IFR Writtens

[WeekendWarrior]

Hey all -
I've put off taking the IFR written for way longer than I should have, and I finally treated myself to Sheppard Air. My scores are getting in the low 90s, so I'm going to schedule myself a time to take the test as extra motivation.
One thing I've noticed is folks recommending taking the IRA, IGI, and CFII writtens together. I have aspirations of getting to CFII, and the two-year effectivity window of the CFII written would give me a reason to finish sooner than later.
Any thoughts on why this is or is not a good idea? My rationale is that it'll all be fresh in my head after the IRA exam. If I did it this way, I'd take them all on the same day. Then it would be on to CPL, FOI, and BGI/AGI in that order.

 

[ja_user]

Sheppard air sells the discounted packs for a reason. if you are going to for sure do the CFII within 24 monts, you might as well do it now. Most of the questions will be the same. IGI only if you are going to want that too.

 

[Mikey]

You may need to take the FOI Fundamentals of Instructing written test first before taking any of the ground instructor written tests. Unless you are a teacher and exempt from that requirement. 61.213

 

[dmspilot]

You may need to take the FOI Fundamentals of Instructing written test first before taking any of the ground instructor written tests. Unless you are a teacher and exempt from that requirement. 61.213

It doesn't matter what order you take the tests in.

 

[AggieMike88]

You may need to take the FOI Fundamentals of Instructing written test first before taking any of the ground instructor written tests. Unless you are a teacher and exempt from that requirement. 61.213

As @dmspilot says, FOI is NOT a requirement to take the instructor related exams. The prerequisites can be found in the FAA Knowledge Testing Matrix

@WeekendWarrior ... the content of the IGI and the FII exams does have a lot of similarity to the IRA, but will also expand what you must know a small bit.

So yes.... if an eventual goal is instructing, doing the IGI and at the similar time frame as your IRA can be worth it.

I took my instructor exams in February, and found my existing instrument background helpful, but also studying for the instructor exams was a good review of a few of the details of instrument flying.

If Sheppard still offers the Memory Aid sheet for IRA, really focus on being able to memorize that info and replicate it to a blank sheet from memory. When I did the IRA years ago, about 2/3's of my questions had the answer on the Memory Aid sheet.

And plan on adding your own additions to the sheet based on the IGI. Especially remembering the "type of hold pattern" and "which HSI" questions. Oh, and some of the W&B's can quickly be boiled down to a memory aid item, reducing the need to actually do the computations.