Studying for written

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MIFlyer

Pattern Altitude
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MIFlyer
Hi,

I'm a pre-solo (about there) student with a professional job and family commitments.

My school uses the Jeppesen ground school, which i'm 50% through.

I have about two weeks before my next lesson due to CFI/Plane/Me scheduling.

Also, i'm planning to switch from a flight school to a club for better plane availability and much lower hourly cost, i'd like to get my written done and passed before i depart a more structured part 61 school and go to a club environment (I also plan to get past solo too), where I assume the scheduling part time instructors will be harder than scheduling my FT instructor today (plane easier, instructor harder).

I've ready both Rob Mochado's book and Bob Gardner's (both very helpful).

Besides finishing the Jeppesen videos and doing a few practice tests, are there any other cram tactics I can use to finish my written preparation as quickly as possible. I'd ideally like to knock it out in the next couple of weeks so that when i get back to flying, I can have that behind me and just work on airmanship refinement and cross country skills.
 
There are a number of drill-and-kill things out there for the written. I like Gleim but there are a few free internet ones out there.
 
I found the Sporty's Study Buddy to be very helpful and an accurate representation of the written.
 
I did several but, the best I found was Prepware Private Pilot. I downloaded it from the app store for my iPad and studied every free minute and made a 97%. Best $9.99 I've spent. I just bought it for the Instrument written.

Eric
 
wilzup said:
I did several but, the best I found was Prepware Private Pilot. I downloaded it from the app store for my iPad and studied every free minute and made a 97%. Best $9.99 I've spent. I just bought it for the Instrument written.

Eric
Click to expand...

thanks, i'll check them out. i need to get a little further into the ground school to learn e6b stuff and the VOR stuff, but otherwise, I think i mostly need to hone stuff I already sort of know.
 
Here is a new one:
http://turbo.pilottrainer.com/

It is like exams4pilots but with an updated question bank; theirs is severely outdated. Let me know if it helps you or if you have any feedback.
 
dmspilot said:
Here is a new one:
http://turbo.pilottrainer.com/

It is like exams4pilots but with an updated question bank; theirs is severely outdated. Let me know if it helps you or if you have any feedback.
Click to expand...

I do like it! thanks.

Scoring 60/70% pretty consistently, so should be able to improve to 90% with a little studying in a few areas
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I found the Sporty's Study Buddy to be very helpful and an accurate representation of the written.
Click to expand...

+1. Very helpful and it has good explanations if you miss a question and want to know why.
 
I used Dauntless so I could go through all of the questions on my iPhone and iPad whenever I could. Worked very well for me.
 
How do the phone apps handle questions with images, especially sectionals?
 
write-stuff said:
How do the phone apps handle questions with images, especially sectionals?
Click to expand...

Below the question it has a button that says "view figure" or something like that and it will bring up the sectional/chart/figure that goes with the question. It works pretty well apart from the sectional because you couldn't really plot it out like you can with a paper one. However, I had an ASA review book that had a packet of figures like you get on the test and that packet went along with the app questions too so I used that combo for sectional/plotting questions.
 
write-stuff said:
How do the phone apps handle questions with images, especially sectionals?
Click to expand...

Just as with the actual exams the software oft comes with the supplement book with all the figures in it. In addition the test software typically has an image viewer built into it. I can tell you that some prep software image viewer sucks pretty bad (but of course, so do some of the testing stations). Gleim's is much better allowing you to zoom and pan it and also having a built in plotter function. You an download the test supplement from the FAA too: https://www.faa.gov/training_testing/testing/test_questions/media/sport_rec_private_akts.pdf
 
On the phone apps, do they have a filter that lets you pick only questions without figures?
 
write-stuff said:
On the phone apps, do they have a filter that lets you pick only questions without figures?
Click to expand...

The dauntless app that I used did not have a filter for figures but you can tag questions and only study those. It will also keep track of what you missed and what you didn't and let you take just those. you can easily just hit next questions too and skip the questions with figures but I recommend reviewing them anyway.

Keep in mind, these are for the most part the actual questions and answers, just in different orders. I do not recommend ROTE memory as it is truly better to learn and understand, however some people are just not good test takers but can memorize things. Studying this over the weekend got me a 92% on the written and there was some stuff I truly did not understand until it was explained later. This is just a phase to get you to the check ride so keep in mind that knowing the information will get you past your check ride but a DPE will figure out if you just memorized and dig as deep as they want!!
 
mulligan said:
Keep in mind, these are for the most part the actual questions and answers, just in different orders. I do not recommend ROTE memory as it is truly better to learn and understand, however some people are just not good test takers but can memorize things.
Click to expand...

Some questions / answers are just wrong or inane. You have little choice but to memorize the "answer" the FAA wants to hear. The private test isn't so bad but things like the instrument tests and some of the instructors tests are particularly heinous.
 
I used the Gleim online test prep that came with my Gleim package. When I was done, I let my friend (who used the Jepp kit) run through my study guide. We both scored 88 on our written. The Gleim program can emulate Lasergrade or CATS depending on what you choose based on your local test center. I found it easy to navigate and the study guide module made it easy to go through all 800ish questions until I got them all right.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
PS, started the $10 sporty's one last night and liked it overall (on ipad). I'm consistently getting 70-75% and I haven't yet learned to do W&B, cross country trip planning/etc.

I need to brush up on chart colors a bit and then do the ground school on W&B, VORs and cross country navigation
 
wilzup said:
I did several but, the best I found was Prepware Private Pilot. I downloaded it from the app store for my iPad and studied every free minute and made a 97%. Best $9.99 I've spent. I just bought it for the Instrument written.

Eric
Click to expand...

:yeahthat:
 
I have found that taking a lot of the practice tests again and again is pretty much a guarantee.

the written part does not have a huge number of questions. they focus on handling the safety of the plane, like using the flaps, avoiding stalls, following the checklists. then there are questions about the communication with tower, how to approach a towered field, ground control, taxiing, markings, basic stuff like that.

some of the regulations, like hours of night, beacons, emergency frequencies and procedures.

some questions about using pilotage and VOR, navigation, reading charts.

I got a 90 percent and was disappointed i did not ace it 100 never stop learning. pass the test, but keep right on studying and review

a much tougher test is the oral review on check ride day. good luck..
 
highflyingbird said:
I have found that taking a lot of the practice tests again and again is pretty much a guarantee.

the written part does not have a huge number of questions. they focus on handling the safety of the plane, like using the flaps, avoiding stalls, following the checklists. then there are questions about the communication with tower, how to approach a towered field, ground control, taxiing, markings, basic stuff like that.

some of the regulations, like hours of night, beacons, emergency frequencies and procedures.

some questions about using pilotage and VOR, navigation, reading charts.

I got a 90 percent and was disappointed i did not ace it 100 never stop learning. pass the test, but keep right on studying and review

a much tougher test is the oral review on check ride day. good luck..
Click to expand...

oh, agree. I will never stop learning, but would like to knock off the written and the pre solo test aslo while I've got two weeks between time in the air. Then i can get back in the plane, hopefully solo soon, and begin the back half of my journey towards the PPL. I'd like to checkride in May-ish so I could fly this summer
 
PS, i'm finding that as i complete more of the Jepp ground school online, i'm scoring higher and higher. Going to ask CFI to endorse me for the written the next time I see him so I can bang that out.
 
Congrats on passing your written. I took mine today as well. Got an 87 and was extremely happy with that. :thumbsup:
 
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