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PPL theory exams UK - how are the new exams?

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PPL theory exams UK - how are the new exams?

Old 18th Feb 2021, 11:25
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Alex are you ever going to introduce a PPL course? Some of the material currently being sold is very dated!
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Old 18th Feb 2021, 16:55
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Funny you should say that. We are just completing a PPL course based on Jeremy Pratt's books - but updated. PPL QB will also follow. As the PPL theory is less 'mandatory' than the ATPL it remains to be seen what the take-up will be. There's an idea, a mandatory 100 hours of provable PPL theory training like the EU have....unnnhh I just argued against that!
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Old 21st Feb 2021, 09:33
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Well, things are pretty quiet right now, but when they do pick up, if your books are priced right and as good quality as your ATPL ones, as long as people know about them I'm sure you'll do well. Good luck!
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Old 21st Feb 2021, 11:23
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I think 9 seperate exams is a bit over the top. How about one exam of 120 questions? or maybe two?
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Old 21st Feb 2021, 11:58
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Sadly the whole thing is a very unprofessional mess. There has never ever been a training analysis since aviation first began. We have had a number of well meaning individuals who have saught to implement changes but they are seldom completed in a timely manner. A revised PPL Syllabus appeared as an ALTMOC in 2015; the revised Learning Objectives appeard in 2019, but how many know what they are or where to find them, a quick look on the CAA website produces this:

Sorry, your search for PPL LOs did not return any results.

You can find them under e-exams but then they are spread across 10 CAPS from CAP2090A to CAP2090J; well of course there are 9 exams! It appears not all the questions relate to the LOs!
The CAA once employed Ground Examiners who wrote examinations, but in anticipation of JAR-FCL they were made redundant. They discovered they still needed a few at the professional level to iron out the poor quality of the European papers but they never funded any more PPL Examiners and haven't officially had any for over 20 years now. One or two members of staff did it on a voluntary basis.
In contrast, the BMAA produced their own papers and had the CAA print them, a bit of a clue here I would have thought.
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Old 21st Feb 2021, 17:26
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Originally Posted by Mickey Kaye
I think 9 separate exams is a bit over the top. How about one exam of 120 questions? or maybe two?
Good lord ! The majority of the PPL's in the world fly in North America. Both the FAA and Transport Canada have only one exam with sections for the main knowledge areas. Since North American PPL's have an equal or better safety record when compared to UK PPL's, I find it hard to believe that the over the top written exam requirements prepare UK PPL's ability to be safe pilots any better than the NA system. Seems to me this is a regulator bent on making the prefect self licking ice cream cone. Sadly the only victims will be individuals who just want to be recreational pilots.....
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Old 21st Feb 2021, 18:28
  #27 (permalink)  
 
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1. There is one theoretical knowledge exam which consists of 120 questions divided into 9 'papers'; 3 of which have 16 questions, the other 6 have 12. That was to make the 75% pass mark simple. Applicants can sit as many papers at a time as they wish.
2. Current 'all exams first time pass rate' is over 80%.
3. Many of the questions written by 'industry' (yours, perhaps Mike?) were rejected. ALL others were peer-reviewed by a group of PPL pilots, instructors and examiners - including CAA reps. No 'ex-RAF navigators' of legend were involved! We had to re-write many of them (and no, we weren't paid a penny for our assistance) before they were suitable.
4. Most failures have been from those who didn't RTFQ.
5. I don't like the limited debrief system, but it does seem to work.

At the end of the day, people have to learn the subject, not the answers. Something which some find rather taxing, it would seem....
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Old 21st Feb 2021, 20:10
  #28 (permalink)  
 
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At the end of the day, people have to learn the subject, not the answers. Something which some find rather taxing, it would seem....
I couldn't agree more. However there have been many pointless and unhelpful questions over the years that are simply irritating and unhelpful. e.g. "a part of an aeroplane detached in flight, fell to the ground and struck a member of the public". Is this an aircraft accident or an aircraft incident? I cannot remember a single candidate answering this question correctly and why should they. The correct answer should be: on landing I will contact someone and find out what form I fill in and have the aircraft inspected before the next flight.

My point is relevance. I would like to know what the suggested questions offered by the industry were (who are the industry anyway?) and why their offerings were rejected. What I can say is that 9 volumes of required study by a private pilot is nonsense and this should be obvious to everyone. The PPL exams should only be the need to know. I don't know why it takes so many people to create 120 questions plus alternates.

The online question and answer packages will soon be available. The pilot will simply tick the boxes and leave the room knowing little and for a short period of time. Sad but true. The training industry from my own observations has lost all confidence in the invigilating regime and also, it seems, so have the CAA invigilators (in kind).
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Old 22nd Feb 2021, 09:16
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There is one theoretical knowledge exam which consists of 120 questions divided into 9 'papers'; 3 of which have 16 questions, the other 6 have 12. That was to make the 75% pass mark simple.
I would have hoped that the average student and Examiner was capable of calculating 75% of 120 witthout such a convoluted procedure!
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Old 23rd Feb 2021, 21:33
  #30 (permalink)  
 
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I would too.

With the earlier exams, it wasn't always unambiguously clear whether a candidate had achieved the pass mark.
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Old 24th Feb 2021, 08:28
  #31 (permalink)  
 
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I can't remember ever finding the exam pass mark to be ambiguous. Nor do I understand why it takes a cacophony of people to set an exam. It should simply be: what is the PPL holder required to know and then simply ask the questions to check that they do.

A bunch of old farts (I am one) who are clearly struggling to put these exams together (I'm not one) need to get switched on and get up to date. I must say though, living in France, all this nonsense is far worse and riddled with widespread personal and out of date opinions.
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Old 7th Mar 2021, 12:25
  #32 (permalink)  
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Since the U.K. has left EASA, why do the exams have to follow their 120 questions / 9 subjects diktat?

Seems that with most of the professional UK schools now decanting out to supervision of a friendly EASA country such as Denmark or Austria, the only aviation the CAA will have oversight of is PPL training.

They could show some independence by ditching this tangle of exams and go for something more sensible and ICAO compliant. Just one exam, as with the FAA, or maybe two as suggested above.

And stop hiding the questions from even the “Examiner”. We will look a total prat when we can’t even tell them where they went wrong and why!

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