUAL's chief exec is directly involved in an incident which trails back to the exam system!!
Ops Procedures: Did any one pass this time either? I didn't..
I'd be interested to know what everyone else got this time round. I've heard that on the last sitting everyone failed apart from one due to a flood of new questions in the bank. I've looked at NPA 2015-29 - and I agree that questions based on NPA 2015-29 could be appealed - but I can't seem to find a link to the current (legal) learning objectives. does anyone know where to find it?
Last edited by rudestuff; 19th Feb 2016 at 09:14. Reason: spelling
Join Date: May 1999
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EASA and the CAA won't publish them so I have https://www.bristol.gs/learning-objectives/. Do Ofqual have any statutory responsibility to regulate these exams? I couldn't find any.
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I am unable to find any reference to the above mentioned commission anywhere in your subject material. Maybe you could point me to the correct page??
Also when questioned about it you have emailed your satellite depot and advised them to refer to a 1010 page document!! Do you consider this fair?
I've read both sets of LO's, and (annoyingly) I can't honestly see what EASA have done 'wrong' here, apart from such a big question 'dump'
The reason BGSonline is such a useful tool is that it accurately represents the ECQB - (which let's face it, is the most important thing to pass the exams)
The problem is - it doesn't quite asaccurately represent the Learning Objectives. (But why would it need to?) I had questions which were not on BGSonline - but do (annoyingly) appear in the LO's. EASA have simply written a load of questions from under-represented LO's - and we've all been caught with our trousers down!
Three of four new questions on each under-represented LO should do the trick, and BGS will be back on top form.
The reason BGSonline is such a useful tool is that it accurately represents the ECQB - (which let's face it, is the most important thing to pass the exams)
The problem is - it doesn't quite asaccurately represent the Learning Objectives. (But why would it need to?) I had questions which were not on BGSonline - but do (annoyingly) appear in the LO's. EASA have simply written a load of questions from under-represented LO's - and we've all been caught with our trousers down!
Three of four new questions on each under-represented LO should do the trick, and BGS will be back on top form.
Join Date: May 1999
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What seems to have happened is that EASA wrote questions to NPA29 anticipating that it would be accepted and, when it was put on hold, mapped the relevant questions across to NPA25. From what we have seen your analysis seems correct, most of the questions can be validly mapped to NPA25, some of the new questions seem to be defective, but the biggest criticism is, as JPlumridge says, that the exams took a sudden change of direction which we could not anticipate. What happens now - in fact what has already started happening - is that we can redirect our students' study and provide relevant feedback so the pass rates come back up.
Data for BGS suggests a 50% fail for Op Procedures (A) and a 100% fail for Op Procedures (H) in the first week of the new exams. By the second week a number of candidates seem to have cancelled their sittings but of those few that sat 4 out of 5 passed (A) and 1 out of 1 passed (H). It looks like the only people that have been seriously disadvantaged are those that sat in that first week.
This is an issue that I will pursue, though. It is not, in my view, acceptable to introduce new material in volume in such a way that a large proportion of candidates fail through no apparent fault of their own . It is not sufficient just to say 'the questions were covered by the learning objectives', there is also a requirement to ensure that exams are balanced, consistent and fair.
Data for BGS suggests a 50% fail for Op Procedures (A) and a 100% fail for Op Procedures (H) in the first week of the new exams. By the second week a number of candidates seem to have cancelled their sittings but of those few that sat 4 out of 5 passed (A) and 1 out of 1 passed (H). It looks like the only people that have been seriously disadvantaged are those that sat in that first week.
This is an issue that I will pursue, though. It is not, in my view, acceptable to introduce new material in volume in such a way that a large proportion of candidates fail through no apparent fault of their own . It is not sufficient just to say 'the questions were covered by the learning objectives', there is also a requirement to ensure that exams are balanced, consistent and fair.
Alex, do you think it is worth worth appealing on the basis of your last paragraph? You're probably the one to ask with experience of appealing results - I had four answers on Ops manuals asking Part A, B , C or D. I know the exams are randomly generated, but that's a large amount of one exam on just one subject area! Is it possible to appeal on the grounds of question spread?
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The exams are generated to an algorithm which should select appropriate numbers of questions from each topic area. You will need to check that to establish whether you have grounds for appeal. I do not have the current question breakdown for Ops Procedures immediately to hand but should be able to find it early next week, perhaps someone else could help in the mean time?
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Does anyone know from what database EASA is taking the questions from, because today I had Meteorology exam at CAA and from 84 questions and I saw 30 new questions, not available in BGS or AviationExam...
I just remembered I had a question asking for the definition of PART-ORO - I can't find any reference to that in either the current LO's or in NPA29. Would that be grounds for an appeal?