Best ATPL question bank
 

Hello! This is my first post here although I have been reading the forums here for quite some time. I am getting close to doing my ATPL official exams (modular, distance learning) and I am wondering what the best question bank is or if you have any other tips to pass the exams. I am with the new "2020 syllabus" and Ive heard they changed a lot of the questions. I have some friends that recently did their officials and didnt get the expected results after using the CATS and Bristol question banks. Is aviationexam any good? I feel that studying and understanding the subjects is one thing, and learning how to pass the exam is a completely different thing. How did you guys do it? Feel free to delete this post if it is superfluous.

All of the question banks will let you have a free trial of some sort to help you get a feel for their site. I'd recommend choosing one that writes thorough explanations of the answers and has a system that allows you to query questions that you don't understand or appear to be incorrect (No question bank is perfect!). Take a look at ATPLOnTrack, ATPLQuestions, Aviation Exam and BGS for starters........other question banks are available ; -)

If you want questions with short and concise answers - BGS

If you want questions with thorough explanations - Aviationexam

Aviationexam is excellent in that you can literally cast aside your books and use it alone, the explanations are very detailed. BGS too is very handy in that you get the questions you need to see with short and sweet answers, no headache.

I would recommend both of these personally

".....if you have any other tips to pass the exams ...?"

How about learning, and I mean really learning, the subject matter. You never know, you might have to rely on it some day.
Learning the answers to questions is not the same thing.

You’ve evidently not done the exams this century have you...

SID PLATE

That doesn't work for the current state of ATPL exams. One has to hit the question banks.

I enjoyed studying almost all of the ATPL subjects, but believe me, preparing for the actual EASA exams was the most miserable period of my flight training. There is no other way to pass them than practicing on the question bank and memorise the most stupid questions written by people that I doubt have ever boarded an aircraft, let alone fly or work on one. I was able to get rid of the exams in 3 months. But I did not learn anything from preparing for the exams. They add nothing relevant to someone's education.

Probably EASA could learn a thing or two from the FAA system.

Now I have a full time flying job, and I do review my ATPL notes from time to time just because I like the content.

Thank you for all the replies! I love studying the ATPL subjects (except airlaw maybe) and I want to learn and understand as much as possible. I absolutely agree that it is very important to know the subjects. Unfortunately I will have to do quite a lot of "banking" in order to pass the exams. I will try different banks to get the best results as you guys say.

I passed my ATPL exams 4 years ago and back then the general consensus was that Bristol GS was the best option for exams in the UK and Aviation Exams for the rest of Europe. I only used Aviation Exams and it served me well.
Good luck with the new syllabus. Hopefully it has less irrelevant stuff and questions are now written according to a certain standard by competent aviation professionals.

VariablePitchP

Correct.
Apologies ... if that's what it takes in today's industry, then fill yer boots.
(It seems Air Law doesn't change. Uninteresting then, as now, and was the one of the few exams where not being able to use a calculator made little difference.)

Operations is the one most directly relevant for when you join a company. The reason you need to know the material as well is because you will have check rides and tech interviews during which you will not be asked multi-guess questions - you will have to know your stuff.

I just came back from ATPL/H IR Ops Procedure exam, and I use Aviation Exam easa 2020 QB. Only 50% similar question from the database.

Yes Op Procedures seems to be coming from a completely different angle in 2020

The database have been effected with Covid 19 Sir... We need Sputnik!

I've used AvEx, BGS and ATPLQ, for me the most useful for preparing EASA was ATPLQ , can't tell for the new QB.

Yes ATPLQ is the best now but sadly it's only for aeroplane.

So do the (A) exams and bridge across. I don't know why more Heli pilots don't just get a PPL (A) - you get the money back with the credit you get against a CPL (H) so it's a free rating.

Norwegian787

It's very important to know SOME of the subjects, just be aware that 75% of it is nonsense. Since you don't yet know which are the important things to know, your best bet is to stick to the QBs and just get through it, you've got the rest of your career to read and understand. That's a damning indictment of the state of things, but there you go.

Hi all,

Is there significant difference between 2016 vs 2020 syllabus? I am self-studying by the old syllabus since I have been told there is not much difference, but would like to know which subjects are the ones changing the most?

Thanks a lot

If you take the old questions and run them through Google Translate into Greek then back again you should be OK :)

THAT'S A JOKE!

Hi Joe

Which EASA syllabus 2016 or 2020 did you write?

The 2020 EASA syllabus is very different from the 2016 and the 2020 QB's simply dont have enough questions yet. Unless you know the subject matter,you are in for a surprise as I got recently.

That's the whole point.....

Most up to date ATPL question bank?
 

Afternoon,

what’s the most up to date ATPL question bank now the syllabus has changed?

I'm just about to finish my first 5 subjects of home studying, and I will be investing in a question bank shortly. Anyone here passed a "2020" exam recently, that would have any new feedback on which bank to pick these days? Thanks!

I think a few people on this thread (including people who should know better) are being rather unfair and unrealistic.
Of course it is important to actually study the materials and content, but that isn't the full story.

For one, the best way to ensure you are good to doing calculation type questions is... practice, practice, practice. No matter what you are doing. Whether it be with charts are formulae. The banks are a great way to do that. Ideally, students need to just instinctively be able to do calculations as a number of exams are pretty tight for timing. Repetition is good for memorising things in general too. This isn't a tip for ATPLs, but for any examination/ other situation.

How are students supposed to know what's relevant and what isn't? If you are distance learning as many of us are/ were, there is little way to know as no materials I have seen point out the most critical information you need (and there's a lot in the materials which I didn't see in any bank and didn't come up in my exams). With ground schools, it is highly dependent on who your instructor is. Some are incredibly knowledgeable and know the exam, and what comes up, inside out. Others less so. Banks are a way to ensure you are covering all of the core materials. This isn't ideal, but it is a cheap and accessible tool to do it.

Some of the questions (I sat old syllabus to be fair) are just incomprehensible. I had at least a couple of dozen questions where I just couldn't deduce any meaning from the question or answers as they didn't make sense to me. Many others have pretty dubious English. When you bank, you'll see lots of comments like 'goodest English' or 'ICAO Level 7 English' and those comments are fair. There are also a number of things put into exams which will trip you up and need to be avoided. One I had was that if you didn't know Amsterdam was UTC+1, you simply couldn't answer the question. My CAA doesn't allow appeals so that avenue wasn't open before anyone comments.

Doing bank/ past papers/ mock exams is just good exam technique. I am sure everyone in school sat practice GCSE/ A-Level exams (if in the UK) and teachers/ schools are continually criticised for 'teaching to the test'. The issue being that examination systems basically make people teach and learn to the test. This isn't just ATPL exams, it's basically every exam on the planet.

As for the best bank, I used two. BGS and ATPLQ. BGS had better explanations, but ATPLQ had comments which sometimes were very useful and was far more comparable to what actually came up in my exams.

For those who just memorise the bank, you'll eventually get caught out. Hopefully quite early such as at the start of the CPL/ IR which will then allow you/ force you to restudy a lot of the materials to ensure you are up to pace. If you're less lucky, it will be at interview.