E-EXAMS
The amount of cheating and 'zero-to-hero in one day' answer-spotting nonsense has indeed meant that many EASA MS will not accept passes in exams taken in the UK. All exams have to be taken in one MS, but how they were sat has caused the problem.
The e-exam system will improve exam security and will also mean that the exams have to be invigilated continuously by an Examiner - so those slack organisations which have allowed the receptionist to mark the paper exams and leave them lying around in the CFI's in-tray will need to think again!
I was surprised that some at Kettering still didn't know that the '6 sittings' nonsense had been binned. The CAA published CAP1855 'Amendments to the Aircrew Regulation' in November 2019, so all examiners should have been aware of the change by now.
When the LAPL/PPL ExWG first formulated the proposals, the 'pairing' of certain exam subjects was considered, but later rejected for a number of reasons. As for the number of questions, 3 of the exams should have 16 questions, the other 6 should have 12. (16x3)+(12x6) = 120, the EASA requirement.
All question topics were given 'Level of Knowledge' values by the ExWG - 'could know', 'should know', 'must know' - and the actual questions in an exam will always include more 'must know' than anything else. Various other criteria were also applied - all questions had to be standalone, so that an incorrect answer in one question isn't then used in another. Also the awful 'which of the following is correct: 1 i & iv, 2 iii & v, 3 i & ii or 4 ii & iv ' type of question will be no more! Questions will be randomly selected from the master database and the answers will be in a random sequence for each question. So in one exam, a question from the database might have A as the correct answer, in another the correct answer to the same question might be D, although the 4 possible answers will be the same.
The cost to the Training Organisation will be £10 per booked exam - it's up to them to decide how much to charge the applicant.
The area about which I have significant concern is the so-called 'Knowledge Deficiency Report' generated by ASPEQ for incorrect answers. There is a difference between weak knowledge and a mistake; for example, if the applicant used the Imp gall SG value and the question specified US gall, that is probably an error rather than weak knowledge of how to convert volume into mass using SG (some of the incorrect answers were derived in this way - so applicants must RTFQ carefully). The Examiner needs to see the actual question with the 4 possible answers to be able to debrief the applicant as to why he/she had the wrong answer but more particularly what the correct answer is and why.