Hey guys, well decided to finally join AvCanada. Currently in the Algonquin College Program for Aviation at the Ottawa Flying Club and I just passed the Ofc club written exam with a shy 73%. I'm writing my Transport exam on Friday and have been feeling pretty nervous/stressed out lately. I've been doing the practice exams on aerotraining.com averaging between 80-100%. I have the Canadian Private Pilot Answer Guide and seem to be doing pretty good on those. I downloaded the Transport Canada Sample Exam today and scored 83% on it. I heard the Transport exam is pretty tough, and I'm just wondering if I'm getting these marks on the practice exams will I be fine for the Transport? People have also told me there's questions on GPS and what not but there isn't any in the practice exams. Also for some reason I read stuff, write it down, and it stays with me for a day then it's gone. It's just bits and pieces, how well do I need to understand everything? I understand everything about the flying part, but General Knowledge and Met are where it gets me. It's not so much as I don't know what it is when I see it on a test but it's the whole explaining it part. If someone asks me what lets say a Cold Front is I freeze up, I can only describe 1/4 of it, the rest is all bits and pieces. Any advice? Thanks folks.
Sincerely,
Joey McCormick
Transport Canada Private Pilot Written Exam
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Joey McCormick
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mcconnell14
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Re: Transport Canada Private Pilot Written Exam
hey joey. sorry i cant answer your question, but im applying to the algonquin college program. just wondering how your enjyoing the course? how are the instructors? and what your high school average that got you accpeted there was? thanks
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Joey McCormick
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Re: Transport Canada Private Pilot Written Exam
No worries bro. The program itself is excellent. Great FBO and a staff of excellent instructors. I highly recommend this program. I joined it straight out of highschool and my average was around 65% Was kind of surprised to get in with a 51% in College Math. Good luck man, hope you get in.
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mcconnell14
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Re: Transport Canada Private Pilot Written Exam
thanks for your info...im applying for the May and September starts. although im still looking at my options i get 5 of them at ontariocolleges.ca i believe.Joey McCormick wrote:No worries bro. The program itself is excellent. Great FBO and a staff of excellent instructors. I highly recommend this program. I joined it straight out of highschool and my average was around 65% Was kind of surprised to get in with a 51% in College Math. Good luck man, hope you get in.
hope you get the answers to your questions..im interested in them aswell for future referance. aha
Re: Transport Canada Private Pilot Written Exam
Remember the PPL written is multiple choice. There will always be one correct answer, one that is close but not quite correct, and the other two are, most of the time, obviously wrong. So even if you don't know everything about everything, you can sometimes make an educated guess based on the choices. If you have "From the Ground Up" I highly recommend you take a few hours out of your day and do the 200 or so questions in the back of the book, because you can never have too much practice. And also remember that you have to pass (i think 60% is the pass rate) each section in order to pass the exam so if you are weak in some areas then study a bit harder in that area. Based on the marks you got on your practice exams the actual exam should be no sweat for you.
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mattedfred
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Re: Transport Canada Private Pilot Written Exam
read the question twice
right down what you think is the answer without looking at the multiple choices
review the multiple choices and scratch out each one that you think is wrong
you're usually left with 2 answers that sound about right
compare them to the answer that you wrote down originally and see if you can figure out the right choice
the practice exams are the best study tool IMHO
right down what you think is the answer without looking at the multiple choices
review the multiple choices and scratch out each one that you think is wrong
you're usually left with 2 answers that sound about right
compare them to the answer that you wrote down originally and see if you can figure out the right choice
the practice exams are the best study tool IMHO
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Joey McCormick
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Re: Transport Canada Private Pilot Written Exam
Alright great advice from everyone 
I redid the Transport Canada Sample again today, after going over the areas that I were weak in. To say the least I scored 91% this time. I plan on doing more of the 600 questions in the Canada Private Pilot Answer Guide and some more on aerotraining tomorrow, as well as taking some time to do some of the FGU questions. Then I will give the Transport another go and see how much better I do. If I'm to do all this...it shouldn't be to hard for me to pass the Transport correct?
