CAA UK ATPL exams
 

What is the best question bank for caa atpl? I heard Aviationexams and Bristol ground school are the best.. but i can only choose one..

Hi

I heard bristol but not used them yet.

For the UK CAA I think Bristol is the most up-to-date with the new questions and removing old ones.

Av. Exam has much better apps for Android and IPad and you can access it offline.

Get both for revision .....But BGS is better suited to UK Exams

UK CAA/JAR CPL EXAM VS CASA CPL EXAM
 

Hi

I do not know how much per written exam UK CAA charges?
In Australia, CASA charges about $150(or there about per exam) and for 7 exams that close to $1100 plus all your documents, maps (about $300).
I am just curious how much it is for CAA CPL written exam and the costs for the documents, maps etc? In Australia we use an ERSA (En Route Suplement) for airports in Australia and nav. requirements for airways.
What Document for UK airports are in use?

£68 per exam in the UK, 13 for the CPL, 14 for the ATP.

Regarding question banks, I used AE but tried out BGS for comparison for a week prior.
They are very similar but I found AE has more questions, has already implemented the new question format (dropdown boxes with text selection, tick multiple boxes, enter number for answer). I personally found the user interface of AE better, especially the retest wrong answers, sync with offline iPad/iPhone apps. Explanations are generally quite good but some are lengthy and/or not tailored specifically to individual questions. You only see these if you click on the tab, such as when you get stuck or pick the wrong answer. I found this a good way to deal with questions as I progressed.

BGS seemed to have a slightly smaller question bank, which may be an advantage if this is because it has dropped the more obtuse questions that don't appear. Extensive search and filter functions. I only used this on a computer and found it displayed a brief and helpful explanation after you selected an answer, no choice to look at this first.

With EASA adding thousands of new questions to the QB annually, I'd expect the online QBs to diverge more from what you actually get in a test. They do prepare you, especially on exam/answering technique, and reinforce the key learning points, so remain an essential tool in the ATPL TK learning process.


Regarding price
UK CAA exam fees went up in April 2017 to £69 per exam.
Guidance states that some of the UK CAA foreign exam centres may charge more.

They are adding questions but 'thousands' a year is a slight exaggeration, the vast majority of questions have not changed and what you see in avexam is at least 80/85% of what you see in the CAA exam, if not more, and for some subjects it was even more with everything having been present in the bank for 1 of them.

Deanna41 it's different in the UK/Europe regarding the exams and the docs you need. I did my conversion way back in 2001 and I think I bought a student pack to study from. As for the AIP and other regulatory docs, you should be given extracts.

Then perhaps it depends on what authority you sit them in

Exactly. So then why are you saying that you had stuff which you hadn't seen before mostly yet all my exams were for the vast majority of the questions stuff I had seen numerous times before.

It's really not good to try to cause panic for people who haven't sat any exams yet. On an 80 question exam there were about 10 new questions, that is a very low number when considering the overall picture. For some of the smaller subjects like M&B there were no new ones at all, if there were then they perhaps changed a number or 2 in one of the calculations, which is nothing really, you wouldn't even notice.

Anyway, to the OP I advise aviationexam, it is leagues ahead of BGS for the exam questions and the explanations.

But this is it and it's where people have to be very careful. Too many people go into the exam and when they see something worded slightly different they panic. We need to relax and realise they are asking the same stuff they always had, the QBs rely (or so they claim to) on feedback from students who have sat their exams. They only receive stuff in bits for many of the questions and so the wording may not be exact, but it is still the same question

For what I heard, whith the Quadrant system they added lot's of questions on Air Law, OPS, Comms. With the rest some say that they are completely new, others say the opposite. It would seem strange to me that they changed entirely the exams. Even if it's true it's only a matter of time that the question banks catch up with this.

I will be sitting my first round on december, fingers crossed.

Having watched them for a while, I think that there are differences between Authorities as to how they draw questions from the CQB, probably dependant on the exam software they use.

I understand that some draw exams from the entire CQB, and that would mean that two candidates sitting the same subject on the same date would have quite different exams and quite different annexes.

Some Authorities seem to draw a sample of questions from the CQB, no idea how many, say 200 a subject, do their own validation on those questions as far as they are able, then select the questions for their exams from their more limited sample. This would mean that all their candidates have similar exams, with the same questions coming up repeatedly and the same annexes. I think the UK CAA do this, and choose the newest questions for their sample. Presumably they change the sample after a period and a whole new batch of questions arrives.

This is speculation only, based on the feedback we get.

So, we just have to pray to not get on one of the new cycles.

If I am right, that is pretty much the case. Feedback is good, though, and the question banks usually have a handle on the new exams within a fortnight or so. It also has to be said that in many subjects new questions are non-contentious, well validated, and within the syllabus. Not all, however.

There is another aspect. The syllabus EASA are currently using has been around since 2008/2009 and acknowledged by all as being less than perfect. There is a working group and an NPA for revised syllabi in all subjects, due to arrive maybe 2018/2019. One of the 'less than perfect' aspects of the old syllabi is that there are some really quite badly chosen and phrased objectives, these have been quietly ignored by those asking the questions for some time, and rightly so. I am told there is a newish EASA directive, however, that all the objectives in the old (and defective) syllabus must now be tested, hence the arrival of some really silly questions such as 'State which chapter of ICAO doc *** subject *** is referred to..." etc.

Thanks for the info Alex. Any idea how long this cylces are? Because if they choose around 200 questions for each subject, then for the 14 should be around 1 year, am I right?

Sorry, this is pure guesswork. Its unlikely they would use all new questions in their sample, and new questions are being generated at quite a rate in some subjects. If I am right (and I may not be) and you then put yourself in the UK CAA's shoes they would not want to do this too frequently in any one subject because it represents quite a lot of work. Far easier to just draw questions from the entire database - but then there has to be some method for printing out all the different exam annexes and making sure the candidates get the correct pile for the exam they are about to sit. Also the Authority have to rely on all the questions in the database being suitably validated, by their standards as well as by EASA's. I'd be interested to hear how the Authorities deal with Annexes in other EASA States.

Which are the good, the bad and the ugly ones?