April Performance exam !!!
Pprune Voyeur
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I sat performance and Mass and Balance at Silsoe during the week of November 4th last year. On each paper there was a typographical error that effectively rendered two questions unanswerable. The worst was on M & B; it was a very tight exam, time-wise, and this one question had a digit missing off the correct answer. I could see what had happened, but it still created enough doubt to make me spend another couple of minutes on the question than I had time for. After the exam, the invigilators were surrounded by a lynch mob, so it wasn't just me.
If you do get a dodgy question, do your best to memorise it's number and as much as you can of it, and tell your ground school ASAp, so they can query it. Questions are quite regularly disallowed, and everyone who sat the paper credited with the marks for that question
If you do get a dodgy question, do your best to memorise it's number and as much as you can of it, and tell your ground school ASAp, so they can query it. Questions are quite regularly disallowed, and everyone who sat the paper credited with the marks for that question
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Perf
Interesting post Cumulus,
How did you find out the marks had been credited, did you get a letter with your results?
Did you get any extra credit for time wasted?
Interesting comments also about the timing issues. In Aprils Planning exam I spent 6 minutes checking a typo which the CAA are currently investigating. This was a 1 mark question, but how do you credit such a mistake which required so much time to check.
WA
How did you find out the marks had been credited, did you get a letter with your results?
Did you get any extra credit for time wasted?
Interesting comments also about the timing issues. In Aprils Planning exam I spent 6 minutes checking a typo which the CAA are currently investigating. This was a 1 mark question, but how do you credit such a mistake which required so much time to check.
WA
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Performance
Wessex,
Every month, about 2 weeks after the results are published the groundschools get a list of the questions that were queried and credited for each and every exam. It's usefull to see this as you can imagine, but i suspect this time the number of credited questions will be large, or else the results are going to be very shocking to most people.
I suspect the CAA will shortly advise us as to the outcome of this months paper very very shortly.
We have a CGI meeting with CAA next month, and I can assure you, as with most of these meetings, issues like this are at the top of the agenda.
Regards,
Steve Francis
CGI
Every month, about 2 weeks after the results are published the groundschools get a list of the questions that were queried and credited for each and every exam. It's usefull to see this as you can imagine, but i suspect this time the number of credited questions will be large, or else the results are going to be very shocking to most people.
I suspect the CAA will shortly advise us as to the outcome of this months paper very very shortly.
We have a CGI meeting with CAA next month, and I can assure you, as with most of these meetings, issues like this are at the top of the agenda.
Regards,
Steve Francis
CGI
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Performance update.
Well f**k my old boots!!
As one of the Muppets that sat the exam, I voiced my concerns to the CAA at 11:43 today. By 3pm I had a response. This is a back brief:
As they say in those documentaries, the names of the characters have been changed to protect their identity.
CAA (we’ll call Julie). The CAA are hot footing about this exam. They have sent it to the performance honcho at the JAA. We work it out on a % exam time to answer questions and a % exam time. There seems to be an issue with this exam that there was not enough time to do the questions, let alone to check the answers. We are also looking at the spread of the answers to see if they are a contributing factor to the time issue. (i.e. as some were slap bang in the middle and required extra working out).
Once the review is complete, if there is credits to be given, we will either remove the questions before marking, e.g. 31 questions instead of 34. Or we will individually credit people accordingly.
We normally get the results to the candidates before the 10 days (not with my mange-ridden postman) but we expect due to this issue, we will take the full ten days.
Once the outcome has been decided, we will send letters to the ground schools informing them of the decision and also a letter to each candidate that sat the exam.
Disclaimer:
Don’t get your hopes up, but the strong tone of the conversation was one of resignation that an error had occurred and that they were going to make good!! Whether anything comes of this we await and see, but full marks to the CAA for a quick response and now I genuinely believe that they are taking this extremely seriously.
Good luck one and all.
As one of the Muppets that sat the exam, I voiced my concerns to the CAA at 11:43 today. By 3pm I had a response. This is a back brief:
As they say in those documentaries, the names of the characters have been changed to protect their identity.
CAA (we’ll call Julie). The CAA are hot footing about this exam. They have sent it to the performance honcho at the JAA. We work it out on a % exam time to answer questions and a % exam time. There seems to be an issue with this exam that there was not enough time to do the questions, let alone to check the answers. We are also looking at the spread of the answers to see if they are a contributing factor to the time issue. (i.e. as some were slap bang in the middle and required extra working out).