I redid the Transport Canada Sample again today, after going over the areas that I were weak in. To say the least I scored 91% this time. I plan on doing more of the 600 questions in the Canada Private Pilot Answer Guide and some more on aerotraining tomorrow, as well as taking some time to do some of the FGU questions. Then I will give the Transport another go and see how much better I do. If I'm to do all this...it shouldn't be to hard for me to pass the Transport correct?
Re: Transport Canada Private Pilot Written Exam
Haha -- Joey didn't expect to see you on here...
Yeah your best bet is to just do lots of sample questions -- the Answer Guide is a good study tool. I'm sure you are already, but focus on the Met and Knowledge questions the most. Essentially, there is a limit to what you can ask you, and what you'll find in the answer guide won't differ greatly from what you'll see on the real thing. It's like governmental tests -- after a while you'll get a feel for what they could and wouldn't ask you.
The Met shouldn't be too bad -- a lot of the questions are interpreting METARs, TAFs, SIGMETs, etc -- and I know you can do that!
Haven't heard anything about GPSs (Wasn't any on my test atleast...), but doesn't mean it can't happen. I'd imagine you would need to know that it needs satellites to work, and not to depend on it as you could go out of satellite range.
If you're getting 80-100% you'll do fine. Most practice tests out there are very fair, I'd even say most were a bit harder than the real thing. I went in with I think an 82% average and got an 85%. All you need is more than 60% -- nobody ever sees that mark, and if you fail, nothing goes on the license about it. So don't stress out. Keep doing problems, keep hitting the books, but don't give yourself a heart attack!
Yeah your best bet is to just do lots of sample questions -- the Answer Guide is a good study tool. I'm sure you are already, but focus on the Met and Knowledge questions the most. Essentially, there is a limit to what you can ask you, and what you'll find in the answer guide won't differ greatly from what you'll see on the real thing. It's like governmental tests -- after a while you'll get a feel for what they could and wouldn't ask you.
The Met shouldn't be too bad -- a lot of the questions are interpreting METARs, TAFs, SIGMETs, etc -- and I know you can do that!
Haven't heard anything about GPSs (Wasn't any on my test atleast...), but doesn't mean it can't happen. I'd imagine you would need to know that it needs satellites to work, and not to depend on it as you could go out of satellite range.
If you're getting 80-100% you'll do fine. Most practice tests out there are very fair, I'd even say most were a bit harder than the real thing. I went in with I think an 82% average and got an 85%. All you need is more than 60% -- nobody ever sees that mark, and if you fail, nothing goes on the license about it. So don't stress out. Keep doing problems, keep hitting the books, but don't give yourself a heart attack!
Cessna 182 | C-FKLY
Re: Transport Canada Private Pilot Written Exam
You'll be fine if that's what you're scoring on the practice tests.
Saying that you did 51% in college math, just make sure you don't rush. The arithmatic when doing calculations like take off distances / navigation / fuel / headings ... etc requires you to pay attention and be able to store several information in your head and use them together. Or you can just write it down on the piece of scrap paper they give you. Either way, make sure you don't rush cause you'd hate to see a low mark cause you didn't pay attention to something you did.
Remember the real truth lies in the fact that you know your material; if you don't know your material TC's exams are designed to prove that; the practice exams, not to the same extent.
For example, if you score low on General Knowledge, well that's an area that I would personally expect to get better at if I was you. So this should become one of your strongest points by the time you do your Commercial Written. What I have been told numerous times is that putting an effort into understanding the elements of "General Knowledge" which breaks down into airframes, engines, systems, operations... etc will really help you out one day when you're sitting in an airline ground school say for a type, because if you work at acquiring a strong basic understanding of how everything works and is linked together, you will find that the transfer of insights and understandings to the iron's will be much easier.
