ATPL Old syllabus UK CAA

[oxford_flyer]

Dont know if there is anybody else in the same position as me? Was ready to sit my first ATPL exams in Jan which were cancelled due to the national lockdowns. Cant even book for Feb or March now as the online portal is locked. I have to sit atleast one exam before 31st of March to remain on the sylabus I've been taught (old syllabus), otherwise I'll have to sit 'New syllabus' exams which I'm not prepared for.

Doesn't look like lockdown will be eased anytime soon and the CAA said they wont extend the deadline of March 31st, which makes it near impossible to sit an exam before then.

[wassupman]

How different is the new syllabus?
Not suprised of their attitude, shocking.
numerous I waited more than 30mins in the queue on telephone to talk to someone.

I think they need to start looking at online proctored exams, we can't go on waiting for the 'normality' to return.
will the CAA realize this?

[oxford_flyer]

Good to know I'm not the only one! There is a discussion on the ATPL FB group that the CAA has consulted ATO's about the situation regarding extending the ECQB06 deadline but have met resistance from some ATO's. It's incredibly frustrating to say the least as this directly affects us students who are in the middle of this. How the CAA cant see that it's almost impossible to meet this cut-off date with exam centres closed, is beyond me.

[paco]

My comment to the CAA was that not extending was unfair to students who, through no fault of their own, could not sit whatever exams they need. Otherwise, no problem for us because we cover both syllabuses.

In theory, if you know your stuff, you shouldn't notice any difference, which is the name of the game - they are trying to stop the database queens, and having some success by all accounts. That said, I have noticed a couple of comouter questions in which all answers are potentially correct. Go figure.

Now that Brits are not allowed on the expert database (and therefore cannot write questions), I suspect that the questions will get worse :(

[Central Scrutinizer]

In theory, if you know your stuff, you shouldn't notice any difference, which is the name of the game - they are trying to stop the database queens, and having some success by all accounts.

That argument is completely detached from reality. The exams are a tedious exercise which really don't prove much of how the state of real knowledge of the student is.

For God's sake, I remember that some exam questions required to use the 1 hPa = 27 ft assumption, while other questions required 30 ft. Depending on which assumption you used you could get one answer or another. There are plenty of things like these in the ATPL exams. I have a folder full of stupidly worded and plain wrong exam questions which only confuse students who know their stuff.

You need to sit those exams having done the questionbanks. It doesn't matter how well you've studied the books. If you don't go through the question banks you will not pass those exams.

[Alex Whittingham]

In theory, if you know your stuff, you shouldn't notice any difference, which is the name of the game - they are trying to stop the database queens, and having some success by all accounts.

Part of the issue seems to be that, if an ATO was unwise enough to write their new syllabus training material to only satisfy the published learning objectives, their students come unstuck in exams because of the liberal interpretation the EASA examiners apply to those LOs. For instance in the new syllabus SSR and DME are taken back to PPL level, do we really think they have ditched all the detailed questions they had in ECQB 6/7? Based on past performance I don't trust them to have done that. I have also identified ATOs teaching for new syllabus exams with old syllabus material - there has been stuff added in!

[paco]

I don't trust them either (jet based questions in the CBIR?), which is why we cover both. It is sadly still true that you cannot pass the exams without a nod to a database of some sort, but equally, I would not like to be treated by a doctor who just learned the answers to the questions (and they have a similar database). I'll say it again, like I said in the meetings - we really need some people like Roger Henshaw or Pete Knapp to go through the database, without any bias. As far as I am concerned, the State's job is to ensure that candidates have a good safe knowledge on which to build - anything else like too much detail or KSA 100 has no value at all.

[Booglebox]

Central Scrutinizer is spot-on. Everyone knows that the whole EASA exam system is mostly a waste of time and has been for a while. The FAA exams are also stupid but at least they are easy. I think we should ditch multiple choice and question banks and go back to written answers / essays e.g. "explain how X works in 500 words", as well as oral Q and A. Students would then have to actually understand the material in order to pass.

[Alex Whittingham]

Ah a brilliant plan, but who is going to mark these essay answers? The CAA don't have the expertise or the capacity, nor do either the EASA Member States or EASA themselves. Even at our little exam centre in Clevedon the candidates routinely sit 300+ papers between them in a week of exams.

[paco]

Given that we have this KSA 100 nonsense I would do what the FAA/TC do and have an oral exam at the time of the checkride. This is what we will eventually be substituting our mock exams for. One big downside to that is that there is no standardisation across EASA for TREs/examiners - in Canada it is superb.

[oxford_flyer]

If you are sitting exams based on ECQB6, do you still need to do this KSA100 exam?



No news from CAA regarding extension. Currently only one exam slot available before March 31st on the portal which is in Scotland, and cant be booked...

[Alex Whittingham]

No, KSA only applies to the new syllabus. A huge EU/EASA mistake, it could have been so much better. As indeed could the new syllabus exams have been. Another opportunity lost in a downward spiral of incompetence.