Took my Air Law exam on Sunday! ...Failed :( Any tips and advice very appreciated!
i do also have quite a 'time demanding' job, being a fuel tanker lorry drive
The solution may be to record your own revision notes on cassette / CD / MP3, and play them in the background whilst driving.
Of course you'll regularly miss bits of your notes whilst driving, but played enough, it'll all sink in well.
I've used this strategy at various points in my life where I've needed to memorise a lot of material for exams. It works, particularly if you spend a lot of time on the road.
G
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Somewhere in England
Posts: 105
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RyanRs, a lot of information has possibly 'sunk in' from the previous study session so having another study session will at times, be a quick revision of what you learnt before. On that basis, in your shoes, I would keep the appointment on the 22nd.
An open question for everyone now; can he book an exam at another school for a date more convenient to him? Would there be acceptance of a certificate from that school by his own?
An open question for everyone now; can he book an exam at another school for a date more convenient to him? Would there be acceptance of a certificate from that school by his own?
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Swindon, Wiltshire
Age: 48
Posts: 862
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Jockistan
Posts: 239
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I used the Trevor Thom book. After each section I did the associated questions at the back of the book. For the ones I got wrong I went back over them to understand why I got it wrong/the reason for the correct answer.
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Bahamas / Sweden / Ireland / Australia
Age: 48
Posts: 61
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I'm with all those people who say to write it down. I struggle to retain Air Law type information when only reading it from a book or watching a video.
My personal way of studying is a bit crazy but I have used it forever and have never failed an exam (and usuallly get pretty good results). Basically I write my own summarised notes but I use big bold colours rather than a pen. I will use A4 sheets of paper and some white board markers and I will just randomly alternate the colours as I am writing it. When a page is full I place it somewhere in my study room but make sure each page has its own place (i.e. don't put pages on top of each other). Then I wander around the room reading them all over and over again. Because I used whitboard markers I don't have to pick it up to read it because the writing is pretty big. I find using this technique that when I get a question in an exam that I am unsure of, the first thing I do is visualise where in the room that piece of paper was and what colour the text of the answer was. Once I have done this my brain just seems to find it easier to recall the contents of that page and I have my answer.
As I said above, a bit crazy and you need to be willing to sacrifice a room in your house for a few days, but it works (for me anyway).
My personal way of studying is a bit crazy but I have used it forever and have never failed an exam (and usuallly get pretty good results). Basically I write my own summarised notes but I use big bold colours rather than a pen. I will use A4 sheets of paper and some white board markers and I will just randomly alternate the colours as I am writing it. When a page is full I place it somewhere in my study room but make sure each page has its own place (i.e. don't put pages on top of each other). Then I wander around the room reading them all over and over again. Because I used whitboard markers I don't have to pick it up to read it because the writing is pretty big. I find using this technique that when I get a question in an exam that I am unsure of, the first thing I do is visualise where in the room that piece of paper was and what colour the text of the answer was. Once I have done this my brain just seems to find it easier to recall the contents of that page and I have my answer.
As I said above, a bit crazy and you need to be willing to sacrifice a room in your house for a few days, but it works (for me anyway).
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Kent, UK
Posts: 73
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I did all my ground school with a specific ground school instructor, as I felt this left my flying instruction time better used for learning the practical flying skills. We worked through the subjects one at a time, and did the exams when we thought I was ready. Of course I was still studying at home, and picking up the tips and pointers from my flying instructor. Whilst this very skilled teacher has now retired, I used to see adverts for ground school instructors in pilot magazines so maybe this is worth looking at?
You may find that one on one teaching is better for you to absorb the information than just reading it from a book - I know I did!
Don't forget that the multiple choice exams are set to trip you up - so make sure that you have read and inderstood exactly what the question is asking, not what you think it is asking from a quick skim!! There is plenty of time in all exams (apart from maybe the nav exam) so check all your answers at least twice.
I think that you could probably make the 22nd to retake air law, but you should be studying every moment you have. Bear in mind that each exam does overlap a bit and cover other subjects so you will need to know air law when you take your other exams!
Good luck,
You may find that one on one teaching is better for you to absorb the information than just reading it from a book - I know I did!
