theory exams suck

[halfmoon]

Is it normal to have difficulty with theory exams? eg CPL IREX etc.
Just curious how many times you busted before you passed them?
I'm doing my conversion from FAA, and put in a lot of study time towrds them both and busted both of them. It's a little depressing when i have 6000+ hrs in turbine equipment, never busted an FAA exam, flight test, company check NOTHING!! then i come back to oz only to see YOU FAILED on the ASL computer screen.
i got 73% for the cpl and 55% for the irex..call me stupid if you want.. just venting :)

[kym]

use Bob Tait Irex theory books.

I bombed out on the first try of the Irex using a different text book by another author. which happened to have too much information without telling me what I needed to know for the Exam. which makes this text good now I passed the exam.

on the other hand Bob Tait tells you everything you need to know. I passed the exam the second time.

dont worry about not passing first time on any exam. ask any Qantas pilot or Virgin blue pilot if they bombed out on any exam.

dont let this get you down, bounce back and study what you dont know. But dont spend too much time on what you do know.

Tag the Jepps, CAOs, and CARS. Be as prepared as you can be going into the exam. I can usually tell when I will pass an exam by how calm I feel when I walk into the exam room.

I hope this helps.
Kym

[Bird Strike]

I can only comment on CAOS/air law, but here... (If you're converting from FAA CPL to Australian CPL, I'm assuming you're doing CAOS.)

Are you taking in your legislation books with you? Tag them as someone already mentioned. There are sticky tags that you can buy from pilot shops. Although they are like $29 (for tags, heck!), a lot of people I know feel that they are very helpful.

Rememember that they are open book. Check on CASA's website for what you can take and take everything.

Familiarise yourself with the way CASA asks you the questions. There are some pretty odd things that they ask (like "how to carry a dog"), and some pretty vague questions. Buy the trial exam books (avaialble from pilot shops) and do them.

If you're using VFG as a study reference for CAOS, stop. There are quite a bit of out of date information in it because it hasn't been updated for a while.

You're only 7 marks off the pass mark for CAOS. You'll be right, good luck!