CFI - Written study

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SinkorSwim

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Starting to study for my CFI written.. Is it the worst written to take?

exam 4 pilots I see offers tests.. Any other websites good to use?

Thx
 
The Fundamentals of Instruction (FOI) exam is pure regurgitation.

Read, memorize, ignore what you know about training/learning and spit back the requisite evidence that you read the FOI book.
 
I think the FOI will be the harder test. Just because its all new.

I've heard that exam has changed and is now significantly harder than it was a year or 2 ago. So, I would not skimp on the studying for that one. I've heard when they implemented the new exam, many more people failed than before and they regraded them. But, i'm not sure if that new exam is still in place.


GLEIM ha(d/s) a good book for both those exams (FOI, and the Flight instructor exam). But honestly, I don't think the Flight Instructor exam is too difficult. If you're already instrument rated, and commercial pilot, this should mostly be review.
 
The FOI test is indeed pure regurgitation, but the longer you instruct, the more you'll understand the importance of what the Aviation Instructor's Handbook is trying to teach.

The CFI-Airplane test is basically just a repeat of the Commercial Pilot-Airplane test, so if you still know that stuff, you're good to go.
 
They messed with the FOI recently and I nearly failed it because of that. The study material I had simply did not represent what the test was.

The other written isn't bad. It's mostly just private/commercial stuff.

If you're serious about passing with a good score go with:
http://www.sheppardair.com/trainingaids.htm
Yes their website is ugly, and their software is ugly, but they have the best question/answer database I've seen. It is updated pretty much daily. You can call them 24x7x365 and an American that *understands* the software and aviation will answer.
 
Ron Levy said:
The FOI test is indeed pure regurgitation, but the longer you instruct, the more you'll understand the importance of what the Aviation Instructor's Handbook is trying to teach.

The CFI-Airplane test is basically just a repeat of the Commercial Pilot-Airplane test, so if you still know that stuff, you're good to go.
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Agreed, and anyone that has taken Psyc101 in college will see it all again. :mad2:
I see different things in different students,:yikes: and then can relate their actions back to the FOI and Instructors Handbook. :goofy:
 
Maybe they could teach Meyers-Briggs too, then we could feel like we had both a College Psyche course and did a Corporate Retreat, all in the same teaching guide! :rofl:
 
SinkorSwim said:
Do they continually change the bank of questions?

Just curious..
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Every May, the feds invite representatives from the training industry down to OKC to share ideas. The ASA representative gives me a copy of her notes. While folks like Gleim, the Kings, ASA, etc always have suggestions on what should be dropped and what should be emphasized, the movement is glacial. "Continual" is far from being the case.

Bob Gardner
 
I just took the MCI the other day. The guys that run the course here said that new questions are cycled in about every month or so. It's a pain in the butt course (at least the MCI one is). Good luck!
 
To expand a little on my previous post, the test-writers in OKC are affected by "Not Invented Here" syndrome and do not fall all over themselves accepting suggestions from the industry. Having said that, the recent imbroglio over the FOI written, with some questions removed from the test and some test scores changed from fail to pass made a splash in the aviation press and, to some extent, in the mainstream media. The FAA does not like to be embarrassed. I believe that there will be closer cooperation with the industry in the future.

Bob Gardner
 
Ron Levy said:
I think "periodically" would be a better word than "continually," but it's definitely not static.
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Yep, and they just did. Buddy of mine busted the CFI "due" to the Gleim Prep.

Shepard (Shepperd?) Air has some good stuff.
 
BellyUpFish said:
Yep, and they just did. Buddy of mine busted the CFI "due" to the Gleim Prep.

Shepard (Shepperd?) Air has some good stuff.
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I've used Gleim a few times, and I'd almost be bold enough to say your buddy didn't study. The Gleim stuff usually has a great summary of what to study.

I've had GREAT success with Gleim.
 
ajstoner21 said:
I've used Gleim a few times, and I'd almost be bold enough to say your buddy didn't study. The Gleim stuff usually has a great summary of what to study.

I've had GREAT success with Gleim.
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Have you taken the test in the last couple of months?

I know there was quite the hub-bub on another board I'm on concerning the question banks having just changed in the last 3 months or so..

FWIW - the FOI is a joke. I took it in less than 10 minutes and made something like a 92. Don't remember the score, but it broke the previous record and all the guys bought me dinner.. LOL.. But as someone else mentioned already, the longer you instruct, the more things become clear from the FOI.
 
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BellyUpFish said:
Have you taken the test in the last couple of months?