Don't forget that the multiple choice exams are set to trip you up - so make sure that you have read and inderstood exactly what the question is asking, not what you think it is asking from a quick skim!! There is plenty of time in all exams (apart from maybe the nav exam) so check all your answers at least twice.
I think that you could probably make the 22nd to retake air law, but you should be studying every moment you have. Bear in mind that each exam does overlap a bit and cover other subjects so you will need to know air law when you take your other exams!
Good luck,
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: London
Posts: 519
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My personal way of studying is a bit crazy... when I get a question in an exam that I am unsure of, the first thing I do is visualise where in the room that piece of paper was and what colour the text of the answer was. Once I have done this my brain just seems to find it easier to recall the contents of that page and I have my answer.
For some reason there are some things that it doesn't matter how many times I look them up I can't remember them a few hours later. A good example of one such thing for me at the moment is an ATPL question about what a down-spring is! I've looked that thing up so many times and I still can't remember it. It will definitely be going on my summary sheet when I get around to writing it!
Highflyer and 500man's methods are pretty much also how I got through my university finals, and for that matter CPL air law. The difference for me is that I used A6 filing cards and multicoloured biros.
These systems - multicoloured pens, blu-tacking keynotes to the wall, listening to reminder notes on the car stereo in your own voice, coming up with daft rhymes to remember key facts. They may seem silly, but they really do work. Lots of very bright people fail exams because they refuse to adopt these sorts of strategies.
G
These systems - multicoloured pens, blu-tacking keynotes to the wall, listening to reminder notes on the car stereo in your own voice, coming up with daft rhymes to remember key facts. They may seem silly, but they really do work. Lots of very bright people fail exams because they refuse to adopt these sorts of strategies.
G
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: EGKH
Posts: 86
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Well good luck with the resit RyanRs. A couple of responses from me:
Please also feel free to PM me if it helps.
- another vote for writing it down and using coloured pens - e.g. For Rules of the air, I do a little picture of the rule with me as green and other aircraft as red. When you move onto Met, temperature-related stuff in red, pressure in green etc. Find your own scheme that works for you though
- As I've oft-posted I highly recommend both Airquiz.com (£3 to practice a subject as many times as you like), but it's not as accurate a prep for the exam as the PPL Perfector Book. Just make sure you get at least the 2nd edition. The author (Keith Williams) does frequent these forums if you want to ask follow-up questions on the answer explanations.
- Re the comments above about booking exams, you don't say where you are doing the exams but as you say your location is Medway, I'm guessing it's Rochester. I'm studying at Headcorn (with Air Law, Met, Nav passed), and I can give almost no notice. I practiced Airplane General last night and it seems good to go so I'm going in on Sat, but I could have done it today if I had time. Perhaps give Headcorn a call and ask if you can sit the exam there when it suits, then study like mad and just go for the exam when the practice is going well enough?
- FWIW my study approach is:
- read book and make (coloured) notes
- do airquiz, follow subject recommendations for wrong answers. Repeat.
- when ready, do PPL Perfector
- ring Headcorn then sit exam!
Please also feel free to PM me if it helps.
Last edited by Kolossi; 14th Sep 2011 at 16:22. Reason: Add learning sequence
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Leeds
Age: 45
Posts: 13
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I passed Air Law about a month ago - I found a combination of reading/reading again/taking notes/learning notes then using the AFE Question & Answer Simplifier worked for me - the questions and format in this book were VERY similar to many of those in the actual exam. I didn't book myself in for the exam in advance - just decided to do it after a lesson - that way I didn't give myself time to get myself worked up about doing it.
What I found helped me to remember it all (once I'd done the reading) was to test myself again and again using the practice questions in the text book, the q&a book and I also used pplquiz.co.uk. Also speak to your instructor - mine gave me a couple of mock papers to practice with aswell.
Good luck!
What I found helped me to remember it all (once I'd done the reading) was to test myself again and again using the practice questions in the text book, the q&a book and I also used pplquiz.co.uk. Also speak to your instructor - mine gave me a couple of mock papers to practice with aswell.
Good luck!