Once the review is complete, if there is credits to be given, we will either remove the questions before marking, e.g. 31 questions instead of 34. Or we will individually credit people accordingly.
We normally get the results to the candidates before the 10 days (not with my mange-ridden postman) but we expect due to this issue, we will take the full ten days.
Once the outcome has been decided, we will send letters to the ground schools informing them of the decision and also a letter to each candidate that sat the exam.
Disclaimer:
Don’t get your hopes up, but the strong tone of the conversation was one of resignation that an error had occurred and that they were going to make good!! Whether anything comes of this we await and see, but full marks to the CAA for a quick response and now I genuinely believe that they are taking this extremely seriously.
Good luck one and all.
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From the CAA to all CGIs:
1. Following the input from candidates and FTOs about the recent ATPL(A) Performance examinations, particularly February and April this year, we have reviewed the papers and come to the following conclusions:
a) Although the examinations were produced in accordance with the JAA profile, as published in JAA AGM, Section 5, Part 2, Chapter 10, the introduction of the latest version of the CQB meant that the work load in February and April was higher than in previous Performance examinations.
b) There were some questions in the February and April examinations based on CAP 698 graphs for which the choice of answers was too close.
c) The workload in the examinations for January and March was no higher than previous examinations and is considered to have been reasonable.
2. After an extensive internal review and consultation with both the 030 SET Chair at the German Authority, LBA, and the JAA we have decided to take the following actions:
a) Credit the questions referred to in 1(b) above for both February and April.
b) Re-assess the examination profile for Performance, with immediate effect.
c) Conduct a review of the examination profile for all other examinations.
d) Conduct a review of all CAP 698 graph questions.
3. The crediting referred to in 2(a) above has resulted in a retrospective PASS being awarded to twenty candidates from the February sitting; each of these will be contacted individually and a revised results sheet will be issued. The subsequent examination history for these candidates will be reviewed and some will now have a resit voided from our records and the examination fee refunded. The crediting for April will be taken into account as part of the normal review procedure.
4. A letter to candidates will be prepared in the near future and included with examination results.
5. The 030 SET will review all questions based on CAP 698 graphs and the JAA will form a Working Group (WG) to review all examination profiles.
At first sight it seems very satisfactory, except no general credit is given for running out of time. Well done the CAA. I'm sure the correspondence will continue.
(030 is the code for Performance, SET means Subject Expert Team, the LBA are the German CAA)
1. Following the input from candidates and FTOs about the recent ATPL(A) Performance examinations, particularly February and April this year, we have reviewed the papers and come to the following conclusions:
a) Although the examinations were produced in accordance with the JAA profile, as published in JAA AGM, Section 5, Part 2, Chapter 10, the introduction of the latest version of the CQB meant that the work load in February and April was higher than in previous Performance examinations.
b) There were some questions in the February and April examinations based on CAP 698 graphs for which the choice of answers was too close.
c) The workload in the examinations for January and March was no higher than previous examinations and is considered to have been reasonable.
2. After an extensive internal review and consultation with both the 030 SET Chair at the German Authority, LBA, and the JAA we have decided to take the following actions:
a) Credit the questions referred to in 1(b) above for both February and April.
b) Re-assess the examination profile for Performance, with immediate effect.
c) Conduct a review of the examination profile for all other examinations.
d) Conduct a review of all CAP 698 graph questions.
3. The crediting referred to in 2(a) above has resulted in a retrospective PASS being awarded to twenty candidates from the February sitting; each of these will be contacted individually and a revised results sheet will be issued. The subsequent examination history for these candidates will be reviewed and some will now have a resit voided from our records and the examination fee refunded. The crediting for April will be taken into account as part of the normal review procedure.
4. A letter to candidates will be prepared in the near future and included with examination results.
5. The 030 SET will review all questions based on CAP 698 graphs and the JAA will form a Working Group (WG) to review all examination profiles.
At first sight it seems very satisfactory, except no general credit is given for running out of time. Well done the CAA. I'm sure the correspondence will continue.
(030 is the code for Performance, SET means Subject Expert Team, the LBA are the German CAA)
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nice one Alex
I took the exam in Feb and ran out of time and totally messed up as a result, resitting in May, fingers crossed it will be easier.
