"The need for Standardization" is nowadays an often abused argument to get your way as a individual Civil Aviation Authority.
This is how nonsense like ATO's and 100-hrs of structured learning creep into regulations effectively decimating the number of interested amateurs who would like to pursue aviation as a hobby and - once into a more advanced stage - as a means of private transport.
This is where closet communists from Brussels and Cologne (who hate private aviation out of envy or whatever reason - some even think they can save CO2 emmissions by killing private GA) and the "advising" flight school / examiners brigade have found a common goal : lets drive up costs and hurdles for the individuals and eliminate competition in the training industry.
A few have toyed with the idea of an "industry wide" relevant (that means tuned down) test bank per subject and making it publicly available (or at least making sufficient sample test questions available to allow candidates to see what is typically expected of them). But then you realise that in order to achieve this, you have to spend an enormous amount of your time with closet communists that don't really care and face opposition from the training industry that wants to monetize its grip on technical knowledge databases.
Last edited by proudprivate; 30th Aug 2013 at 05:15.