I hope that my last post related to study tips for the ATPL exams has been useful and you are now closer to landing your dream airline job. In case you are about to start your ATPL and curious about how difficult the exams are, I would like to share some personal tips regarding the ground training and final exams: 👨✈️👩✈️🤓
●The brush-up sessions
Your first ground school week will probably be dedicated to mathematics, physics or English brush-up sessions, after which you will have the first set of assessments. If you pass, 🎉 congratulations! If you are an ab initio candidate, you might find it useful to review some high school level mathematics/physics basic concepts and understand them well before continuing towards your ATPL exam preparation.
If you study in a modular way 📖 , you might have seen already more than half of the concepts during your PPL training.
Personal tip: no matter which initial results you have, do not compare yourself with the others as you will have almost one year to work on your weaknesses and improve your knowledge.
● The lectures
The lectures are going to be in-class or distance learning format.
If you chose the in-class formula, expect to attend it during 8 hours/day, from Monday to Friday. At the end of each class, you will have the opportunity to work on some database questions or prepare some projects together with your colleagues. This will allow you enough time to ask questions and clarify all the grey areas you might have.
The success of your exams is proportional to the efforts you put into your training so it would be good to engage with your instructors and training materials as much as possible to gain extra knowledge.
● Homework 📄
Every day you will be given some exercises as homework. Remember to check the question banks, where you will find hundreds/thousands of questions together with explanations. Aim for at least 2-3 hours of self-study daily so you keep the momentum. This way, there will be no need to rush before the final exams.
● Partial tests
Before being released for an official sitting at the authority, you will have to pass some partial tests organized by the school. This will be an assessment of the knowledge you have accumulated so far - the knowledge required and the pass grade for the partials are most probably going to be the same as for the official exams.
● The official exams
Providing that all partial tests are passed, you should now be released to pass the official authority exams. So...how hard exams are? Well, if you spent time studying 📚 for the partial test, the official ones are going to be similar, so no surprises in that respect. On the other hand, it is good to organize your time efficiently: check how many exams would you like to pass and in which order.
As I passed my exams over 2 sittings, I had to pass 4/5 exams/day! This was a challenging exercise as I had to organize them to fit the authority’s opening hours. Of course, there are 6 sittings available so there are plenty of options - see what fits you best and organize the time accordingly.
● Conclusion
At the end of the day, ATPL exams require a lot of self-sustained effort so try not to overload yourself by passing them before you feel fully ready. Keep an eye on the 18-month maximum period so don’t waste time if you constantly score 90+ during the mock tests. If you would like to know how I passed my ATPL with 98% over 2 sittings, the post is right here.
Let me know at which stage of your ATPL you are and how difficult you find it so far. ☺️🤓📚
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