What is the best way to study for the Instrument Written Test?

ColinD said:
"Where are you in relation to the VOR?"

I guess I'd probably twist the OBS and find out, rather than puzzling over the matter.
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Trick question - Answer is "What's a VOR?" :biggrin:
 
For the check box written Sheppard.

For actually learning it King schools and a good CFII or instrument flying mentor
 
theplanesalon said:
I agree - Sheppard air does the trick
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The FAA and PSI are in the process of changing the testing process so that fewer and fewer questions will be available in commercial test prep programs. Eventually, there will be essentially none. Through a process the FAA calls AIG (Automatic Item Generation), test questions will be dynamically generated at test time. No one, including Shepard, will have these questions in their databases. If this is how you are planning on passing tests in the future, you might want to consider Plan B.

FAA announced this back in 2020 and the new process is now coming to life. Testing Supplements for IRA are being deprecated in October of this year. All images are appearing on screen, meaning that you can't familiarize yourself with them in advance.
 
write-stuff said:
The FAA and PSI are in the process of changing the testing process so that fewer and fewer questions will be available in commercial test prep programs. Eventually, there will be essentially none. Through a process the FAA calls AIG (Automatic Item Generation), test questions will be dynamically generated at test time. No one, including Shepard, will have these questions in their databases. If this is how you are planning on passing tests in the future, you might want to consider Plan B.

FAA announced this back in 2020 and the new process is now coming to life. Testing Supplements for IRA are being deprecated in October of this year. All images are appearing on screen, meaning that you can't familiarize yourself with them in advance.
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The implications of a dynamic test is scary. The existing static tests had so many problems and not even proofread that many questions were unanswerable. I hate to see how throwing a random number generator into the mix is going to improve things.
 
flyingron said:
The implications of a dynamic test is scary. The existing static tests had so many problems and not even proofread that many questions were unanswerable. I hate to see how throwing a random number generator into the mix is going to improve things.
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If you can ever confirm a question in any Knowledge Test that is has no valid answer, please let me know. We have gotten many questions corrected or removed over the years. If you know of one, please let me know.

Also, people actively taking a test and encountering a problematic question can report it directly to the FAA Training and Certification Group (AFS-810) and they WILL study the report and make changes if needed.

But to answer your question, the reason for the change to dynamic questions is to stop people from memorizing commercially available sample tests. When the providers can no longer mirror the FAA exam, students will have to go with plan B - actually learning the material.
 
That's my point. They escaped the FAA because the FAA can't be bothered to properly edit and proofread things. Now people like you and the test cramming software companies aren't there to vette the FAA's sloppiness.
 
bbchien said:
The best way to study for the test is to master the knowledge. Then, none of the above matters.
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This has been my issue when I ask about the instrument written and people swear by Sheppard and their "system". Rote memorization isn't a system. I want to actually learn the stuff. Not just get the correct answer
 
Depends on the exam. I learned the Private and Instrument pretty cold (though there are some things on the instrument, you kind of have to memorize the inane FAA line on, if not the actual questions). The FOI on the ohter hand is a complete piece of hogwash. There's good reason they exempt professional educators from taking it. Too much vomiting over having to stomach the FAA's idea of educational theory, which is even worse than their idea of physics.
 
It's a solution to a problem that exists in people's heads, so it therefore must exist and we must have a problem. I've worked with government groups for years, this is normal. People being outraged by things they can't comprehend, so a solution is developed by people with less understanding of the problem.

We'll have more people that commit to memory how often a parachute needs to be repacked, never mind that the correct answer isn't "X days", it's "look it up your damn self", yet have no idea at all what it feels like to stall an aircraft, or fly in actual slow flight. Because the former kills lots of people, but loss of control never does...in whatever font sarcasm is. Excellent.

On a non-sarcastic note, the ground school prep people will be fine, some will just have to adjust a little bit to move from questions to theory, but it's still the same thing. Best learned either by reading or some drill format of the facts at hand. It's just rote memorization, whether it's specific questions or the FAA's unending stream of acronyms (USOA), or even simple math. The test of flying skills, critical thinking, and judgement happens in the oral and checkride.
 
Maybe this belongs in the AI thread-anyone have luck with audio AI + instrument training material? It’d be great to spend several commute hours a week fielding open ended IFR study questions.

No, it won’t work for reading an approach plate but would be great for all the dry FAR type stuff.

Back to the written test, do we really need to remember 70% of the thousand plus source pages? How about 85% of the really important hundred pages?
 
Randomskylane said:
Back to the written test, do we really need to remember 70% of the thousand plus source pages? How about 85% of the really important hundred pages?
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I'd say we need to have enough of the fundamental knowledge to make good decisions. This knowledge must be learned - no one was born with it.

