Not much to add to Alex's comments - just don't get me started on how it has all been implemented!
To answer Wingsward, for the future (after 2018, due to the legal situation), EASA is well aware that the industry needs something better as an end product and, as far as an Authority can, they are changing the syllabuses and eventually the questions to reflect this. There is a new subject, for example, (LO 100) dealing with mental arithmetic, with no calculators allowed.
Question writers have also been asked to frame their questions at a much higher level.
Phil