Its an out dated exam made by old crusty men refusing to change it, just cause they had to sit it back in the day! Get with the times!
Funny you should say that. Now first of all I know zilch about modern day ATPL exams. But I had similar problems 45 years ago while trying to pass the SCPL (later called ATPL) subjects while in the RAAF. Couldn't get an airline job so joined Dept of Civil Aviation (DCA)Head Office in Melbourne where my office was next to the Examiner of Airmen (Theory).
He was a bitter and twisted cranky old grey haired public servant who used to be a navigator on Wellington bombers dropping bombs on the Jerries. Probably what gave him the grey hair! As a former navigator he was just what DCA wanted to set up the flight planning and navigation exams. These were full of (would you believe) Antarctic grid navigation exams and gyro steering questions at high latitudes.
I dropped in to say hello and said his exams were completely irrelevent to the average airline pilot flying a DC3 between Tassie and the mainland. He spat the dummy and said his exams were based on Qantas International requirements where in those days their pilots had to have a Navigation Licence. And if pilots couldn't pass his exams then that was their problem. I pointed out that even the navigators on my squadron who had helped me were unable to get his answers right so what hope could mere pilots have?
I'm buggered if I could see the relevance of his argument but at least I got it out of my system. You had to know all about Meridional Parts and Log tables, too. Seems things haven't changed much in Fifty years...