PPL Sample Questions / Past Papers

[FireFoxDown]

Hi all,

Ill be sitting my exams in the first week after XMas - id love to get my hands on some sample papers to test myself - any idea where i might(if i can) get these?

Many thanks! :ok:

FireFoxDown

[FlyingForFun]

FFD,

Invest in a copy of "The PPL Confuser", available from any pilots shop. It contains sample questions for every exam except the R/T exam. Do make sure that you only use it to revise, and as a pre-exam confidence boost, though - it is not a substitute for learning the subject. Also, there are some mistakes, so if the answers given disagree with your textbook, then check with your instructor, but you may find that the textbook is correct.

FFF
---------------

[dublinpilot]

FFD,

Unfortunately the IAA will not give out past papers. They also refuse to let you take the papers out of the exam. It seems that they reuse many of the questions.

It's also a terrible disgrace, but there are a number of questions on the papers that the answers are incorrect. Dispite one question being clearly incorrect, and this being pointed out to the IAA, the same question has been repeated in further exams.

I suggest you speak to who ever did your course with you, as they may have compiled a list of questions that came up in the past.

And as FFF said, the PPL Confuser is a good study aid, but some of the answers are incorrect.

I would also suggest that you speak to anyone you can who did the exams recently, as they will probably be able to tell you some of the questions that came up, and they are likely to be repeated.

good luck

dp

[IO540]

The PPL confuser is excellent. If you can do say 90% on its questions, you are virtually guaranteed to pass the actual exam very well.

I don't think it is cheating. The confuser contains about 4x as many questions on each topic as the actual exam paper does; if you can answer all of these, then you surely understand the subject well enough.

[FireFoxDown]

wow guys - thanks for all the responses!! :D

Yep, the PPL Confuser features on my Christmas list from Santa! (Although im not sure they are getting my hints, so i may need to step that up a level!)! Yeah i reckon if i study the subjects hard and then do a kind of "mock exam" with that book i should be alright!

DublinPilot - nice to talk to you again! Im starting to see how wonderful the IAA really are! Yeah, our groundschool instructor has told us about you are not allowed remove the papers after the exam but he still has quite a bank of past questions and has been giving us regular tests which im happy to say im doing quite well in! :ok:

Can anyone tell me though, when you do the exams did you just get a PASS or a FAIL or do they give you a GRADE as well?

Thanks again all! :D

[Tall_guy_in_a_152]

FFD

You should find out your exact score and you can discuss any incorrect answers with your instructor afterwards.

TG.

[NinjaBill]

If you pass the exam, then you will get an exact score, and you're instructor will take you through all the questions that you got wrong. However, if you fail, you will only get the score that you achieved.

The pass mark for all of the exams is 75%, and imho, the air law was the most difficult.

regards

Geoff

[FireFoxDown]

thanks for the info & advice! :)

I will of course be aiming for the 100% mark!! :cool:

We've only done 2 subjects (Air Law and Human Factors) but because of the way the IAA is we have to pay and sit ALL four subjects. We've been told that we may as well try and guess them anyway. We were told we'd have no chance with Met and Nav but some of us with more experience might get Tech. Im going to try and get it as i have been flying longer than the others and i've got quite a few books on the subject that i will study up on. Regardless if i pass or fail i will still attend the class for the remaining subjects!

:ok:

[dublinpilot]

FFD,

The comments here about detailed results and discussing them with your instructor are not relevant to you.

With the IAA you will get a percent mark (if I remember correctly) but you will not get a list of questions that you got wrong. You will only get your result.

Your instructor will neither be advised of your result, nor of what questions you got wrong.

You'll have no problem with Human Perf if you have done any work at all. It's so simple it's insulting. You will be finished it in about 10 mins.

If you have done your cross country flying, you should be able to make a resonable stab at doing the navigation exam. Worth a shot anyway.

To everyone else....the IAA exams are different to the CAA. They aren't done at your club. They are held by the IAA centrally (twice a year I believe), and you are in a hall with about 80 other people doing them at the same time. You don't get a list of which questions you got wrong, though I can certainly see the sence in giving such a list!

dp

[IO540]

Tall_guy_in_a_152

I was told (JAR PPL done in England) that the instructor is not permitted to discuss with you the questions which you failed. All he can do is give you the overall mark.

I don't know why this is; I would speculate the reason is that there are only a few editions of the same paper and everybody sits the first one. If they fail they sit the second version, etc. If the instructor discussed the actual exam paper questions with you, you might memorise them and tell somebody what they are...

And the exam papers don't change from year to year... which is why you need to be issued with an out of date CAA chart so you can use the "correct" mag variations (as they were a few years ago when the paper was written!!!)

This is why you are not allowed to make any notes on the questions on a piece of paper which you then take away.

[Saab Dastard]

IO540,

The examiners at my flying club always told me what questions I had got wrong on the JAR papers and what the correct answer was - not that I got many wrong, of course :p

I don't know what the procedure is if you fail a paper, cos I didn't (I only failed the PFL, but that's another story).

This was between 2001-2002.

Cheers

SD

[Tall_guy_in_a_152]

I stand corrected.

I spotted that FFD was posting from Dublin just after replying and was keeping everything crossed that IAA, JAR and CAA (that I did) followed the same rules. :O It seems that IAA follow quite different examination procedures to JAR.

Like Saab, I have no personal experience of failing an exam (thanks largely to the confuser). :ok:

TG

[FireFoxDown]

well ill definately be investing in the confuser - just hope i can get it shipped from England before the new year!!

From comments ive recently heard(only recently because of my groudschool) - the IAA are very backward and not very helpful! Its unfortunate, but thats the way it appears to be ... (from what i have heard anyhow!)

Thankyou all for you're very helpful posts! Id be doing plenty of study in the weeks to come! :ok:

[GroundBound]

C1tall_guy52

All JAA members have to select questions which have been agreed by all JAA countries. They may be translated from one language to another - that's all (although this might be a source of error).

However, each country may apply its own procedures for the examination. Belgium seems to be like Ireland, in that the exams are carried out by the adminstration, several times a year (i.e. REAL exams). The UK delegates the examination process to the FBTOs - not exactly an independent body!

[Tall_guy_in_a_152]

C1tall_guy52

... took me a second or two to work that one out.:O Clever:cool:

[Global Pilot]

I am new to this site and posted a similar question before I came accross yours. Interesting to note the total confusion which the national authorities have brought to the issue of PPLs. JAA set about to hamonise European licensing. I sense anything but harmony out there. Authorities had the opportunity to replicate sucessful examination systems such as that employed in Australia by CASA but failed. The idea that incorrect answers cannot be discussed or revealed because the papers are reused is stupid. Surley if questions are answered incorrectly then it is in the interest of safety that the canidate concerned is made aware of this rather than withholding this information because the authority cannot be bothered to expand their question bank. I remain as always dissillousioned with the licensing authorities, without pilots would there be a need for them to be in existance?

Good luck in the exams after Christmas and if you think of it scribble down some notes after and pass the info on others.

[FireFoxDown]

Hi all,

Just to let you know i took your advice and now have a shiny new copy of The PPL Confuser sitting here beside me! :ok: Thanks again for the advice!

Hey Global -

I, and i feel many others, totally understand your feelings of dissillousionment!

And rest assured, any tips i pick up in the future will feature on pprune!! :}