FAA PPL written

Hi guys. Feeling pretty confident with my knowledge that I’m about ready to schedule my PPL written. I’m scoring upper 80s on my practice tests, so I know I’m getting close.

For anyone that’s taken the test recently would you say the questions almost mirror the practice tests or have they completely redone them? I ask because I’m hearing/reading two different things on what to expect and I’m receiving conflicting advice from friends who already fly commercially and how they passed their writtens. I’m not attempting to memorize answers - quite the contrary. I want to understand why the answers are what they are given I’ve yet to receive any instruction in person. I’m merely interested so I have a level of what to expect when I sit down for the exam.

Also, I’m told I’m provided a booklet with the different figures in them. One thing I’ve found frustrating is trying to measure and determine calculations on my iPad or computer screen. Am I allowed to mark in the booklet provided?

Liam,

It’s been a while since I took the exams but every report I’ve heard is that the questions are almost exactly like the preps.

While you may not have memorized the answers most people do and they do great so I’m sure you’ll be fine. Once you get those scores into the 90s :wink:

Adam

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Liam,

You are not able to write in the books, but you will be provided with blank paper.

I would not take the actual tests until your practice test scores are in the high 90s. There is no reason to settle for anything less.

Chris

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I took the PPL written test about 3 weeks ago and most of the questions were identical to the practice test, in most cases word by word.

They will provide a booklet and a clear plastic cover so you can write on it.

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I took the test about a month ago. The questions were very very close to being word for word but not exactly. I did better on the real test than any practice test I had ever taken.

I became frustrated with trying to inaccurately measure things and bought the supplement. It was money well spent.

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Hi Liam, I literally took my exam yesterday (10-7-19). Most of the test questions were very similar to the study questions/tests in my online ground school (Sporty’s). I will say there were a few questions that caught me off guard. I do suggest waiting to take the exam once you are consistently scoring in the 90’s on the practice exams (per Adam and Chris). I was typically getting around 90 to 98% on my practice exams and scored an 88% yesterday if that helps at all. Sounds like you are pretty close to scheduling your exam, good luck!

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Thanks guys! Interesting both are mentioned here - they’re exactly the same and they’re slightly different. I’ll take a few more practice exams and see how I feel then. Kings won’t endorse you without 90s.

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I took mine a month ago.
Questions were very similar, but worded differently, and/or with different variables.

I had the same issue with trying to measure stuff on the ipad. Very difficult.

You CANNOT mark the supplement book. My proctor gave me a couple of transparency sheets so I could overlay stuff, but I just used blank paper to mark distances and measure stuff (make two marks on the paper, then put it up against the scale) Worked perfectly.

Test was as expected to me. I missed two questions (97%). One I just goofed, but the other the image on the supplement was just terrible and a poorly designed image (question was about what runway to use, and the picture of the wind sock was not really clear as to which runway was favorable)

Just study hard. The better you do on them, the better prepared you will feel for the oral portion of the check ride (if you are like me - I wanted to learn the content, not memorize answers)

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