I knocked off ATPL Air Law close to 10 years ago now. Hadn't even heard of AFT when I sat the exam. It was simply a matter of getting the Flight Rules and Air Law book from Aviation Theory Centre sitting down and trying to find the answer to every single question.
Yes, the index was ****house to non-existent. But after the first set of questions it quickly became apparent where to find the answers based on the topic. A tag here and there helped to find things a tad quicker - licensing starting at CAR 5.x but one on ATPL save flicking through trying to find information specific to the ATPL or flick back from that tage and in to the CPL stuff - but it certainly wasn't the be all and end all. Didn't even bother hilighting, after finishing all those questions, I'd read most of those same paragraphs 20 times.
Since getting out in to the industry and flying with guys, and watching a number of them attempt to pass the ATPLs, it absolutely amazes me the length they go to just to "pass the exam" rather than learn the material. I've seen at least 30 different ways of cheating, and a huge number of books tagged with the messiest tags it's impossible to find anything anyway (seriously, space them out so you can read five tags at a time, rather all on top of each other, I didnt think it was that hard?!) Seriously the amount of time wasted on these schemes that ultimately don't work and lead to more whining about the exams would be much better spent actually studying - the guys who do actually study rather than look for the cheat sheets are the ones from what I've seen who are passing first time with 90+ %
glenb: CASA do already consult with a small number of instructors in the industry. The lecturer I had for Flight Planning previously wrote exam questions for CASA and three years after I did the exam went back to writing exam questions for another two years, before getting back in to teaching again. PPL students can also use the VFR Flight Guide, though the information in it is not regularly updated (though very few things in it change!).
It might suprise a lot of you to know they do adjust the exams based on pass marks. If people are constantly getting a certain question wrong, the question is reviewed. While sitting my ATPLs the time allowed in some exams was increased and decreased in others based on performance of previous candidates (we saw a lot of these changes in the year after moving to cyber based exams because people were taking longer with the computer, although two of the exams decreased in time because most people finished earlier).
If this rule change means less guys are passing (and I'd be pissed as well if I was the bunny taking Air Law the week after it changes, fail because I need another 15 minutes without tags) then you will see the time allowed increase. If enough people accept the change, study hard enough to pass without tags and manage to do it in the time allowed, well you won't see any difference will you?