Just a point to note, will you be upgrading the online data base with more graph questions to help with the current trend of the CAA?
regards
Richard
I took the exam in Feb and ran out of time and totally messed up as a result, resitting in May, fingers crossed it will be easier.
Just a point to note, will you be upgrading the online data base with more graph questions to help with the current trend of the CAA?
regards
Richard
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To be fair.
I sat the exam in April.
I ran out of time, and like most was horrified at the ammount of graph questions purely for the time sucking nature of them.
Generally I like them, but they were all very hurried so could have made no end of errors, due to time panic.
Regardless of my result, good to see that the CAA are holding their hands up as accountable in this case.
Good work on the part of the groundschools aswell.
Nick
I sat the exam in April.
I ran out of time, and like most was horrified at the ammount of graph questions purely for the time sucking nature of them.
Generally I like them, but they were all very hurried so could have made no end of errors, due to time panic.
Regardless of my result, good to see that the CAA are holding their hands up as accountable in this case.
Good work on the part of the groundschools aswell.
Nick
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Fantastic News. I don't know what to say. Thanks to everyone and all, including the CAA for taking the corrective action and all the schools for supporting their students above and beyond the call of duty.
Three cheers!
TB.
Three cheers!
TB.
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Perf
Would like to complement the CAA for providing a fast and reasonable soloution to this problem.
As already said by TB, I would also like to complement the schools and students for their united approach in raising this issue.
It will be interesting to monitor the situation as the CAA appear to be looking further into this problem to prevent this happening again, which can anly be a good thing. The out come of the next CGI meet should be interesting.
WA
As already said by TB, I would also like to complement the schools and students for their united approach in raising this issue.
It will be interesting to monitor the situation as the CAA appear to be looking further into this problem to prevent this happening again, which can anly be a good thing. The out come of the next CGI meet should be interesting.
WA
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That tricky perf thing!
Wessex, well done with your communication with the CAA.
I had the same experience with Performance in February. This was my last subject and I was on my fourth attempt – so slightly SH*ttin it abit was an understatement.
After months of hard graft I managed to pass it (but only with 76%) I thought it was quite a tough paper, and even though well prepared knew I had mucked up a few questions when I walked away.
One question from February’s performance was as follows:
SEP (I think), you are looking to calculate a horizontal distance travelled during a climb to a given altitude.
You need to consider the screen height you are climbing from, then using the CAP chart that gives both a Rate of Climb (fpm) and a Gradient of climb %age (I think), arrive at a figure. Then you need to get a TAS from the CRP5 using temp and altitude given, apply the wind to get a Ground speed, then apply the gradient or ROC to the speed to calculate the horizontal distance.
The trouble is you arrive at 2 different figures with either the ROC figure or the Gradient of climb. Which one are you supposed to use?
Unfortunately I can’t remember the figures used in the exam but I re-calculated this question 4 times in the exam and could not match any of the answers given.
I have been told this question has been disputed before. However I would like to know which part of the chart should be used as you can arrive at 2 different answers!
It won’t benefit me, but might assist with others in the future – especially when more CAP questions are introduced into the exam – as is allegedly happening in the future.
Crispy.
I had the same experience with Performance in February. This was my last subject and I was on my fourth attempt – so slightly SH*ttin it abit was an understatement.
After months of hard graft I managed to pass it (but only with 76%) I thought it was quite a tough paper, and even though well prepared knew I had mucked up a few questions when I walked away.
One question from February’s performance was as follows:
SEP (I think), you are looking to calculate a horizontal distance travelled during a climb to a given altitude.
You need to consider the screen height you are climbing from, then using the CAP chart that gives both a Rate of Climb (fpm) and a Gradient of climb %age (I think), arrive at a figure. Then you need to get a TAS from the CRP5 using temp and altitude given, apply the wind to get a Ground speed, then apply the gradient or ROC to the speed to calculate the horizontal distance.
The trouble is you arrive at 2 different figures with either the ROC figure or the Gradient of climb. Which one are you supposed to use?
Unfortunately I can’t remember the figures used in the exam but I re-calculated this question 4 times in the exam and could not match any of the answers given.
I have been told this question has been disputed before. However I would like to know which part of the chart should be used as you can arrive at 2 different answers!
It won’t benefit me, but might assist with others in the future – especially when more CAP questions are introduced into the exam – as is allegedly happening in the future.
Crispy.
