Whether the exams are easy or hard depends on what they are trying to prove. Are they there purely to test a candidates' knowledge on flying issues, or is it fair to say they also serve the purpose of testing the ability to learn, digest and understand information ?
If the exams are to achieve the former then there is a lot of pointless information that has to be learnt. From my current experience this is the same for ATPL subjects too. My Brother recently got me thinking on how well (or important it is) we need to understand the subject matter when he asked how I had done in one of my ATPL tests. I said I had got 86% which was a pass. He then said "well I won't fly with you then because not knowing the other 14% may kill us".
Although he was joking, I thought he had a point. If it is all so relevant then surely nothing less than 100% would be acceptable ?