I have been reading this thread and, sorry guys, there are stacks of twisted facts in it.
first of all: the DLR test has nothing to do with obtaining a german CPL.
Mind you, the regulations for that are laid down in JAR-FCL;
and to my knowledge that's the same all over Europe.....
The DLR is an instituion that carries out -amongst a lot of reasearch in the field of aviation- assessments for flying personel. This is done on behalf of customers; the most important being Lufthansa and it's affiliated regional partners.
The assessments usually consist of two parts: The GU ("basic examination") which mainly focusses on stuff like mental reasoning, spatial orientation, ability to concentrate and the like. I have heard of other european airlines doing that too
I stand to be corrected, but I have heard the pass rate here is about 20-30%.
Those who have passed the GU are invited to the next step which includes group exercises and interviews etc.
If about one quarter passes here, we are looking at those quoted 3-5%
So that rate contains the number of successful candidates of all initial applicants; not an awful lot for sure but I don't think BA or KLM hire every second of their applicants either..
Hope this helps to clarify
P.S. Airlines that don't send applicants to the DLR don't give a toss whether you have passed, failed or didn't sit the DLR test......