As of last week 11/05/16 I sat my Principles of flight and OPS exam. Before attempting to even book the exam I wanted to, under the current feedback students have been giving build myself up to getting at least 90% on practice exams within the question banks, yes BANKS, I used bgsonline and Aviation exam to try and give myself the best possible chance of passing the exam. Having done so and getting averages of 90-92% I couldn't feel any more confident going into an exam. Chosen venue Gatwick! Result, 61% POF, 71% OPS. I was astounded to say the least. I was aware of feedback given for the OPS exam but POF was a joke. The exam was majority based on subsonic Aerodynamics and control, there was no prop theory, 1 question on High speed flight, nothing on gust load factor, Ground effect, oblique shock waves, induced drag and flow separation, neither to my surprise did I have to use my calculator as, low and behold there were no questions asking me to calculate aspects such as Lift or radius of turn. All topics listed came up within practice exams. I am not sure whether this is appeal-able under the circumstances that not all learning objective questions were covered??? To give myself piece of mind after the exam I decided to also purchase ATPL on-line this being the 3rd question bank, multiple times I was averaging 85-90% over all 3 banks. I can safely say I know the subject inside and out, however, under this new system you will have to pray that when you click that start button the computer isn't going to generate all these newly written CAA/EASA questions because if it does you will need luck a guiding hand and every ounce of knowledge learned to give yourself the best chance of an educated guess. This is series 2 for me as my last set timed out, iv been through JAR and EASA and can tell you from experience that if individuals are starting to fail subjects like ops and coms you know somewhere down the line the system is flawed.
On another note, are these new questions just being asked in the UK or Europe as a whole?? After all "EASA" right! Hard to tell without concise feedback from all the schools communicating with each other. Im sure though if it were the case alot of people would be on the next flight to Spain!
