PPL Studying Help (pilot training.ca)

[davegrimy9]

So I have around 30 hours of in class groundschool and am also doing online ground school through Harvs air. I’m trying to get as much done as possible since no work and flying due to covid but I’m feeling slightly overwhelmed and that I might be studying wrong. I just spent the last 10 days and around 80 hours and finished the basic and advanced meteorology sections. Watching all the videos and writing down notes from the slides in the videos. There is so much information and I feel like I will have another 500 hours minimum to get through the course. I’m taking my time and making sure I understand every little detail, which might be a bad thing if i want to get my written exam done soon. Anyone have any tips on what to really focus on and how to properly and efficiently study so I can pass my exam and then continue learning afterwards? I know it varies on the person but how many hours did it take everyone to study before they were nailing the practice exams? And what topics don’t matter as much on exam and what should I really focus on for exam purposes. Thanks

[Kejidog]

What do you call a guy who got 51% in medschool. Dr. What do you call someone that got 65% on a tc exam? A pilot. Don’t sweat it. It’s the 35% you don’t know the weather briefer will tell you. And before some asshat jumps on me, this is a joke people.

[ayseven]

I found it pretty overwhelming too, at first, coming back after a long absence. However, reading the reference material through - even quickly - will ease the coursework hugely. It is good for those nights where you have trouble going to sleep, especially combined with meditation music. One thing at a time...

[Pilotdaddy]

I, too, used pilottraining.ca and couldn't be happier. The way I studied for it was the following;

1) for each topic, I read all the slides
2) if I did not understand fully, I then watched the video for that topic
3) did the practice quiz for each topic
4) reviewed the ones I got incorrectly
5) if I still do not understand why exactly I got those wrong, I restarted and went back to step #1

I did this for all topics. Although, when I think about optimizing what I think is a 'finite' resource (pure memorization items, short term recall), I tend to dump those that require heavy memorization. Things like the sequence of events following a warm front vs cold front, for example, took way too much memorization for it to be worth that slot in my brain. I happily sacrificed those if that meant that I can use that slot to memorize VFR minimums, etc.

It certainly shouldn't take you 500+ hours, I don't think. Anyway, best of luck!

[goldeneagle]

I'm now curious how much the PPL written has changed over the years.

When I did mine, I read From the Ground Up cover to cover the nite before I was going to write. That was the grand total of my studying. I passed, dont remember what the mark was, but it was good enough. That was in 1976. I still remember the main lesson my instructor gave in groundschool.

For the PPL exam, always RTFQ^2 and then apply the SCWAG factor. Read The Friggin Question twice, then take a Sure Calculated Wild Ass Guess. SCWAG factor works like this.

Half the questions you should know which of the 4 choices is right. That's 50% mark.
Of the other half, half of them you can eliminate 2 as stupid answers, so you guess between the other two, that's 12 out of 25, your mark is now 62%.
Still have 25 questions left, of those, just pick the long answer. If there is no long answer, then choose C. random answers will get 6 of those, so now you have at least 68%.

Read FTGU cover to cover the night before writing. RTFQ^2 then apply the SCWAG factor. Cannot fail the PPL written test.

[davegrimy9]

I found it pretty overwhelming too, at first, coming back after a long absence. However, reading the reference material through - even quickly - will ease the coursework hugely. It is good for those nights where you have trouble going to sleep, especially combined with meditation music. One thing at a time...

What reference material are you referring too? On TC site or pilot training.ca? Where can I find it? Thank you

[davegrimy9]

On the TC reference guide if I know all the topics where there's a black dot beside, and have some basic knowledge and understanding of mostly everything else would that be a more effiecient way to study?

[ayseven]

In addition to FTGU

https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/ ... l-2649.htm

Surely the Flying School has given a list of reference material?

I have to say, that I did my initial stuff in the late 70's too, and recently did some refresher courses. The PPL is a lot harder now that it was then. It requires actual study, as opposed to a ground school, followed by whipping off the exam. There is a lot more knowledge demanded of pilots now, but the resources are easier to find. Take a look at what they CAN ask you during an IFR ride for example - and don't ask me where I looked to find THAT either - because I forget. The list is endless. How do we know which ones will save our lives one day, and which are hoops to jump through?

