Air law exam advise needed!

[Jordan1997]

So then, here's the situation, I took my air law exam on Friday 12th April 2013 and failed twice. I got 70% first time and around 52% the second time I did it. I did the two exams within 2 hours of each other. I had worked pretty hard to pass the exam but still came out and failed. I'm 15 at the moment and planning to go solo in May when I'm 16.

Now I feel.... Pretty much like and absalout idiot! So I need some advise on where to go with it all now and if there are any other food revision tools besides the air law book from pooleys?

Someone help!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mini panic attack going on here !

[jollyrog]

Don't take the exam again until you are really really sure you will pass. Three failures will cause problems.

Have you taken any other exams?

[Heston]

jollyrog gives good advice about not trying again until you are really ready.

Get your instructor to help you to understand where you went wrong.

As well as the subject content think carefully about your exam strategy. Read all the questions first. Answer the ones you know. Answer all the questions (even the ones you haven't a clue about - you may guess right and the pass mark is set assuming you will do this).

Incidentally when you say you got 70%, what do you mean exactly? In UK CAA PPL airlaw exams 70% is a pass (just, but it is a pass). So I'm a bit confused by that bit of your post.

[Grob Queen]

As Jollyrog says, DO NOT take the third exam until you are SURE you will pass!!!!!

I'm using Airquiz and the PPL Perfector to help. These are practice papers. Airquiz is fantastic. Once you have paid your £20 you can practice all subjects ad infinitum, but DON'T jsut learn these questions, take a paper, see which areas you failed on, and study those in greater depth, just build on it and you'll get there. Do not go for your exam until you are getting at least 80% in your practice papers.

The PPL perfector has actual exam paper questions to practice on, and so that you know the type of thing to expect, but again DON'T just learn these. You still need to read Pooleys or Jeremy Pratt, whichever you have. Make notes as you would a school subject, then filter these down to the barest of key facts on keynote cards. This is how I study, and have passed three of my exams so far very well (including air Law).

Also, ask your instructor, thats what they are there for! Discuss your weak points and he/she will help you. Most of Air law is common sense. As I read on here once, break it down into chunks....

Vital for when airborne
Handy for when one is airborne but not crucial
Not necessary for actual flying but nice to know, and actually, I could look that up in a book if I were to need to know

Hope this helps and good luck:ok:
GQ

[Gertrude the Wombat]

There are two aspects to learning Air Law:

(1) Stuff that it's useful to know from the point of view of staying alive and out of trouble (rights of way, rules of the air, weather minima, controlled airspace, that sort of thing).

(2) Stuff that is totally irrelevant that you can forget the second you've passed the exam (what colour paper some 1932 treaty was printed on, rules applicable only above 250 knots and 10,000', that sort of thing).

Your primary objective is to learn (1) properly so that you can in future use it to stay alive and out of trouble. Your secondary objective is to memorise (2) temporarily, just sufficiently and for just long enough to pass the exam. Depending on how your brain works you may wish to apply different study techniques to the two classes of information, such as getting (1) into your long term memory properly but cribbing up (2) on the morning of the exam.

(In practice even some of the (1) information is pretty useless in terms of day to day practical implications for the PPL holder. Who cares whether the minimum legal visibility for a particular purpose is 1500m or 1800m or 3km or 5km if you fly for fun and would never take off with less than 8km because that isn't fun?)

[jollyrog]

Also, did you beg the Examiner to let you retake two hours afterwards, or was it his/her idea? Did you pay two fees?

I really can't see any point to an instant retake, common sense says you review the failure, make some study notes then go stick your head in a book or get further tuition in the areas that need it.

It really would be to your advantage if the Examiner would regard your 12th April session as only one attempt.

[CaptainChairborne]

Incidentally when you say you got 70%, what do you mean exactly? In UK CAA PPL airlaw exams 70% is a pass (just, but it is a pass). So I'm a bit confused by that bit of your post.

I'm pretty sure the pass mark is 75%

[Grob Queen]

I'm pretty sure the pass mark is 75%

Capt C,

As one who is currently going through the torture of PPL written exams...yes, affirm, the pass mark is 75%

[Level Attitude]

I'm 15 at the moment and planning to go solo in May when I'm 16.

There is no legal requirement to have passed Air Law prior to being
authorised to fly solo - though some schools prefer it.

If your school is an FTO/ATO and they have this requirement listed in their,
CAA approved, Ops manual then you will have to pass the exam prior to solo.

[Ampage]

I can tell you I probably didn't have the attention span to have passed the PPL exams at the age of 15. Just wait until you get to the Navigation exam & aeroplane technical.

Get lots of practice papers from your school and if available the PPL confuser. Answer questions by going into the book and finding the answer.

Read the book more than once. Draw pictures and diagrams of stuff (ie various lights and signals). - If you put real work in you WILL pass.

Also ask your instructor for briefings on things you dont quite understand.

[Old skool Alex]

For my air law exam I read the book about it, then purchased the online ppl cruiser and did the questions on there until I was consistently getting over the pass rate.Went and took the test and passed 1st time at 90%.I think I could of passed it by just doing the cruiser,but that's just teaching you how to pass the test and not necessarily the whole subject. :ok:

[riverrock83]

I actually got 100% on air law...
Everyone learns differently - but follow what others have said. With airquiz, try it once to find out some of your weak areas, then go back to the text books / your instructor and re-learn those parts.
Then try again and repeat. Don't just keep trying questions - because they will start to repeat...

I would be aiming for 90% + on airquiz to be fully confident in the actual exam. The questions in the exam are worded differently than airquiz - so there is no point in just learning what the answers are.

Once I was getting 90% plus, I went through the PPL Exam Secrets Guides (http://shop.pilotwarehouse.co.uk/product19670023.html) the night before - ensuring I could answer every single one of those questions correctly. Depending on which paper you get (ground examiners have at least 3 options) the questions may be very similar to the ones in the guide...

I found that the questions are formatted in a different way from what I got in school - which is why using past papers / the guides linked to above is useful. Fully read each question. Don't try to add things into the question which aren't there (which was one of my problems with Met which I only just about scraped through). Be really careful which option you pick - because there could be more than one right answer, with one of the answers being more right / more complete than the other. Go back and check your answers (amazing how easy it is to think "A" but you seem to have crossed "B" on the sheet! You shouldn't be under too much time pressure on Air Law - no prizes for finishing early!

[Crash one]

Read the questions very very carefully! They seem to be designed to catch out those who "think" they have read it correctly. This applies to any of the exams, the object seems to be to ensure that you, the student, actually really does understand what is being asked & are not assuming, guessing what the question is.

[ILS 119.5]

I did the air law exam 25 years ago and we had to write out the answers in freehand and then have an oral board to check our understanding. I wasn't a great follower of learning aids such as practice papers however they can change the questions slightly to confuse students, e.g. "at or above" or "above. My view is get the syllabus of what you have to learn and then write a question for each part of the syllabus on a flash card with the answer on the back and learn them. Don't try to learn just enough to pass, you must learn enough to get 100% and then if you have a bit of a memory loss on the day you might get 95%. I got 98% because I couldn't remember the definition of an "aeronautical ground beacon". So unfortunately you have to work harder, remember 70% is about the same as a first degree at university and how many students at uni get a first. Hope this helps.

[jollyrog]

The OP doesn't seem to be coming back. Don't you just hate it when that happens?

[Old skool Alex]

He's probably passed all 7 by now.