How to Prepare for UK CAA ATPL exams
 

Hi All,

Im just wondering if there is anyone out there who is taking the UK CAA exams on the new 2020 syllabus. From what I hear the UK CAA has been one of the first to adopt the new testing system with drop down questions and type ins? Are there LOTS of type in questions? Surely this is much harder than the standard multiple choice questions people have been doing since the start of time?

Can I just ask how you would recommend revising for these exams. the question banks as far as I can tell tend to assume your working on the EASA old style multiple choice questions.

hope this makes sense.

If the figures I've seen banded about on Facebook on pass rates are true, then it seems like the first group at the CAA doing exams really struggled. I can't give advice on the new syllabus as I am sitting under the old one. However, I think it might be a good idea not to sit for at least couple of months after the CAA starts running exams again to let the exams bed-in and to allow schools and the banks the time to have a better understanding of what is actually coming up in the exams.

On banks, from what I have seen a few of them definitely have 2020 syllabus sections. I have heard, though, (for both the UK and other EU CAAs) that they aren't accurate at all though in terms of what comes up. Banks shouldn't be used for memorisation though, they are a tool to help you study and check your progress just as past papers are for GCSEs and A-Levels in schools.

Try learning the subject :) That's why they have those types of questions.

As someone doing the old ATPL syllabus I find it truly ignorant when comments are made about ''learn the subject'' the fact is the EASA exams are full of silly, often unfair and sometimes in accurate answers and without the banks I feel the odds are stacked against you! You may know the content and yet with their totally poor sentence construction and word play you can get them wrong easily. I cant imagine the 2020 syllabus is any better its a tough one but I think if I had a choice I'd let the banks catch up before sitting the exams!

Harryt,

Just for info: The original UK CAA ATPL exams were written answers! It was the change to JAA (later EASA) that changed all that.

With the exams now being set by the UK CAA again, hopefully questions with answers lost in translation won’t be so much of an issue.

You would like to think so, but the reality is that the UK CAA have merely continued to use the existing EASA question banks, and absolutely do not have either the skills or the manpower to edit them to remove or reword the detritus. There is also a feeling that they don't want to, that their unstated policy is to stay as completely aligned to EASA as they can with the hope of an eventual renewal of the EASA membership.

And I find it truly ignorant that people who haven't yet started in a career think they know what they need to be taught and want to smash the banks automatically as if it's their god-given right to have the exams handed to them on a plate. Back in the day, I've had students coming to consolidation with sets of notes that were still in their cellophane wrappings. That may be a result of the modern education system, but it shows a poor attitude, and one which is directly relevant to KSA 100 and the fact that you could pass all the exams, but still not get your licence. The schools are now the "gate guardians", to use an expression from a previous inspector (he also said that the no 1 risk to the public is air shows, and the no 2 is poor training). Yes, you do need the banks to pass the exams, and the JAA should hang their collective heads in shame for the fact that they are needed. To be fair to EASA, it is hard to change a live system, especially when it takes 2 years to get the results through hard law, and they are trying to improve things, which was apparent at the meetings I attended, but the banks should still be treated as a reinforcement as far as possible, not as a primary means of learning.

Having gone through just about every question on the bank, you will find that you can answer approximately 30% of them with just common sense and ppl knowledge, assuming you weren't given the answers at the flight school, which they often do (I speak as a Ground Examiner). 10% of them are useless, either because they are actually wrong or not relevant in the first place. With decent application and work, you should be able to sort the rest. When you get to the tech interview is when you will really wish you'd listened to that old f*rt in the classroom, or even in the middle of Africa/Canada/other weird open spaces when all the navaids have gone down. Or the computers have stopped working and you can't remember how do to a mass & balance sheet.

sms8

I can sympathise but not sure I agree entirely. Found that with the drier subjects like Air Law, question banks were invaluable. However, for the calculation heavy subjects like Flight Planning, GNAV, Performance then you really do need to know the subject to be confident of walking away from the exam with a pass. For these the banks do have their place but that is as has already been posted further up; the same as using a past paper during GCSE prep, to brush up on your knowledge and practice the calculations the last couple of weeks before an exam.

It is possible to appeal poorly worded questions, but in order to do that you must know the subject well enough to be able to justify the challenge. You can’t get that from just hammering the banks.

along with can't use a calculator. I remember those days

We've sure chewed the same dirt! :)