Knowledge-test revisions surprise, scores suffer

[AuntPeggy]

http://www.aopa.org/advocacy/articl...ge_test_revisions_surprise_scores_suffer.html

AOPA has engaged the FAA in response to reports that unannounced, significant changes in the question banks of at least three airman knowledge tests have dramatically increased failure rates.

Question banks affected by the changes include the Fundamentals of Instruction (FOI), Airline Transport Pilot (ATP), and Flight Engineer (FE) knowledge test. Test providers, universities and flight schools have reported significant increases in the number of failures since the changes were implemented. More than half of those taking the FOI knowledge test since the changes were implemented failed the exam.

There are also reports from flight training programs that previously correlated scores between practice knowledge tests and actual tests for the instrument rating have begun to diverge.

 

[Jim Logajan]

IIRC FAA was originally forced to make the test questions public by the courts (in the late 70's?). While I applaud this new policy, I wonder what has changed, legally, to allow its implementation.

I seem to recall the same thing. I may be wrong, but I believe other agencies like the FCC that provide radio license tests must also publish their test questions and possible answer pool.

IF their tests were rid of the trick questions and ones irrelevant to safe flight, I would not mind not having them not available. But they have a lot of things that distract, such as:The definition of nighttime is:

A. sunset to sunrise
B. 1 hour after sunset to 1 hour before sunrise.
C. the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight.
(Each possible answer actually is meaningful in the regulations!)

Am I safety hazard if I forget these differences?

What is the point of asking questions that basically involve nothing of import other than how well you remember the meanings of V speed subscripts? That's why glossaries were invented.

Another favorite of mine:FAA advisory circulars (some free, others at cost) are available to all pilots and are obtained by

A. distribution from the nearest FAA district office.
B. ordering those desired from the Government Printing Office.
C. subscribing to the Federal Register.
The NTSB accident archives are overflowing with cases where failure to know the correct answer to the above was found to be the probable cause! So the finite time all students have is well spent learning the above.