The FAA exam system benefits from the FAA almost never introducing new regs, or changes, to the core stuff.
Whereas EASA and JAA before that changed a lot. 5 year old books are no good now.
The oral exam scares the hell out of European pilots. Basically only fairly experienced pilots would pass it easily. So apart from the CB IR conversion route, it isn’t something Europe does.
ArcticChiller wrote:
But in the FAA system there is a very thorough oral exam where you need to know the details of part 61, 91 and the AIM. In Europe the knowledge about part FCL (equals more or less FAR part 61) and NCO (part 91) is somewhere near NIL. ;-) So, even though you’re right about the easy written in the USA, I am sure the certified PPL knows more in the end than in Europe. But not only the testing is to blame, it’s mainly the fast changing air law under EASA.
I agree on all counts
Peter wrote:
Whereas EASA and JAA before that changed a lot. 5 year old books are no good now.
And as anybody who has worked in a growing corporate bureaucracy knows, the real issue is whether unwarranted change will ever stop. A key component in being a well paid parasite living off a cash cow is ‘managing change’, and increasing the complexity of change, right up until the cash cow stops producing anything of value. Meanwhile you draw 100K or maybe 200K without any useful professional skills, and the more skilled and motivated of your victims leave. The EU and its government is no different.
@CKN, I think the reason many people struggle with that DMV test is that other simple questions on the test are phrased using English words familiar to your average road law regulator, that your average marginally fluent non-native speaker has never seen before. The DMV solution is to make the test available in a range of immigrant languages from Vietnamese to German while making the study guide available only in English, leaving the test taker to choose between the lesser of two evils in choosing the language for the test. My wife passed (in English) anyway, after weeks of studying those funny words, but was concerned that she didn’t get 100%. I told her the only thing that matters is barely passing, and the 25 year old kid who gave her the additional practical test said only “lady, you drive great” 
I found the oral exam for my FAA private certificate to be very useful in that the examiner gave me questions that required real thought, and then after my answer explained the issue in reference to my particular kind of flying and my kind of plane. I still remember much of that discussion today. In contrast I don’t remember much about the FAA written exam except I scored 95% and that (as with my wife’s driving test) a passing score was all that mattered in the long term.
Peter wrote:
The oral exam scares the hell out of European pilots. Basically only fairly experienced pilots would pass it easily. So apart from the CB IR conversion route, it isn’t something Europe does.
Actually, there are more oral exams in the regulation. It seems the multiple choice written is regarded as a higher level of examination (e.g. SEP class rating is oral only while HPA class or type rating is written with at least 100 questions). PS: IIRC, EASA is planning some changes to this. I believe they want to introduce open ended question so that people have to answer in their own words instead of just choosing an answer from a list.
I believe they want to introduce open ended question so that people have to answer in their own words instead of just choosing an answer from a list.
Marking such an exam is going to be awfully expensive… But yes a good move, which will nevertheless scare the hell out of the ATPL business.
Peter wrote:
Marking such an exam is going to be awfully expensive… But yes a good move, which will nevertheless scare the hell out of the ATPL business.
There is an interesting hybrid option, which has the advantages of a fully open-ended exam yet is easy to interpret quantiatively: open questions (not announced in advance) being read aloud by the examiner at a pace of 15-20 seconds per question, the correct answer to each being no bigger than a couple of words, a number, or a simple formula. I took such a test at the university many years ago. There were about 50 questions, a correct answer was scored as +1, an incorrect one as -1, and no answer as 0. The minimum passing score was about 40-50%. It was fun to take, and it adequately measured the real knowledge.
The JAA and then EASA had the FAA system in mind when they proposed the exam system however; as there was originally no intention of including the PPL into the JAA system, there was no provision to source any exam questions. Consequently, all PPL exams are produced Nationally, often with no appropriate staff to produce them, whilst trying to follow an obscure interpretation of what the rules were meant to mean. In reality there has never been a JAA or an EASA PPL; they are all National PPLs, so it would have been much simpler to just have a JAA or EASA sticker to put on the front cover of existing licences!
I have just had another exposure to this, helping someone with the study.
It is 9 exams.
I’d say 90% of the material is of zero relevance to flying a plane.
And the exams are all really short – generally no more than 16 questions. So easy to fail (75% pass mark) if you are unlucky.
Would be interesting to know how many of those in charge of selecting the test types and contents hold a pilot‘s license.
Just to clarify its a “paper”not an ”exam”
AMC1 FCL.215; FCL.235
THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE EXAMINATION AND SKILL TEST FOR THE PPL
(a) Theoretical knowledge examination
(1) The examinations should comprise a total of 120 multiple-choice questions covering all the subjects
Sow how we came up with nine papers which make up one exam I have no idea. It should have been one exam of 120 questions covering all 9 subjects. That would of made all the six sittings business also make sense.
Does any where in Europe have just one paper?
