ATPL Ground School New Syllabus Exams Today (AGK, POF and PERF)

[Star Paladin]

I'm normally an observer here on PPRune, but today I had to share.

I did my ATPL ground school CAA exams today for Aircraft General, Principles of Flight and Performance. I am quite happy with POF and AGK because both exams were fairly straightforward, and most questions were from the atplonline.gs practise question bank word for word. A quick thing to note though, the AGK exam's number of questions has been increased to 80, but that is not such a big deal.

Performance was a completely different matter. Out of 35 questions only about ten did not involve the infamous graphs from CAP 698. The other 25 were questions on graphs from the CAP, some worth 2 marks and some worth 3 marks depending on difficulty. As a comparison in previous syllabus Performance exams there used to be maximum two or three questions involving graphs from the CAP. Time allowed used to be and is still one hour and there was no way anyone was going to finish all the graph questions in that hour today. There were around 10 people doing the same exam in the classroom and nobody could quite believe what was happening. Out tutor was adamant that there would be no more than two or three graph questions in the exam (information probably based on experience with the previous syllabus), but we got 25 of them. There wasn't a single question on the relationship between Vx and Vy or TAS/CAS/MACH at different altitudes.

I am curious to see if anyone here has done this particular exam before and how many graph questions involving CAP 698 you got and if anyone did it today, how did you find it.

[The500man]

That's interesting. I'll be doing those 3 exams next month. Out of interest which training provider are you using? It seems your tutors may have underestimated the changes.

I'll have to make sure I'm lightning fast on chart questions by the sounds of it. Thanks for posting this info. :ok:

[Melnaboo]

Hi there,

I did my ATPL exams yesterday as well, PoF, AGK and Performance.

AGK has changed in the way that they did lot of questions about electrics and just two or three about pistons engines and hydraulics systems.

Performance was just ridiculous, none could finish as well where I took the exams. The examiner told us that they are going to try to do something about it, like review it with the inspectors and try to find a solution. I don't know if they will, but what I really would like is to restart my ATPL and apply for the old syllabus exams.

[The500man]

If you do, you'll be down £198 and will have to finish by March next year. I wonder though if the new syllabus exams you've already done would be accepted for issue of a JAA license if you applied for the old syllabus exams from now on? I doubt anyone has thought up an answer to that question yet!

[CAT3C AUTOLAND]

I am quite happy with POF and AGK because both exams were fairly straightforward, and most questions were from the atplonline.gs practise question bank word for word.

An exam will be straight forward if you have seen all the questions and know the answers :rolleyes:.

[Star Paladin]

CAT3C, surely you're not suggesting that ATPL students memorize the questions without having the actual knowledge of the subjects?

[Star Paladin]

Hi there,

I did my ATPL exams yesterday as well, PoF, AGK and Performance.

AGK has changed in the way that they did lot of questions about electrics and just two or three about pistons engines and hydraulics systems.

Performance was just ridiculous, none could finish as well where I took the exams. The examiner told us that they are going to try to do something about it, like review it with the inspectors and try to find a solution. I don't know if they will, but what I really would like is to restart my ATPL and apply for the old syllabus exams. Where did you do it? Our head of training has complained to the CAA about Performance. We are now awaiting our fate! :)

[Melnaboo]

London Met, and you?

[jhall_45]

Hey, i done the new syllabus exams from 1st august-4th Air law,Operations,AGK,instruments and vfr/ifr comms, it seems agk has alot of V3 in it , and instruments was the worst with about 10 questions i didnt know about, other then that no EASA changes to law and ops was recognised, pretty much just bristol...as with ifr and vfr, however, beware of instruments!

[cefey]

Many new questions, many new graphs which was NOT covered in books I have. I simply run out of time...
CAA (cash again again) found a new way failing student and collecting cash. Working well so far!

Can anyone tell me about applying for old syllabus? Is it possible? Why didnt anyone tell me about that before?!:))