CogScreen Cooldown Period

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TubelessTire

Filing Flight Plan
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Oct 9, 2026
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TubelessTire
Hey folks, unfortunately I was not successful on the highly dreaded CogScreen. Although the psychologist did not notice any deficiencies on the other sections - such as the WAIS-IV, MMPI-2, Personality Inventory, etc., there were some low scoring sections that were slightly above "Defined norms" the FAA-specific CogScreen-AE.

Basically, the speed of the responces was not considered "fast" enough - although they were perfect in accuracy. ~0.7 with a maximum threshold for my agegroup of ~.6.

I thought it would be worth sharing - AS AN UNDISCLOSED WARNING - that a failure on this exam can trigger up to a 6 month cooldown period to "protect the integrity of the exam". I find it insane that this 'acceptance of risk' is not mentioned when signing up for the exam, nor is it mentioned on the CogScreen administrator's website. Yet another reason why this is a poor quality test.

There are some other posts on Reddit and POA that indicate that there are many different varriations of the CogScreen-AE and a significant diversity of testing options availible. This incorrectly lead me - and probably many others - to believe that if a failure occured, an oppertunity existed to complete a retest as soon as possible. This is not the case.

In the meantime, I've been completing Lumosity in addition to cognative rehab training to boost my chances on the next round.

Question for those of you in the know: If a psychologist offers you to complete a retest earlier (such as 4-5 months with the holday season approaching), are you potentially causing more damage than waiting the full 6 months?
 
Well, here’s the thing. NO BODY KNOWS. Least of all the stupid faa.

It’s used as a weapon in the faa sanctioned rehab quackery's. The idea is to give it to someone as unprepared and in as bad a mental state as possible, and hammer them on how poorly they did. Then, they will give it again well rested and versed, 30 days later and use your improvement as a basis of how much they were able to help you.

How does that reconcile with your cool down? Of course these are a much higher class of person and pilot, the 121 major airline pilot types.

Hate to be so blunt, but it’s all just a simple scam. It means nothing. It’s indicative of less. It makes low level “airline shrinks” lots of easy money. And that’s it.

You are facing what ever you are facing for who knows what reason, but I can assure you it’s not based on anything resembling science, medicine or codified regulation. It’s some nut jobs paradigm. And he will NEVER be held accountable.

And while I’m no more than SGOTI, I have studied this CLOSELY for ten years and have personally interviewed HUNDREDS of pilots (and air traffic controllers) subjected to it.
 
TubelessTire said:
Question for those of you in the know: If a psychologist offers you to complete a retest earlier (such as 4-5 months with the holday season approaching), are you potentially causing more damage than waiting the full 6 months?
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So look at it from FAA's point of view. Here's a guy who retakes it early. Fails again. Then takes it a third time and barely passes at the 6th month (rather than a year). Does it matter? you pass.

Now look at it from your pocketbook's point of view. How many times do you want to waste $1,500 out of pocket? Did you get any advice from your HIMS AME? (or did you approach this without one?).

I have read many many cogscreens (and done one) for 16 years. It is not a scam, and not a joke, it is a tool.
Question: were you advised to go for throughput or are you a "go slow and get it right" guy? Failure to advise the airman is a frequent cause of failure. In cogscreen you have to balance the two. If you are a "go slow and get it right" guy, reconsider the strategy....you want to move quickly as fast as consistent with reasonable accuracy.
 
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bbchien said:
Did you get any advice from your HIMS AME? (or did you approach this without one?)
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Thankfully, (or unfortunately) a recent diagnosis of asymptomatic and acute HIV with preserved immunity allowed me to remain clear of the HIMS program. However several pilots that I know who were enrolled in the HIMS provided a lot of the peer guidance - effectively stating that there was not a lot you could do to prepare. Because a rapid drop in the viral load occurred (less than one month to become undetectable) - I thought that I had compartmentalized the issue enough to present for such testing.

This failure was the result of self inflicted damage triggered by situational stress more than anything else. It was more of an issue of fearing the unknown, the future, what resources could help, and the support of family and friends - all on top of placing the career on hold due to self-grounding for the new medication.

With this in mind, it is frustrating that the FAA relies heavily on studies from the International HIV-Cognition Working Group - in which studies about potential neurological damage is NOT delineated from otherwise healthy persons. It appears that a statistically significant majority of people who do not have other co-morbidities (Smoking, drinking, lack of physical activity, diabetes, hypertension, and recreational drug use) are at a negligible risk with maintained immunological function.

Hopefully the FAA will come to their senses and look at the recent actions by Transport Canada (Complete normal training/line checks = Satisfactory) and the UK's CAA (Not mandatory, but suggested). https://www.caa.co.uk/media/szlnkgq2/20260508-v40-guidance-for-applicants-living-with-hiv.pdf

In 2023, the agency recognized that they might be over testing HIV+ airman. However, they did not have sufficient research to dissolve this requirement at the time. https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/72904
 
Change takes a lonnnng time. When the ON SSRI program went live in April 2010, it was full neurocognitive battery after a YEAR stable on a single med. Tt wasn't until ~2018 when the agency though it had enough evidence for just cogscreen on the INITIAL application only. Now the stable wait is 90 days. Evidence requires sufficient "n".
 
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