PPRuNe FirstOfficer
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Surrey, UK
Posts: 137
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RyanRs,
You could have reschedule the exam, did you know that I also took Air Law recently but before I took the exam I rescheduled it twice because I was not prepared, there was always a combination of professional and personal factors affecting my study so I decided to change it for another date, and the school were more than happy to help the student. Afterall you are spending big money with them.
I passed my Air Law with a combination of studying the book Air Pilots Manual (Use to be the old Trevor Thom books), PPL Perfector and AirQuiz. I also used a good friend of mine retired pilot who flies for leisure now to fire some questions my way. I also like the CBT's available I have a couple and I think they aid the study.
You could have reschedule the exam, did you know that I also took Air Law recently but before I took the exam I rescheduled it twice because I was not prepared, there was always a combination of professional and personal factors affecting my study so I decided to change it for another date, and the school were more than happy to help the student. Afterall you are spending big money with them.
I passed my Air Law with a combination of studying the book Air Pilots Manual (Use to be the old Trevor Thom books), PPL Perfector and AirQuiz. I also used a good friend of mine retired pilot who flies for leisure now to fire some questions my way. I also like the CBT's available I have a couple and I think they aid the study.
Hi Ryan
Maybe a previous poster wasn't blunt enough....
Stop making excuses (we all have difficult jobs, work funny hours, have other commitments, don't have money growing on trees - but we all made the time, found the money etc)
Put in the work, and you'll be fine. I cannot believe you didn't study from the AFE or Trevor Thom books. Or any book for that matter. If your instructor knew you hadn't got any of the PPL books, and yet let you write the exam, then you need a new instructor and/or flying club. The Oxford CDs are nice to haves, but are pretty sonorous, and certainly do not cover anywhere near enough of the syllabus for you to expect to pass. Buy the books, a Confuser and register on AirQuiz.com. You should be getting 95% - 100% in all the exams.
To be a pilot you need to be able to make decisions. Very quickly. And on your own. You can't expect this forum to give you advice on what to cancel and when to write an exam.
But your flying school will not let you fly solo without Air Law. Usually for club Insurance reasons. So you have no "firepower" in that regard. Yes - technically you can fly solo without Air Law, but it just won't happen. But if you had studied Air Law properly you would probably know that. Do you have your medical yet?
Now give the forums a rest and start grafting. You will receive very little sympathy from the other forumites.
Maybe a previous poster wasn't blunt enough....
Stop making excuses (we all have difficult jobs, work funny hours, have other commitments, don't have money growing on trees - but we all made the time, found the money etc)
Put in the work, and you'll be fine. I cannot believe you didn't study from the AFE or Trevor Thom books. Or any book for that matter. If your instructor knew you hadn't got any of the PPL books, and yet let you write the exam, then you need a new instructor and/or flying club. The Oxford CDs are nice to haves, but are pretty sonorous, and certainly do not cover anywhere near enough of the syllabus for you to expect to pass. Buy the books, a Confuser and register on AirQuiz.com. You should be getting 95% - 100% in all the exams.
To be a pilot you need to be able to make decisions. Very quickly. And on your own. You can't expect this forum to give you advice on what to cancel and when to write an exam.
But your flying school will not let you fly solo without Air Law. Usually for club Insurance reasons. So you have no "firepower" in that regard. Yes - technically you can fly solo without Air Law, but it just won't happen. But if you had studied Air Law properly you would probably know that. Do you have your medical yet?
Now give the forums a rest and start grafting. You will receive very little sympathy from the other forumites.
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: In a PA-38
Age: 40
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I’m a flying instructor at a busy FTO in the Northeast of England. We get many people that struggle with Air Law, this is due to a number of factors, we get many retired people come through our door that want to get a PPL (it’s always been on their to do list) that may not of studied for the past 30 years, we get tradesman wanting to do their PPL that may have nipped away from work to squeeze a lesson in, and then we get the professionals (doctors/solicitors) that just don’t have the time to sit and go through air law etc.
I always try and make use of our great British weather, so on the poor weather days I get the students in to go through as much ground school as I think they require, I also recommend this website for practice exams- PPL Training & PPL Exam Practice from PPL Cruiser
Once they start getting good marks on this site (I think it is advertised as a banner on Pprune) and they feel ready I will put them in for the exam.
