PPL Revision Material

[Piper Warrior Pilot]

Does anyone have any ideas as to how i can revise for the PPL written exams and where i can obtain the material to learn the stuff from apart from the Trevor Thom books and PPL Confuser.

Also, how do you guys revise for them. Do you learn it from memory, take notes etc...

[knobbygb]

Between Thom and the confueser I'd have thought you'd have enough material. The only other thing I do is search for the subject on here and see what people have to say. Beware, though, of people who don't know what they're talking about - like me. Seriously, though, I have to sit my last 3 exams in the next week, and have both Thom and the confuser hidden under the junk on my desk as we speak.

[Piper Warrior Pilot]

i was gonna try and see if there is anywhere where i can get hold of old ppl papers to have a look at. There seems to be so much stuff in the Thom manuals, im sure there are only bits that one needs to know about, or is there

[FormationFlyer]

Hi,

AFAIK Exam papers are never released from the CAA. Therefore there are no 'past papers'.

The advice I give my students is this...

Use Trevor Thom....read the chapters do the questions in the back as you go. Then when compete tackle the first 20 Q from the confuser...see how you go..OK? Keep going...try the next 20...If not then go back and re-read those chapters where you are failing confuser questions.

There is enough material to pass the PPL exams between these two references (substitute pratt for thom if you wish - pratt tends to be better in terms of diagrams these days and is perhaps slightly lighter in tone).

Hope this helps,
FF

[Piper Warrior Pilot]

That poses another issue. Thom or Pratt?

[Evo7]

There was a thread about Pratt and Thom recently - do a search and you'll find it. Bottom line: they're both good. Note that you should use CAP413 for the RT exam, not the Thom or Pratt radio books, because CAP413 is right. Always.

Apart from that, Formation Flyer is spot on. That's what I did recently (last of the seven completed a week ago), and there's no better way to prepare. The only exception is RT Theory which isn't in the Confuser - you're stuck with CAP413 for that one.

[Squawk7000]

Concerning the R/T theory I agree strongly with Evo 7 - stick with CAP 413 as Thom isn't really appropriate.

After doing Air Law July 2001 and not doing any other study since Jan this year, I've just managed to do the remaining 6 exams within the 12 month period.

Read Thom, do the Confuser, then focus on the questions you get wrong. Re-do confuser night before and you should be ok.

There are no R/T questions in Confuser but there are very useful questions in Pratt.

[skygazer]

.....and CAP413 is available for download on the CAA website, (as is the ANO)

[undertheweather]

No-one seems to mention Birch & Bramson these days. I did all my PPL revision using the books authored by these two, and pretty good I remember them to be too!

Are they old hat these days? Are they even published?

[FormationFlyer]

Indeed CAP413 - All printed copies of this are now defunct. The ONLY official reference is now that on the CAA website. (similar story with UK AIP as well).

As for Birch & Bramson - never seen any books by these two! Sorry!

[Wrong Stuff]

Birch & Bramson - they were the PPL students' bible for years but they were all pre-pre-JAR and well out of date now. Still got the principles of flight book hanging around somewhere. Always preferred the Campbell books myself though - and indeed I believe his old instructors' manual is still the standard tome despite its age.

[Biker Pilot]

For the Law exam, you need to be familiar with a number of AICs and the Rules of the Air which are only touched on by Thom (don't know about Pratt) meaning you need to look them up.

I recently bought the UK AIM and, although already out-of-date, it is an excellent reference with the required extra material plus the entire ANO and the Rules of the Air and I would certainly recommend it to help with this paper...

BP