Originally Posted by
43Inches
However several issues with such systems arise. Do the instructors actually mark the students accurately? Do they know what a 3 or a 2 means? Are they training students for a particular testing officers nuances? Are they just preparing them for a test rather than preparing them for the real world after the test? Does the instructor have the right techniques and aptitude to pass on the knowledge to the student? I could go on with many other questions, however the point being examiners have only a small part to do with competency in aviation.
Very good points and you are right about the examiners being the final gatekeeper, but having been one for 30 years I know how you can quickly find gaps in knowledge - often at the pre flight stage. As soon as the candidate answers a question with "My instructor told me...." you know they have not got past the "rote" stage of learning.
I get files transferred where it is clear that the instructor has just done a "tick and flick" exercise, because some of the packages people use are very cumbersome and most instructors are time poor. The student denies any recollection of some of the exercises and was given no feedback but been given a "1". Instructors have come to me looking for work who have never seen the MOS, so of course the whole exercise is meaningless. in those cases. So a lot of the problems arise in the training of the instructors in the first place. Again, an independant examiner would be able to recognise that very early on in the test. But yes, there are a lot of holes and I think although the instructor training syllabus is very clear but some places just aren't following it.