The working group met a few weeks ago and will do so again later this month. New questions will be drafted; as you say, they will be more relevant than the 'transition' set released last October.
The aim is to produce a 9-section online e-exam, which will be accessible at an ATO. There will be some other changes, we expect, such as a requirement for the examiner to debrief the applicant. We have also asked for appropriate reference material (e.g. runway length factors) to be permitted and for some relaxation on the use of electronic calculators. Even if the e-exam system is delayed, paper versions should be available when the next editions are released; the plan is to have the new exams ready by Oct 2015.
The reason for having to accept the 9 section format, rather than 6, was to reduce time and cost - it would have required disproportionate effort to make that change, unfortunately.
E-exams will have the advantage of extracting questions randomly from the central question bank (by subject) and randomising the answer sequences, meaning that memorising a list of answers will be pointless.
The main criterion is that the answers should be a reasonable test of the theoretical knowledge an average private pilot should need - and NOT be designed to trap the unwary!
In our NPA 2014-29 comment response, IAOPA (Europe) has called for 'sittings' to be dropped for LAPL/PPL/SPL/BPL exams, by amendment of FCL.025(b) and AMC1 FCL.025(e).
Last edited by BEagle; 6th Mar 2015 at 12:35.