[TalkingPie]

I wrote my TC exam in the last few weeks, having exclusively studied the Harv's Air PPL material. I felt very similar to you - that I hadn't learned enough of the material well enough, especially the weather and meteorology sections. I got an 87% on the exam on my first try, with my worst section score at 80%.

I will say that I was at it part-time for a year or so, but that's because I was having trouble getting access to flying, so I had lots of time to kill. You're probably in a similar situation now. My experience and approach were nearly identical to Pilotdaddy's in the fourth post in this thread, right down to the conclusions about trying to memorize the cold vs warm front material. I did all the practice exams I could in order to build confidence. Honestly, if you're consistently scoring 80% on those, the TC exam is probably going to be a breeze.

The Harv's Air material is more in-depth than even their own practice exams at the end of the course. Those practice exams were harder than at least the TC exam that I wrote, and from what I've heard and read, lots of Harv's Air students had the same experience as I did. As I understand it, much of their PPL slides are the same as what they use for their CPL course.

Honestly, I see passing the PPL exams as only the beginning of the real learning, especially if you're going on to do your CPL. My advice is to go through the material, do the topic quizzes, and if you do well on those, try a practice exam and see how that goes. You're probably doing better than you think.

[davegrimy9]

I wrote my TC exam in the last few weeks, having exclusively studied the Harv's Air PPL material. I felt very similar to you - that I hadn't learned enough of the material well enough, especially the weather and meteorology sections. I got an 87% on the exam on my first try, with my worst section score at 80%.

I will say that I was at it part-time for a year or so, but that's because I was having trouble getting access to flying, so I had lots of time to kill. You're probably in a similar situation now. My experience and approach were nearly identical to Pilotdaddy's in the fourth post in this thread, right down to the conclusions about trying to memorize the cold vs warm front material. I did all the practice exams I could in order to build confidence. Honestly, if you're consistently scoring 80% on those, the TC exam is probably going to be a breeze.

The Harv's Air material is more in-depth than even their own practice exams at the end of the course. Those practice exams were harder than at least the TC exam that I wrote, and from what I've heard and read, lots of Harv's Air students had the same experience as I did. As I understand it, much of their PPL slides are the same as what they use for their CPL course.

Honestly, I see passing the PPL exams as only the beginning of the real learning, especially if you're going on to do your CPL. My advice is to go through the material, do the topic quizzes, and if you do well on those, try a practice exam and see how that goes. You're probably doing better than you think.

Thanks for the advice this makes me feel a lot better. And I agree, getting your PPL is where you are really going to start learning! Congrats on your exam!

[Beefitarian]

Just keep studying. It's a massive amount of information but it's all important. It can be daunting but just keep at it. Things worth while are often a lot of work.

You'll look back and have a reason to be proud.

[waliduss]

Do it right, let it take as long as it needs, you are saving time for your CPL/IFR iatra !
I did the same and yeah i love answering questions that my friends who did it quick for the raitings can't

[ghkj1023]

If you think ahead and plan to do your CPL/ATPL. Pilottraining.ca will gives you a great foundation on almost all the knowledge required for all the exam that you will be doing in your aviation career.

[captainhack]

Although it is important that you learn the basic building blocks (aka PPL Ground Instruction), you can do more concise studying. You need to just go over all of the Harv's air material once and maybe read From the Ground Up cover to cover once. Then just get a sharper edge PPL book and a NIZUS subscription. Leading up the exam, memorize everything in the sharper edge book (be wary of outdated air laws in this book and correct as necessary by searching the CARs) and PRACTICE AS MANY OF THE NIZUS QUESTIONS AS YOU CAN. When you get 90s on the questions on NIZUS (simulating a timed exam and without cheating), walk into TC and write the exam. In addition to that, I would strongly recommend creating a "one pager" of formulas and such to so that you can refresh them in your memory right before the exam. Also, don't forget to READ THE F***ING QUESTION TWICE but do not overthink it. I know many people who followed this method and did exceptionally well on the exams.

[gtappl]

What do you call a guy who got 51% in medschool. Dr. What do you call someone that got 65% on a tc exam? A pilot. Don’t sweat it. It’s the 35% you don’t know the weather briefer will tell you. And before some asshat jumps on me, this is a joke people.