I know there was quite the hub-bub on another board I'm on concerning the question banks having just changed in the last 3 months or so..

FWIW - the FOI is a joke. I took it in less than 10 minutes and made something like a 92. Don't remember the score, but it broke the previous record and all the guys bought me dinner.. LOL.. But as someone else mentioned already, the longer you instruct, the more things become clear from the FOI.
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I should appologize, as I shouldn't have said that without havin takin it recently. But, from my experience, it is mostly the same questions as on the private/commercial tests. I just couldnt imagine what could have changed that much to be able to blame Gleim for a failure.

I'd definitely believe it if you said it was the FOI just because of all the media attention that test change got.
 
No worries. You can believe it or not, totally up to you. I was just passing it along.

Not that it matters, but this kid has been flying since he was 13. Got his private almost before he could drive at 16. Not the "typical" guy learning to fly.

He has an interview with Express Jet at the end of the month and he is still not legal to drink alcohol.
 
BellyUpFish said:
No worries. You can believe it or not, totally up to you. I was just passing it along.

Not that it matters, but this kid has been flying since he was 13. Got his private almost before he could drive at 16. Not the "typical" guy learning to fly.

He has an interview with Express Jet at the end of the month and he is still not legal to drink alcohol.
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Ha! Wow. I'm impressed and Jealous. Best of Luck to him!
 
ajstoner21 said:
Ha! Wow. I'm impressed and Jealous. Best of Luck to him!
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Yeh, he's a fairly motivated kid. Not always in the right direction though. I keep trying to get him to get his degree, as he hopes to go to a Major one day, but all he can see is a shiny jet in his future and will do anything to get to them. :)

Going to "finish his degree online." I guess we'll see.
 
BellyUpFish said:
Going to "finish his degree online." I guess we'll see.
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I can recommend Utah Valley University for an online aviation degree. I'm going through their program and even though VERY little of my Berklee courses apply the cost is quite good, around 200/credit.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk
 
TMetzinger said:
I can recommend Utah Valley University for an online aviation degree. I'm going through their program and even though VERY little of my Berklee courses apply the cost is quite good, around 200/credit.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk
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Yeh, UV is a pretty common school for online aviation degree.

Please take this my own opinion only, but I don't see the wisdom in an aviation degree. What happens to a guy who has gone to school to "fly planes" and he has a loss of his medical? What then?

Or what happens to a guy who "makes it" tot he airlines and hates the life style and all he has is an aviation degree?

Please, don't take this as a knock on aviation degrees, if you think it's good for you, go for it.

It's a lot like "what's better looking, a brunette, a blonde or a redhead?"

Personal decision that will only impact one person. :)
 
I used the Gliem test prep books and passed my FIA, FOI ,FII, IGI and AGI with no more than 2 questions wrong on a test. The Gliem books have worked great for me (I've taken 8 writtens and never scored below 96%). This was over half a year ago, though, so I suppose stuff might have changed since then.
 
matthammer said:
I used the Gliem test prep books and passed my FIA, FOI ,FII, IGI and AGI with no more than 2 questions wrong on a test. The Gliem books have worked great for me (I've taken 8 writtens and never scored below 96%). This was over half a year ago, though, so I suppose stuff might have changed since then.
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They drastically changed the FOI earlier this year - to the point that pretty much every written test prep had question/answers that didn't resemble it what so ever. Sheppard was the quickest to update theirs. Some others still haven't.
 
jesse said:
They drastically changed the FOI earlier this year - to the point that pretty much every written test prep had question/answers that didn't resemble it what so ever. Sheppard was the quickest to update theirs. Some others still haven't.
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I heard about this. Guess I just missed out on the FOIpocalypse.
 
jesse said:
They drastically changed the FOI earlier this year - to the point that pretty much every written test prep had question/answers that didn't resemble it what so ever. Sheppard was the quickest to update theirs. Some others still haven't.
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I think they did the same on the CFI, from what I understand, and the Gleim was just behind on the question bank.
 
BellyUpFish said:
I think they did the same on the CFI, from what I understand, and the Gleim was just behind on the question bank.
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I asked around a little bit about that after hearing about your buddy and This is what I was told:

It seems to me that in FIA they pay too much attention to the endorsement part and FARs which are not covered in any studyingvmaterials such as Gleim. Also they ask a lot of questions about maneuvers. Like where can find this and that in the FAR.
Where can u find required maneuvers for specific certifications. Tremendous amount of questions about endorsements.

