Beggars belief that any aspiring commercial pilot not know what every other aircraft looks like
Depends on the exposure a person has had. Was doing instrument training with the company C&T and joining the 26 circuit downwind at Essendon for a visual and were told to follow the red Aztec, had him visual but the C&T had no idea what an Aztec was and fretted that I knew what I was talking about, he had come from a military background, P-51 and Meteor in the Korean war, Huey in Vietnam, later C-130, then our very cloistered company which didn't mix with the broader aviation comunity. Went on to CASA as an FOI.