Originally Posted by
African_TrouserSnake
..... The exam questions often require a 'dumbed down' thinking pattern and are sometimes blatantly wrong, which favors the ones without in-depth knowledge beyond the atpl books.
Last century when the CAA set the exams pre JAR/EASA we had retired RAF A2 join the flying club as a part time instructor, aged 55.
He had decided to sit the CPL exams which were split into NAV BLOCK & TECH BLOCK.
The paper in question was DC ELECTRICS.
As an experienced aviator, he had flown Nimrod, Jetstream, Bulldog to name but a few. This question arose which completely baffled him, as the correct answer was three of the four responses depending which type from his experience he had flown. A C152 pilot would have known the “correct”.
In those days you could phone up the CAA and speak to the exam dept. The lady answering the phone said that they had been many phones complaining about that paper. He passed the resit.