I have never understood the time pressure applied to the ATPL(A) flight planning exam. It has been this way at least as far back as I can remember. Sure, you don't have unlimited time for planning in the real world but the same applies to navigation, met et al.
It has always struck me as more of a 'right of passage' than a meaningful assessment of a pilot's ability to do actual flight planning.
The argument that the average candidate finishes in less the allocated time is non-sequetur. Candidates will work to the rules. If they have to rush the whole exam they will do that and finish in about the the allocated time. This does not mean that they would not be more accurate if they had the time to be be careful.
I fully support the need for pilots to have detailed knowledge in this area but this particular exam has not been doing that for a long time. Likewise the systems exams that ask detailed questions about a certain model of 767 are rubbish as well. There are some types of systems that are representative but asking colors of specific parts of displays on the EADI... utter nonsense.
