Aviation Services PPL exam difficulty

[ZK-Brock]

Hi guys
I was looking at the Aviation Services Ltd website today and viewed the Aircraft Technical sample Exam for fixed wing, did it, checked my answers and got a very pleasing mark (85%), and that's without studying! BUT, these are sample papers and not the real thing, is the real thing anything like the sample papers? Cos if so I am as well go do one tomorrow!

Curious, Brock

[towerguy]

I found most of the time they are pretty close but remember 85% is ok but it means you didn't know 15% of the material - if you get into ATC then the pass marks used to be Min 80% and emergency and seperation sections are 100% pass marks - at least it used to be, before the PC types got in - god knows what they are now!

by all means go and pass those exams , but you owe it to yourself and your future passengers and fellow aviators to find out what you got wrong and learn it.

good luck with them anyway

[ZK-Brock]

Ok Towerguy thanks, I've already looked some stuff up in my various textbooks. I'm gonna send away for the FRTO exam for Feb 7 and the Aircraft Tech exam on Mar 21.

[kiwiflyboy]

I just sat the same practice exam and got 90%, but I have also got a PPL and almost a CPL, with that said i only scraped by on both tech exams....... ripped everything else to pieces though. ASL can be complete dicks with regards to their exams... you may have noticed a few questions on that exam where there is more than one right answer you must choose what ASL deem the "most correct" answer. It is also wise to critique any questions you have any doubts about. A class mate of mine found a question in IFR Nav, which had no correct answer associated..... He critiqued and they have now removed the paper. God only knows how many other people have got that exam and got the answer wrong because there was no correct one.....

[mailman]

I hated ASL with all of my heart!

If ever there was a bunch of imcompetent pricks then these are them!

The problem you have is that their exams were sh1t. They contained errors that should NEVER have been in any kind of formal exam and even when you point them out at the end of the paper these are never taken in to consideration!

In fact some of the errors that I pointed out led to the commercial navigation paper being "pulled" (and that being noted in Pacific Wings) simply because the paper contained so many f8cking errors!

BUT the thing that really got my goat was the fact I never received any of my exam results within the SLA of 7 days. As with all things related to this business, and seeing as they ran as a monopoly, the SLA of 7 days went from the maximum number of days it would take for them to get your results to you to the minimum amount of days it would take for exam results to get to you! They had no incentive to actually provide a service (dont even get me started on paying for express marking, not when all thats involved is a f9cking marking template being overlaid on to your answers!).

These incompetent f8ckers should never have been awarded the contract again in 2002 (or was it 2003?)!

Apart from that I dont have any problems with them

Mailman

[BerG]

I always find the sample papers to be easier than the real thing, so does the rest of my class.

Our lecturer pointed out it probably because they want to trick us into thinking we dont need to study, then when we fail the real thing we have to pay them to do it again.

I always get about 97% in the CPL samples and about 90 in the real thing.

My IFR Nav Aids paper stated something like- "You are flying in the mountains, and your ADF needle is fluctuating. What can you do to decrease the accuracy of the ADF needle?"

Now I have no idea why you would want to decrease the accuracy of your navigation equipment, so I suspected it was a mistake, and was meant to say "What can be done to minimize the fluctuating", or, "What can be done to increase the accuracy?" Of course, one answer would have decreased accuracy, two would have increased it, and one was rubbish. I wrote a big speal on the back saying what I would do to increase accuracy and what I would do to decrease it, with my suspicion of the mistake.

I sometimes suspect their marking too, Nav Aids is my best subject, ask me any question from the book and I'd get it, but I got my lowest mark of 87% :/

[Timmo]

I use the "Pilot Books" (Formally the Aviation Theory Centre) series- they seem pretty good with lots of information above and beyond the syllabus (i.e. you learn more rather than just studying to pass the exam)
Ive also found the practice exams easier- bare in mind also that a reduced number of questions in the practice exams means that is possible to get a very high score due to luck....a greater number of questions will pull your score closer to your actual knowledge on the topic...
http://www.enternet.co.nz/users/aviation

Ive done my FRTO, Tech knowledge and Human factors exams....only the hard ones to go Might actually have to do some proper study for these ones

[mailman]

Timmo,

When you do your weather exam all you have to remember is;

If its raining - dont fly
If its really windy - dont fly
If its sunny - its gonna be windy and rainy soon - dont fly



Mailman

[HardCorePawn]

The hardest exam for me was Law... because its basically just memorizing large amounts of boring legalise... i think if i got one more wrong i would have failed.

I got 100% on Nav, despite being the first group to have to use the new charts, the sample chart they gave us having no deviation listed and a couple of other errors in the questions.

The 2 or 3 pages I wrote as a critique must have paid off

As mentioned above, the practice exams are usually easier that the real thing, at least i thought they were.

[ZK-Brock]

Ok thanks guys. i decided that for the meantime I'll only send away for the FRTO exam.

Also, the Navigational knowledge seems so hard! Remembering rules for deviation, calculating TAS, GS etc, and the use of a navigational computer.

[kiwiflyboy]

For FRTO make sure you know things like visual light signals...... and also what to do in the event of a comm failure

[HardCorePawn]

Also, the Navigational knowledge seems so hard! Remembering rules for deviation, calculating TAS, GS etc, and the use of a navigational computer.

was easy for me... I used to do good old Tech Drawing at high school before it became 'Graphics & Design'... and my favourite part was doing the course plotting stuff

The Nav computers look scary, but are actually pretty easy once you know how to use it. I have this bullet proof metal jeppeson one that the course instructor at AFS looked at with scorn coz they preferred the plasticy ones...

I originally struggled with it a little bit, till one afternoon I sat down and read the little manual that came with it...

Its like most things... practice practice practice...

[towerguy]

yeah I've still got the good ole kane E6B nav computer with the metal slide through the middle

[Timmo]

Yeah dont buy a plastic nav computer- I did, i havnt even used it 'properly' yet but it is already warped beyond use.

On it, it says dont store in hot locations- mine was in a canvas flight bag in my car in the sun.....and still warped! They are junk IMO

So ill be buying a metal one.

Oh, btw, once you book an exam you have a month (i think) to sit it...so its probably not best to book too many in one go in case you run out of time (for someone like me, its hard to find time to study so im doing them one at a time)

The nav stuff will get easier when you do some actual flying.....or even try to apply the theory to flight sim flights...

[mailman]

Also, the Navigational knowledge seems so hard! Remembering rules for deviation, calculating TAS, GS etc, and the use of a navigational computer.

monkeybdg,

If the school you are flying through does courses then its probably worth your while to do a Navigation course simply because using the flight computer can be really hard if you dont know what you are doing (and depending on your style of learning etc).

Definately recommend doing a course for the Commercial Navigation exam.

Regards

Mailman

[ZK-Brock]

Thanks mailman, not sure if the aeroclub does courses or not for that sorta thing...anyway the CPL Nav exam is a few years away yet!

[mailman]

monkeybdg,

Are you learning to fly in a C172?

Regards

Mailman

[ZK-Brock]

Nah, learning in the tecnam in my Avatar. Really little thing.

Some info in the PDFs here and here

[ZK-Brock]

Well, I've been approved for the FRTO exam, I sit it next tuesday at 6pm.

[chopper_nut]

Good luck for FRTO, its a fairly easy one. Im studying for PPL air tech at the moment and I tell you, I am going quite insane reading about gyroscopic instruments and anything to do with pressure!! One thing with these exams is that if you can do the sample exams in the back of the pilot books, then you will pass the real thing, just be really carefull with the ambigious questions that ASL slip in there.