Sounds like things haven't changed much since I failed my first flight planning attempt for the (then) Senior Commercial Pilots License or SCPL in 1968. Took four attempts to pass. Then on joining DCA Head Office at 188 Queen Street Melbourne I was given an office across the corridor from the Theory Examiner, one Ted Steele, an em-bittered former Wellington bomber navigator from WW2.
I asked him why exam questions on gyro steering theory and grid navigation over the Antarctic when flight planning questions on flying a DC3 between the mainland and Tassie would be more relevant?.
Old Ted spat the dummy and his hate for pilots came to the fore after his time as a navigator on Ops over Occupied Europe getting shot at.
His excuse was that Qantas being Australia's international airline set similar questions to its pilots and that was the standard DCA should aim at. That was in the old days when Qantas had navigators on their aircraft.
What a load of tosh.