Regarding the test? It simply exists to determine if learning occurred. Trying to pass the test by memorizing test questions defeats the purpose.
 
Procedurally generated questions have a place - like W&B where bounding is technically easy to guarantee. TBH if they get it right (eventually) those questions do require less memorization and more understanding, so they're a good thing.

I have a hard time imagining a world where the procedurally generated questions are broken and nobody pulls the fire alarm.
 
Hengelo said:
Procedurally generated questions have a place - like W&B where bounding is technically easy to guarantee. TBH if they get it right (eventually) those questions do require less memorization and more understanding, so they're a good thing.

I have a hard time imagining a world where the procedurally generated questions are broken and nobody pulls the fire alarm.
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I think the FAA expectation would continue to be that if problems are found, they should be reported. The FAA has a better track record than one might think regarding fixing broken questions.
 
simtech said:
If you are just wanting to get the written out of the way before training sheppardair and a few days studying it will get it done. Then you can focus on learning and flying. You will be surprised how much you retain from studying this way too.
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Although I approached SheppardAir as mainly a cram course for the test, their explanations clarified a material number of topics that I did not fully comprehend from my ground school.
 
Mileage said:
Although I approached SheppardAir as mainly a cram course for the test, their explanations clarified a material number of topics that I did not fully comprehend from my ground school.
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I agree and did the same. Any time I did not fully understand a question, I stopped to read the explanation (and go to primary sources to understand more if needed). This dramatically increased the time to go through the questions the first time, but made it an actual worthwhile learning experience.
 
Mileage said:
Although I approached SheppardAir as mainly a cram course for the test, their explanations clarified a material number of topics that I did not fully comprehend from my ground school.
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I just finished and took the FII test and found the videos very useful. I still standby them too. I scored a 100 on the FII. And that was because I went back and changed an answer. I remembered their video and drew out the holding and said dang I got it wrong….or did I….change it haha
 
Use a CFII to make sure you understand the material?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
write-stuff said:
If you can ever confirm a question in any Knowledge Test that is has no valid answer, please let me know. We have gotten many questions corrected or removed over the years. If you know of one, please let me know.

Also, people actively taking a test and encountering a problematic question can report it directly to the FAA Training and Certification Group (AFS-810) and they WILL study the report and make changes if needed.

But to answer your question, the reason for the change to dynamic questions is to stop people from memorizing commercially available sample tests. When the providers can no longer mirror the FAA exam, students will have to go with plan B - actually learning the material.
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The current Sheppard Air database includes several questions where the "real" answer is one thing but the "correct answer for the test" is another answer.
 
Mileage said:
The current Sheppard Air database includes several questions where the "real" answer is one thing but the "correct answer for the test" is another answer.
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So does Gold Seal. That's nothing exclusive to Sheppard. Also, realize that once a question is reported to Shepard and they add it, it's basically there forever - even if it is later removed from the FAA's database. At Gold Seal we regularly report problematic questions to the FAA that result in changes or deletions.
 
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write-stuff said:
At Gold Seal we regularly report problematic questions to the FAA that result in changes or deletions.
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I'm glad to see people realizing the FAA gets it wrong and that there's a reliable mechanism to effect a change. I remember years ago having a spirited discussion of aerodynamics with a copilot of mine who also ran a flight school and administered FAA written tests. He cited a reference for an answer as "Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators", however, if you just read another page or two you could see the answer was lifted without context making the cited answer incorrect — but was the "right" answer per the FAA. I wish I could remember exactly what it was about now.
 
dtuuri said:
a reference for an answer as "Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators", however, if you just read another page or two
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I do recall the question(s) that referred to that publication. In fact, I think the old PTS even mentioned the "Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators" as a reference.
 
Great post! This is a very practical and honest breakdown of leasebacks. I especially liked the point about treating a leaseback as a business rather than expecting the aircraft to simply pay for itself. The advice about checking actual flight hours, maintenance costs, and records from similar aircraft at the FBO is particularly useful. Doing the numbers realistically and understanding the risks before getting into a leaseback seems essential. Thanks for sharing your experience!
 
Adding a free one to the list, with the disclosure up front: it's mine. headedin.com/instrument. 818 questions written from the AIM, the Instrument Flying Handbook and the FAA chart figures (an 82-question chart room), every question tagged with its FAA-S-ACS-8C code so the score report shows which ACS area a miss falls in, the same way the real report does. A Pass Meter estimates your odds from your own answers, and misses come back first. No sign-up, no ads, free. If anyone spots a question where the "real" answer and the "test" answer disagree, as the thread was discussing, every one of ours shows the source paragraph it came from, so it's easy to argue with and I'll fix what's wrong.
 
So these are answers directly from the exams. I've used them all throughout
 
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