I know you're far from the airlines now, but why do I say that? because many people go through the PPL and CPL written exams acquiring approximately the same marks in each respective area which would tell me that their knowledge in that region is most likely at the same level as it was before; obviously with more information. But to the standards of where a commercial pilot needs to be, their knowledge is in the same region as the case was with their private standards. Also understanding your systems well today, will make it easier for you to grasp it later on. And we all know, as we age it's harder to take in information and actually retain it !
Last but not least, don't forget that doing individual exams and scoring 80-100 percent is different than doing 1 3-hour session; you saw the difference. You scored 73%. Perhaps you were having a bad day.
Good Luck Joey
Saying that you did 51% in college math, just make sure you don't rush. The arithmatic when doing calculations like take off distances / navigation / fuel / headings ... etc requires you to pay attention and be able to store several information in your head and use them together. Or you can just write it down on the piece of scrap paper they give you. Either way, make sure you don't rush cause you'd hate to see a low mark cause you didn't pay attention to something you did.
Remember the real truth lies in the fact that you know your material; if you don't know your material TC's exams are designed to prove that; the practice exams, not to the same extent.
For example, if you score low on General Knowledge, well that's an area that I would personally expect to get better at if I was you. So this should become one of your strongest points by the time you do your Commercial Written. What I have been told numerous times is that putting an effort into understanding the elements of "General Knowledge" which breaks down into airframes, engines, systems, operations... etc will really help you out one day when you're sitting in an airline ground school say for a type, because if you work at acquiring a strong basic understanding of how everything works and is linked together, you will find that the transfer of insights and understandings to the iron's will be much easier.
I know you're far from the airlines now, but why do I say that? because many people go through the PPL and CPL written exams acquiring approximately the same marks in each respective area which would tell me that their knowledge in that region is most likely at the same level as it was before; obviously with more information. But to the standards of where a commercial pilot needs to be, their knowledge is in the same region as the case was with their private standards. Also understanding your systems well today, will make it easier for you to grasp it later on. And we all know, as we age it's harder to take in information and actually retain it !
Last but not least, don't forget that doing individual exams and scoring 80-100 percent is different than doing 1 3-hour session; you saw the difference. You scored 73%. Perhaps you were having a bad day.
Good Luck Joey
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Joey McCormick
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Re: Transport Canada Private Pilot Written Exam
Hey Dan thanks for the advice man And same to you E-Flyer. Wish me luck tomorrow everyone. Been doing nothing but studying.
And same to you E-Flyer. Wish me luck tomorrow everyone. Been doing nothing but studying.Re: Transport Canada Private Pilot Written Exam
Good luck to you tomorrow Joey. I wrote the exam just before Christmas and can second the remarks above ...
- Remember it's multiple choice and use process of elimination
- Read each question, to be sure you understand it.
- Be prepared to move on if you don't know an answer
- Time yourself. I knew from the practice exam how much time I needed for each section and I tried to stick to that.
- And at some point, maybe just after they leave you alone in the room, take a deep breath and remember how much you have prepared for this and just get yourself in a good, confident 'zone' ... remember that stress (human factors!) will limit your ability to think through the problems.
- Remember it's multiple choice and use process of elimination
- Read each question, to be sure you understand it.
- Be prepared to move on if you don't know an answer
- Time yourself. I knew from the practice exam how much time I needed for each section and I tried to stick to that.
- And at some point, maybe just after they leave you alone in the room, take a deep breath and remember how much you have prepared for this and just get yourself in a good, confident 'zone' ... remember that stress (human factors!) will limit your ability to think through the problems.
Re: Transport Canada Private Pilot Written Exam
No doubt its too late now since you've probably written it by now, but I found the questions in the PPL & CPL Answer Guides were more difficult than the actual TC exams. Plus there were a number of wrong answers. So if you can do well on those answer guides, you should have no problems!
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Joey McCormick
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Re: Transport Canada Private Pilot Written Exam
Well everyone...great news I passed! With 78% not to shabby. Thanks for all the advice! And it's time to do the flight test, soon to be a Private Pilot.
