IFR written test scores?

Steven Untet

Steven Untet

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I tried finding it on the web, no luck. Does anyone know what the national average score is on the ifr written?

What did everyone get?

Got a 95% yesterday.


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I got a 95 a few weeks ago, obtuse wording got me.
 
92. I probably could have worked a little harder at it.
 
Just ask a test center proctor, they will tell you the average is mid 80s.
 
I remember that I scored a few points lower on the Instrument than the Private but don't remember the scores. Both were in the 90s and the DPE's only comment was something like 'good enough let's move on'. I used the same DPE for both the Private and the Instrument rides. The DPE had a book he'd put together for oral questions and I got the impression that everyone was grilled about the same regardless of test score. Dunno how accurate that impression was.
 
92 for me. Same as ppl. Guessed wrong on a couple. DPE didn’t ask any of those questions in the orals. Just looked at the score and said good enough.
 
98.6% (1 question) and I’m still ****ed, like a pitcher throwing a 1 hitter. I used King. Probably would score in 80s today, I use GPS 99% of the time except for occasional ILS,VOR practice approaches...would totally be guessing questions on adf, back course, etc
 
I think I got an 87. Had to switch instructors. Did not study much. My new instructor said "omg you did not take the test yet go sit down now and take it" more or less
 
Idk what you guys are talking about. I am pretty sure there are only two scores. Pass / Fail. This test had nothing to do with horse shoes or hand grenades.
 
Back when the FAA gave the exams and they were free, guys would take the test without bothering to study for it. If they passed all was well, if not they knew what to study for the retake.
 
Anything over 70 is wasted effort. ( I got a 93 if I recall).
 
Steven Untet said:
I tried finding it on the web, no luck. Does anyone know what the national average score is on the ifr written?
Click to expand...

Dunno the average, but I can report that after hearing that a student has a 97% score, the examiner can dispense very quickly with the ground portion of the checkride. You might have a similar experience with a 95% score.
 
All that matters is you that you understand the material. As long as you pass test the actual score is meaningless. Some folks simply don’t test well even they they’ve got the material down cold. The converse is equally true where folks do great on the test but really don’t understand the material but can regurgitate info by rote. This is what I don’t like about the cram courses that teach you the test.
 
Steven Untet said:
I tried finding it on the web, no luck. Does anyone know what the national average score is on the ifr written?

What did everyone get?

Got a 95% yesterday.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Two possible scores

Over 70%

Under 70%



NoHeat said:
Dunno the average, but I can report that after hearing that a student has a 97% score, the examiner can dispense very quickly with the ground portion of the checkride. You might have a similar experience with a 95% score.
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I've seen it go both ways, I think it's mostly dictated by how you handle yourself at the first part of the oral that effects how long the oral is going to go, also other stuff like weather and schedules, my IFR oral was pretty long since the plane had a snag come up before my flight, might as well talk for a little while longer now.
 
NoHeat said:
Dunno the average, but I can report that after hearing that a student has a 97% score, the examiner can dispense very quickly with the ground portion of the checkride. You might have a similar experience with a 95% score.
Click to expand...
Might dispose of some of it, but there was a substantial amount of my checkride ground portion which was not regurgitating the FAA idiotic drivel that the written was. I suppose the fact that there was NOTHING on my oral that was on the written might have been attributed to high score on the written, but the oral still went over an hour.
 
Scoring over 70% is not wasted effort unless you really don't care to learn anything.
 
write-stuff said:
Scoring over 70% is not wasted effort unless you really don't care to learn anything.
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A high score on the test doesn’t necessarily mean the applicant really knows anything other than how to take a test. They could very easily not really understand the material.
 
tsts4 said:
A high score on the test doesn’t necessarily mean the applicant really knows anything other than how to take a test. They could very easily not really understand the material.
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These aren’t IQ tests, doesn’t matter how comfortable you are taking tests, knowing the material will definitely result in a higher score.
Some of the questions are pointless, like “how to align a remote compass?” Clockwise, counterclockwise? I don’t know but I’ll figure it out pretty quickly.
 
teejayevans said:
These aren’t IQ tests, doesn’t matter how comfortable you are taking tests, knowing the material will definitely result in a higher score.
Some of the questions are pointless, like “how to align a remote compass?” Clockwise, counterclockwise? I don’t know but I’ll figure it out pretty quickly.
Click to expand...

Knowing the materiel and knowing what to do with that knowledge, how to apply it, those are not one in the same, a trained monkey can veg out in front of Shepard or dauntless and go on to pass a written, that is the reason we have a oral as well, plus obviously the flight portion.
 
Some of the questions are obtuse, poorly written, and technically impossible to answer. The only way to score 100% on the test is to memorize the answers the FAA wants.
The test is a unproofread, unreviewed, piece of crap. At least the FCC finally started asking the community to form a committee to generate the question pools and went through a reasonable proofreading questions on some of their tests. The ones they've done in house are still awful. They have one that has both 1.6 MHz and 1600 KHz on the test (these are the same number), only one is "correct" in the FCC view.

Yeah, if someone is in the sub-80's they probably weren't adequately prepared, but to exceed 90 means you've studied not the material but the exact answer the FAA wants.
 
flyingron said:
Some of the questions are obtuse, poorly written, and technically impossible to answer. The only way to score 100% on the test is to memorize the answers the FAA wants.
The test is a unproofread, unreviewed, piece of crap. At least the FCC finally started asking the community to form a committee to generate the question pools and went through a reasonable proofreading questions on some of their tests. The ones they've done in house are still awful. They have one that has both 1.6 MHz and 1600 KHz on the test (these are the same number), only one is "correct" in the FCC view.

Yeah, if someone is in the sub-80's they probably weren't adequately prepared, but to exceed 90 means you've studied not the material but the exact answer the FAA wants.
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Lol, I agree with the faa poorly written part, but your exceed 90 conclusion is malarkey.
 
Hardly, there are a handful of questions on the test that are impossible to answer without either guessing or knowing additional information not provided. For example, they give questions about fixes that aren't on the clip of chart they give you. There are just other answers that there is no answer that is correct or even better than others. You get a couple of those thrown in and you're not getting 95+.
 
flyingron said:
Hardly, there are a handful of questions on the test that are impossible to answer without either guessing or knowing additional information not provided. For example, they give questions about fixes that aren't on the clip of chart they give you. There are just other answers that there is no answer that is correct or even better than others. You get a couple of those thrown in and you're not getting 95+.
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They stopped publishing the questions a few years ago. They claim to have rewritten all the questions, although that's not true. They require you to swear to secrecy about the questions when you take the test, at least 2/3's of the questions I had not seen before. I took a lot of sample tests to be sure I was ready. If you understand that they are trying to trick you, then you just be careful. You get 2 1/2 minutes per question, most can be answered in much less time, leaving you ample time to go through the whole test again. That's what I did, I caught three mistakes that I corrected and I missed three questions, obtusely written regulation questions, which quite honestly I couldn't care less about, if I need to know it, I'll look it up. I know the material and I'll be more than ready for the oral, when I get there, which at the rate I'm going at this moment will be in a year, but I'm working on that.

BTW, fixes on a chart was one of my peeves with the test, it would take a while to find them sometimes, but I never ran into a case of the fix not being on the chart. I think there were two or three of those types of question on my test.
 
flyingron said:
...but to exceed 90 means you've studied not the material but the exact answer the FAA wants.
Click to expand...

Which is impossible since the FAA changed the test bank and didn't release any questions to the public or the test prep companies. This happened at or about the time the FAA switched from PTS to ACS.

Furthermore, it is now illegal to smuggle test questions/answers out of the testing room.
 
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