Not true anymore, big red checks your grades when you apply

[davegrimy9]

Although it is important that you learn the basic building blocks (aka PPL Ground Instruction), you can do more concise studying. You need to just go over all of the Harv's air material once and maybe read From the Ground Up cover to cover once. Then just get a sharper edge PPL book and a NIZUS subscription. Leading up the exam, memorize everything in the sharper edge book (be wary of outdated air laws in this book and correct as necessary by searching the CARs) and PRACTICE AS MANY OF THE NIZUS QUESTIONS AS YOU CAN. When you get 90s on the questions on NIZUS (simulating a timed exam and without cheating), walk into TC and write the exam. In addition to that, I would strongly recommend creating a "one pager" of formulas and such to so that you can refresh them in your memory right before the exam. Also, don't forget to READ THE F***ING QUESTION TWICE but do not overthink it. I know many people who followed this method and did exceptionally well on the exams.

Are there any formulas that you or anybody else recommend to have on a sheet to review right before the exam? I know it would be different for each individual but I’d like to know? Thank you

[captainhack]

I hate to be pessimistic or to be a dick to anyone. But, I have to say that if you have to use someone else’s formula sheet because you are too lazy to make your own, then you are not cut out to be a pilot. Making that formula sheet while going through the content and deciding what’s important to put on that page to review leading up to the exam is probably about 30% of the learning process. Trust me there is the concise method of studying, BUT THERE IS NO SHORTCUT TO STUDYING FOR THESE EXAMS. Go section by section (air law, met, gen, Nav) and allocate space on that paper and write it in.

[davegrimy9]

I hate to be pessimistic or to be a dick to anyone. But, I have to say that if you have to use someone else’s formula sheet because you are too lazy to make your own, then you are not cut out to be a pilot. Making that formula sheet while going through the content and deciding what’s important to put on that page to review leading up to the exam is probably about 30% of the learning process. Trust me there is the concise method of studying, BUT THERE IS NO SHORTCUT TO STUDYING FOR THESE EXAMS. Go section by section (air law, met, gen, Nav) and allocate space on that paper and write it in.

I understand, I’m not necessarily looking for a shortcut I’m trying to use every resource that is available to me, including this forum and from peoples experiences. Maybe I’m too early on in studying, I need to finish all the modules and try a couple practice exams to realize what I may be struggling with and focus on those particular areas and formulas. Its going great so far! Thanks for the advice!

[WickeDolphin]

I hate to be pessimistic or to be a dick to anyone. But, I have to say that if you have to use someone else’s formula sheet because you are too lazy to make your own, then you are not cut out to be a pilot. Making that formula sheet while going through the content and deciding what’s important to put on that page to review leading up to the exam is probably about 30% of the learning process. Trust me there is the concise method of studying, BUT THERE IS NO SHORTCUT TO STUDYING FOR THESE EXAMS. Go section by section (air law, met, gen, Nav) and allocate space on that paper and write it in.

I understand, I’m not necessarily looking for a shortcut I’m trying to use every resource that is available to me, including this forum and from peoples experiences. Maybe I’m too early on in studying, I need to finish all the modules and try a couple practice exams to realize what I may be struggling with and focus on those particular areas and formulas. Its going great so far! Thanks for the advice!

Make sure you read the forums on Harvs Air too. I read some forums by other students and the mistakes they made and that helped me when i wrote my exam. Dont worry too much about Harvs air being too hard. Alot of the questions they ask for PPL quizzes is CPL standard and they use the same questions for CPL. Studying hard and understanding material from harvs air during PPL will give you a huge upper hand. I just studied the materia, and didn't even do any quizzes. Just did their practice exams, along with pilotexams.com and got a 95%. As long as you understand the material, you're set to kill PPL written.

[CaptainKirk]

PPL training can be overwhelming and I’ve been there myself. What worked best for me:
1) Do practice exams to get used to TC type questions. Passing the TC exams is a wording game more than knowing your stuff.
2) Print the PPL study guide and highlight every section as you learn it.
3) You don’t need a very high passing grade and many people with average intelligence have passed it before.

Stay motivated by focusing on your goal of being a pilot.
The rest will come.

Captain Kirk