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Old 22nd Apr 2021, 11:50
  #11 (permalink)  
Alex Whittingham
 
Join Date: May 1999
Location: Bristol, England
Age: 65
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Ghengis, sadly RichardH is correct. EASA have very poor quality control and in many cases you couldn't have passed the exam unless you had seen most of the questions before. Questions can be wildly outside the syllabus, sometimes after 30 years teaching I can't even answer them, There are so many examples I could give you.... how about the role of squitters or echo protection circuits in DME? The closest LO is probably "Describe the principle of distance measurement using DME in terms of a timed transmission from the interrogator and reply from the transponder on different frequencies", but how would anyone, ATO or candidate, ever guess this was required knowledge from the LO? These questions have made it through several layers of EASA 'quality control' then into exams. Even if the questions are objected to and eventually withdrawn the damage is done because we have by then included squitters and EPCs in the ATPL training manuals, and of course they don't tell us when questions are withdrawn. They should hang their collective heads in shame.

The end result, of course, is that the ATPL theory courses get more and more complex trying to meet the challenges of the exams as well as the syllabus. We even, sometimes, have to include 'half truths' in the material to meet dodgy LOs and questions. The icing on the cake is that EASA 'subject experts' now use ATO manuals as a reference for questions, and so the circle of disinformation widens. Its a challenge.
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