Frustration with the instrument written

farmerbrake

farmerbrake

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farmerbrake
So I'm doing the sporty's online instrument written course and am getting very frustrated. I've watched all the videos at least 3 times and still can't seem to get above a 70! Grrrr.....
Anybody have any suggestions? I've been working on it for about a month and a half or so.... just feel like I'm hitting a wall. Haven't started doing any in flight training yet. Think that would help?

Edit to add that I need 2 80% test before sporty's will give me a sign off for the actual written exam.
 
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I did the King course and got a 90. I can not comment on Sporty's but the King course while Martha can go on a bit, it is all about test prep. If you pass thier practice tests you should be ok for the real deal
 
If you don't already have it, download the FAA's Instrument book (PDF format) and read thru it. There's much more explanation so that the questions will make more sense.

FAA-H--8083-15B Instrument Handbook

The weather material is also important

AC 00-6A - Aviation Weather For Pilots and Flight Operations Personnel
 
murphey said:
If you don't already have it, download the FAA's Instrument book (PDF format) and read thru it. There's much more explanation so that the questions will make more sense.

FAA-H--8083-15B Instrument Handbook

The weather material is also important

AC 00-6A - Aviation Weather For Pilots and Flight Operations Personnel
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Thanks for the suggestion. Not sure why I didn't think to do that before :banghead:
 
You could also try Rod Machdos books. His style makes it easy to read with witty quips and funny graphics.
 
farmerbrake said:
So I'm doing the sporty's online instrument written course and am getting very frustrated. I've watched all the videos at least 3 times and still can't seem to get above a 70! Grrrr.....
Anybody have any suggestions? I've been working on it for about a month and a half or so.... just feel like I'm hitting a wall. Haven't started doing any in flight training yet. Think that would help?

Edit to add that I need 2 80% test before sporty's will give me a sign off for the actual written exam.
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Should be doing Martha's videos.
Once you see them few times you ace the test :yes:
 
For what it's worth, I gave up on the self-study. I tried ASA, King, and Sheppard, but just couldn't get it done. I ended up at a weekend ground school through American Flyers. Got an 85 the day after the class ended, but more importantly, feel that I learned things beyond the class itself.
 
kjwalker01 said:
For what it's worth, I gave up on the self-study. I tried ASA, King, and Sheppard, but just couldn't get it done. I ended up at a weekend ground school through American Flyers. Got an 85 the day after the class ended, but more importantly, feel that I learned things beyond the class itself.
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How much did that cost?
 
farmerbrake said:
So I'm doing the sporty's online instrument written course and am getting very frustrated. I've watched all the videos at least 3 times and still can't seem to get above a 70! Grrrr.....
Anybody have any suggestions? I've been working on it for about a month and a half or so.... just feel like I'm hitting a wall. Haven't started doing any in flight training yet. Think that would help?

Edit to add that I need 2 80% test before sporty's will give me a sign off for the actual written exam.
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Are there certain areas you are consistently missing? If there are just a few problem areas I would recommend just studying those or rewatching just those videos.
 
Somedudeintn said:
Are there certain areas you are consistently missing? If there are just a few problem areas I would recommend just studying those or rewatching just those videos.
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Not exactly specific areas. It flows from one area to another. I'd go back and rewatch the videos and it still seems like they don't give you all the information. I downloaded the FAA documents suggested above to help me study.
 
kjwalker01 said:
For what it's worth, I gave up on the self-study. I tried ASA, King, and Sheppard, but just couldn't get it done. I ended up at a weekend ground school through American Flyers. Got an 85 the day after the class ended, but more importantly, feel that I learned things beyond the class itself.
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Same here....sat in the semester long course at the local university (i don't need the grade so it didn't cost much). Major advantage is the many questions asked by the other students and me that really dig into the material. Plus the knowledge of the 20 yr major carrier pilot teaching the course, who's flown into some of the most challenging Class B C D airports in the US, analysis of crashes, etc. Stuff that's not in the self-study, and that far too many CFIs aren't familiar with. Lots of time discussing subtle variations in the varied approach charts, and he's flown into most of them. So he could explain why the approach was created like that.

Downside? Required to use the online Jepp in parallel with the classrom material. The content is ok I just intensely dislike the delivery software (third party).

I still can't pass the written right now, but certainly learned more than any self-study offers.
 
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EminiTrader said:
If you simply want to pass the written and get it behind you - trust me -

http://www.sheppardair.com/

Had it done in 5 days scored 98. Then I learned how to fly IFR
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My l schedule is going to get a little crazy between now and June 19. My plan is to utilize sporty's (since I already paid for it) and anything else that's free and if by the end of June I can't pass the online test I'll find a different system, or what ever you want to call it.
Also after June 19 I'll have an open schedule to fly as much as an instructor can so hopefully I can get things moving.
 
Sheppard Air is in my opinion...the only way to go. Have taken several written testsd using their software and have done well on all of them. Good Luck.
 
The online/self-paced/video material works for many people, but not everyone. As much as we hate to admit it, there are many things correct in the FOI and #1 is Learning Style. The OP may not have a learning style that works with self-paced.

There are some people (and I'm one of them) that don't do well with self-paced. Hand me any software language or OS book, and I'm reasonably competent in a week. But that's because I have both the theoretical (translation: academic) and the practical background (decades of it!) to "know what I need to know". Or another way to put it, I can draw upon previous software knowledge to understand new software knowledge.

In aviation, even after many years and hundreds of hours VFR, I'm really still a novice. I don't have the extensive background to appreciate/comprehend some of this material. Weather, for instance. I've taken both "real" meteorology and aviation weather courses at the university. I'm still in the "look outside, and if I can see Pikes Peak, that means I can fly south to Pueblo" mode.

I've used Dauntless, Sheppard and Jepp (ick) for the instrument and I still learn best in a classroom (and not a weekend cram course). It's the Q&A, it's the knowledge of the instructor as well as the ability of the instructor to provide a variety of approaches to the same topic (sorry, bad pun).

So to the OP - understand how you learn then take the approach that best suits you. Don't spend money on a weekend cram course if that's not how you learn. Don't spend money on King or Gleim or another version if that's not how you learn.
 
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Not everyone is the same, and not everyone benefits from each system equally. I have used the AF weekend course for my IR and FE-X writtens, and was pleased. I got the same results as others taken with Gliem books in a weekend, rather than weeks.
 
I bought the Sporty's instrument study buddy and almost immediatly deleted it. It was awful.

The King Instrument course is expensive but nice. I did it. The ASA test prep with CD-ROM is a slog. But, the more times you take the practice test the better you will do.
 
wilkersk said:
The King Instrument course is expensive but nice. I did it. The ASA test prep with CD-ROM is a slog. But, the more times you take the practice test the better you will do.
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I used both of the above, and I agree on all counts.
 
Henning said:
Usually AF advertises them around $200 for the weekend test preps IIRC.
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Actually they are $495 now

Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk
 
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farmerbrake said:
How much did that cost?
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It was $495, not including the exam fees. It did include the book they use for both the written and the practical.

One nice thing for me is that I'm flying a 172 with a KLN94, which appears to be what they use at American Flyers. There is a lot of very specific 172/KLN94 procedural information in the book, which I found to be very useful. If you're flying something else, with a different GPS, probably not so much.
 
King - 97% :).. their practice tests are practically the same as FAA... Just about every question on the test was familiar to me.

Explanation is pretty descent too...
 
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