FIA pays attention to none technical questions. The least amount of questions were about aerodynamics, w&b , weather, systems, navigation and instruments, communications and airports.
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I believe this person has taken it recently, but I have not so I don't know how accurate the above statement is.
 
ajstoner21 said:
I asked around a little bit about that after hearing about your buddy and This is what I was told:



I believe this person has taken it recently, but I have not so I don't know how accurate the above statement is.
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I was so annoyed over my FOI score using a big name study program, that I knew there had to be better. I found SheppardAir and used that for my FIA and had no surprises at all. Passed with a 90 something.

If you don't get a 90 or above SheppardAir will refund your entire cost. If you see a question on the test that wasn't in the study material, and can remember that question, they will also refund your entire cost. The program updates itself nearly every time you open it with a new questions database.
 
How do these test prep companies get their question banks? Just from test takers, or does the FAA actually release these somewhere?
 
Yeh, I dunno. I don't have anymore writtens to take, so I'm not too terribly worried about it. :)

Here's a thread on another message board concerning the changing of the question bank on many of the writtens. My friend took the written knowing they had just changed the bank. He said he didn't recognize any of the questions.

http://forums.jetcareers.com/cfi-corner/119815-changes-faa-written-test.html
 
BellyUpFish said:
Yeh, UV is a pretty common school for online aviation degree.

Please take this my own opinion only, but I don't see the wisdom in an aviation degree. What happens to a guy who has gone to school to "fly planes" and he has a loss of his medical? What then?

Or what happens to a guy who "makes it" tot he airlines and hates the life style and all he has is an aviation degree?

Please, don't take this as a knock on aviation degrees, if you think it's good for you, go for it.

It's a lot like "what's better looking, a brunette, a blonde or a redhead?"

Personal decision that will only impact one person. :)
Click to expand...

For me, the degree is a cheap way to check the "BS degree" box in the HR process, studying something I like. I would only recommend it for working adults like me on similar situations

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk
 
Yeh, the whole degree thing is silly. I don't understand why it's required at a major, they don't care what it's in.
 
BellyUpFish said:
Yeh, the whole degree thing is silly. I don't understand why it's required at a major, they don't care what it's in.
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Because somebody with a degree is trying to weed down resumes..and if they have one..hell the pilots should too!
 
BellyUpFish said:
Yeh, the whole degree thing is silly. I don't understand why it's required at a major, they don't care what it's in.
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The military also requires a college degree for direct entry to commissioned officer training (and that means pilot training, too, other than the Army warrant officer programs). The argument usually presented is that a bachelor's degree demonstrates the ability to study and learn in an independent environment, which the military feels is necessary to be a successful officer and the major airlines feel is necessary to be a successful airline pilot. OTOH, many regional carriers today take less (e.g., 2-year associate degree), but they take less in the way of flying experience, too, in order to fill their seats.

No doubt there are other means to demonstrate this, but the sheepskin is easy for them to validate, so as long as they can meet their needs while requiring it, they'll do so. During the Viet Nam war, the Navy took folks with two years of college for pilot/officer training ("AvCad" program), but that stopped about the time the war wound down and they were able to meet their needs taking only bachelor's holders. I was told this weekend by a retired commander that due to a glut of officers, the Navy isn't commissioning anyone but Academy/ROTC graduates now -- no off-the-street OCS applications accepted other than for things like doctors, but I haven't verified that yet.

And I remember when the major airlines wouldn't take anyone without 20/20 uncorrected vision, but that changed, too, as they needed more pilots than they could find with "perfect" eyesight, and it changed first at the regional level. We'll see if the major airlines also change their tune on 4-year degrees if the projected pilot shortage happens as forecast over the next 5-10 years.
 
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Ron Levy said:
The argument usually presented is that a bachelor's degree demonstrates the ability to study and learn in an independent environment
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If someone has gotten to the point where they have all the other requirements to get the job at the major - I think they've done a pretty damn good job demonstrating their ability to learn and dedicate themselves to a task.
 
jesse said:
If someone has gotten to the point where they have all the other requirements to get the job at the major - I think they've done a pretty damn good job demonstrating their ability to learn and dedicate themselves to a task.
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I didn't say I agreed, just that it is the argument usually presented when they're asked, and as I also wrote, "No doubt there are other means to demonstrate this." However, the airlines will do what they can (within the limits of anti-discrimination law) to pare down the number of applicants to reduce the cost and effort of the review process as long as they have enough remaining to meet their needs.
 
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