Instrument written passed!

B

Blueangel

Line Up and Wait
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Scott
Thanks to Shepard Air, Gleim and lots of study, I passed the instrument written today with a 78% in only three days of intense study. Lots of questions and different than expected! I need to let Shepard Air know as this is why I didn't score 90+ on the exam. Hopefully the DPE won't kill me on the oral exam.
 
Congrats on passing. Too bad you did not get exposure to all the questions through Sheppard Air. I took mine 9 months ago and felt the Sheppard prepared me very well for the written. Has the FAA updated the test bank recently?
 
Yeah about six questions were completely new and not in Shepard or Gleim. I think FAA is making lots changes. Also my test had 62 questions instead of 60 so perhaps I was one of the accidental Guinea pigs for this ? Anyways I passed and hopefully the DPE doesn't consider a 78 to be a bad score. I have another 20-30 hours of flight training left before checkride time to prepare for the oral portion.
 
Great, now go fly. Don't do what I did and let it expired three times before getting the rating.
 
Congrats. You passed,now check your weak points ,go fly get the rating.
 
Totally agree! I'm planning to get it done after I return from a business trip to Switzerland. I have about 15 hours done so now can focus on the real meat of the rating when I get back. Need to work on mastering holds and DME arcs my weak points thus far.
 
Blueangel said:
Thanks to Shepard Air, Gleim and lots of study, I passed the instrument written today with a 78% in only three days of intense study. Lots of questions and different than expected! I need to let Shepard Air know as this is why I didn't score 90+ on the exam. Hopefully the DPE won't kill me on the oral exam.
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Congratulations!! If you plan on becoming a CFI in the next couple of years, I'd recommend you take the CFI Instrument Written Exam now while all the information is fresh. It's valid for 24 months.
 
Thanks but I still need to complete the commercial rating after instrument rating is done. By then the test changes will be completed.
 
Blueangel said:
Thanks to Shepard Air, Gleim and lots of study, I passed the instrument written today with a 78% in only three days of intense study. Lots of questions and different than expected! I need to let Shepard Air know as this is why I didn't score 90+ on the exam. Hopefully the DPE won't kill me on the oral exam.
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I'm currently using Sportys IFR prep but it really seems like a lot of material coming at you real fast and it is lengthy . Is the Shepard course easy to follow and understand?
 
Yes Shepard was by far the best test prep tool that was closest to the real exam. I wouldn't waste time using other test prep materials.
 
Congrats. Don't worry about the DPE going hard on you. If you know your stuff you will get through it.

I had to do my checkride with an FAA examiner (I had combined my SODA with it) and my oral was 6 freaking hours. It sucked but I knew my stuff...
 
Thanks well the good thing is that the areas missed on the test will be fresh in my knowledge since I haven't done many approaches or holds yet so by checkride time I'll be set.
 
I took my exam on Saturday. Passéd with 87. Used both Sporty's and Sheppard I also had 5 questions that I had not seen before. Would highly recommend the Sheppard Air program and their learning technique.
 
Blueangel said:
Hopefully the DPE won't kill me on the oral exam.
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I didn't find a correlation between the material on either PPL or IR written tests and what was asked on my Oral. They're not going to show you diagrams and ask what the heading is type stuff.
 
Congratulations! That sounds like what I did a few months ago... last minute cramming. Sheppard Air was great though. I've heard some people call it a sort of cheating but I think it's just a more efficient way of studying. ;)
 
I've you got a 78%, you studied 8% too hard.
 
Thanks yes Shepard Air was the best test prep course. I took a ground school a year ago which was ok but not as useful in preparation. The crude computer software interface mirrored the real test. Anyways its a relief since now I can focus on the real meat of the course.
 
Congrats! I want to take the test in the next couple of weeks, currently using Dauntless and getting high 80's-low 90's consistently on the practice tests so I think I should be alright. I still want to memorize the questions where you have to figure out the hours and minutes a flight should take, every time I figure them out the answer I come up with seems to split two of the answers :mad:
 
Thanks again it is a big stress lifted. Now I can focus on really learning the instrument flying well. For commercial exam, I will use Shepard Air and Gleim again and they will get me past the next FAA exam.
 
I just took and scored the same...78%, a little disappointed, but I'll get over it. There were 5-6 new questions that I had never seen before (two on supercooled water droplets!)--and one question that was downright wrong (or maybe I am just too thick to see the right answer). Wondering if you got the same Q:

ATC reroutes you due to thunderstorms. They show you a low IFR chart. They give you winds from 340 at 35kts, you're at 10,000 (irrelevant), 135kts and your fuel burn is 15GPH. How long will it take you to go from OED to OTH via v287 and then to EUG via v121, and how many gallons will you use?

a) 41 mins, 10 gallons
b) 51 mins, 14 gallons
c) 61 mins, 19 gallons

So...I set my wind up in my ESB (they did not give a magnetic variation), I get a 20kt headwind and a resulting 115kt speed for both legs, one of which is 79miles, the other 59 miles...not a single answer worked (I get 72 mins, 18 gallons every time), plus when you work out the gallons, none of the answers correspond to a 15GPH burn. WTF???
 
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yeah, something is a miss. There's a headwind (on average). Even zero wind at 135KTAS, that's a little over 1 hour of flying for both legs combined.
 
I know! And I remember the question verbatim because I just starred at it for like 15 mins scratching my head!!! Even with a 20E variation, the answers were still wrong. And even if you reverse engineer the answer, the GPH they give don't jive. I'm ****ed--I could have gotten an 80% :nonod:
 
Yeah I got those stupid questions on super cooled liquid droplets like WTF? Why do I need to know that? Of course they freeze and cause issues. The problem is how the FAA words questions and answers in such a back assed manner to trick you. Also lots of icing and GPS questions.
 
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