Regards,
Mark
I always try and make use of our great British weather, so on the poor weather days I get the students in to go through as much ground school as I think they require, I also recommend this website for practice exams- PPL Training & PPL Exam Practice from PPL Cruiser
Once they start getting good marks on this site (I think it is advertised as a banner on Pprune) and they feel ready I will put them in for the exam.
Regards,
Mark
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Medway, Kent
Age: 41
Posts: 46
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Lol, yes i agree with what you say! Tbh I put all my eggs in one basket with that OAT Cd-rom, books send me to sleep and i just convinced myself that the CBT method was the method for me! However i was wrong!. Well after failing, i purchased the AFE Airlaw and coms book and OMG! I wish i had done this before! that book pretty much covered most of my 'failed' test within the first 1/4 of it! My instructor did recommend purchasing this from the start but tbh -i thought i knew best :/ Teached me a lesson there!
Anyhow, I re-took the exam yesterday -after studying the AFE Airlaw and Simplifier and im pleased to say... I PASSED!! and what made me most pleased is that i scored 97.5% only one question wrong! Tbh, after reading that AFE book, air law was really not all that difficult. I would have got 100% but on the one wrong question i got, i could not decide between C or D and i eventually selected the wrong answer
But anyway, Must say a big thanks everyone for there advice and also to a couple of members on here who PM'd me some study ideas which really helped on the day!
Next lesson... Solo!
Anyhow, I re-took the exam yesterday -after studying the AFE Airlaw and Simplifier and im pleased to say... I PASSED!! and what made me most pleased is that i scored 97.5% only one question wrong! Tbh, after reading that AFE book, air law was really not all that difficult. I would have got 100% but on the one wrong question i got, i could not decide between C or D and i eventually selected the wrong answer
But anyway, Must say a big thanks everyone for there advice and also to a couple of members on here who PM'd me some study ideas which really helped on the day!
Next lesson... Solo!
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Jupiter
Posts: 37
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Wow, you have to book exams?
Is it not just a case of finding an instructor and saying "do you have 5 minutes to set me an exam please?"
Then when done you hand it back to any other instructor for a quick marking, or give it to Ops if all the instructors are in the sky.
Is it not just a case of finding an instructor and saying "do you have 5 minutes to set me an exam please?"
Then when done you hand it back to any other instructor for a quick marking, or give it to Ops if all the instructors are in the sky.
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Duxford
Age: 45
Posts: 142
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Congrats! I was in a similar situation in not having studied enough, although I just managed to scrape through with 77.5% 
It may have been better if I had failed and had to revise again to get a better understanding of the subject, but I still intend to revisit Air Law to improve my knowledge, despite having passed.
I did have the Pooleys book and worked through it, completing all the exercises, and was consistently achieving 95-100% on the online quizzes so thought I was ready. However, I found the phrasing of the questions in the exam and the topics they focused on very different and designed intentionally to catch you out, such as giving you two answers that were genuinely correct, just one slightly more so. Lesson learnt, must study harder for the next ones!
Just need to get my first solo done now which will hopefully be tomorrow - slightly frustrated as I'm about 16 hours in now and have been ready for about 3/4 lessons but due to various factors it's not happened, but as others have said its not a race.
It may have been better if I had failed and had to revise again to get a better understanding of the subject, but I still intend to revisit Air Law to improve my knowledge, despite having passed. I did have the Pooleys book and worked through it, completing all the exercises, and was consistently achieving 95-100% on the online quizzes so thought I was ready. However, I found the phrasing of the questions in the exam and the topics they focused on very different and designed intentionally to catch you out, such as giving you two answers that were genuinely correct, just one slightly more so. Lesson learnt, must study harder for the next ones!
Just need to get my first solo done now which will hopefully be tomorrow - slightly frustrated as I'm about 16 hours in now and have been ready for about 3/4 lessons but due to various factors it's not happened, but as others have said its not a race.
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: London
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Air Law Exam
I passed my all 7 papers in 5 days ...i went to Bournemouth and done them with Derek Davidson...he is probably the most experienced pilot in the south....You can go and get this out of the way...and continue studying and learning and flying as that is the part of the game....You never stop learning...
Hope it helps..
Hope it helps..
