instrument written?

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shenanigans

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Has anyone taken the instrument written recently? If so, were there any unexpected topics covered?

I'm planning to take it fairly soon and I've heard there have been changes to several of the written exams. I'd rather not get hit with any major surprises when I take the exam.
 
I took the Instrument Ground Instructor Exam back in November, which is pretty much the same exact test as the instrument rating written, the difference is the number of questions.

I didn't see any surprises. I used the GLEIM books to prepare, and went through several of the ASI's online IFR related courses. I felt very well prepared. I fully recommend the GLEIM books.

I have heard of changes to the question banks in general that resulted in a lot more failures, but I don't know what they are.

To help prepare, http://www.aopa.org/asf/online_courses/

There are several IFR related courses, but they all help I think
IFR Insights: Regulations
IFR Insights: Charts
Single-Pilot IFR
Accident Case Study: VFR Into IMC
IFR Chart Challenge: VOR Approach
IFR Chart Challenge: ILS Approach
Say It Right: Mastering Radio Communication

Also, http://www.exams4pilots.org/
Change to the Instrument Rating exam, with all subject codes, and 60 questions, and start taking as many practice exams as possible. If you can consistantly get high scores, you should be OK. If you know the material, you shouldnt have a problem, question bank change or not (unless its retarded trick questions...)
 
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shenanigans said:
Has anyone taken the instrument written recently? If so, were there any unexpected topics covered?

I'm planning to take it fairly soon and I've heard there have been changes to several of the written exams. I'd rather not get hit with any major surprises when I take the exam.
Click to expand...
It's my understanding that the only tests with new questions are the ones a prospective CFI would take.
 
I just took it a couple of weeks ago. There were a couple of questions that I hadn't seen before, but they were variations on questions that I had been studying. The only two exceptions were a question on icing. Something to the effect of (heavily paraphrasing) "does a small amount of ice have a lesser effect on aircraft performance than a large amount of ice? Or the same? or more of an effect?"

There was also a question in there that I think they're seeding. It asked (paraphrasing again) what the primary screen is called in a glass panel airplane (PFD). Don't freak yourself out too much. It was almost entirely what I had studied.
 
I took it last June. Most of the questions were ones I had seen on the practice exams, but there were a handful that were totally new. One of them, on the effect of boots on an airfoil's flight characteristics, was not only totally new but there was nothing whatever on the subject in any of the study materials I was using (which included the 2010 ASA prep stuff).

My understanding from reading a thread on the Red Board is that the FAA is in the process of changing the test bank significantly and NOT releasing the new questions. But that is totally second hand and could be wrong.
 
I took it last October, I believe. I went to one of those weekend crash courses where they go over basically every test question in the FAA bank of questions. After enduring 2 days of NDB questions and the like, I sit down to take the test and the first 7 -10 questions were on icing and GPS approaches. As Liz eluded to, there were questions about boot system operations and things that are not easily deduced with no prior experience. The FAA hasn't gotten any better at wording questions so they make sense either.

Good luck.
 
Thanks everyone for the info. Makes me feel more comfortable about the exam.
I read the FAA advisory circular on icing a while back and I remember it covering the icing things mentioned above.

azure said:
My understanding from reading a thread on the Red Board is that the FAA is in the process of changing the test bank significantly and NOT releasing the new questions. But that is totally second hand and could be wrong.
Click to expand...

That's what I've heard from other sources. I don't have a problem with questions not being released if they can at least tell you what they are focusing on and have questions that are well written and actually relevant.
 
Confirmed from here also, tailplane icing, specifics about de-icing equipment that anyone who hasn't used it wouldn't possibly know, and more icing. Lowered my score 10% at least, but since I was shooting mid-to-high 90s, I'm fine with the outcome. I missed a few other questions.

Wasn't my best outing. Getting tired of taking the Instrument written and then letting it expire.

Kinda peeved me off a little bit though... I like 90s or higher.

I'd love to see which FAA book (not a frakkin' AC) they claim to have used for the "source" material for these questions.

(It doesn't exist. They're adding questions to cover their butts for the Colgan crash.)
 
Go to www.asa2fly.com and click on Customer Service. Follow the links to the Update page for the instrument exam. Then, the next time you are thinking about buying aviation supplies or a textbook (like THE COMPLETE ADVANCED PILOT?), think of what ASA has done for you. :thumbsup:

Bob Gardner
 
FlyNE said:
I just took it a couple of weeks ago. There were a couple of questions that I hadn't seen before, but they were variations on questions that I had been studying. The only two exceptions were a question on icing. Something to the effect of (heavily paraphrasing) "does a small amount of ice have a lesser effect on aircraft performance than a large amount of ice? Or the same? or more of an effect?"

There was also a question in there that I think they're seeding. It asked (paraphrasing again) what the primary screen is called in a glass panel airplane (PFD). Don't freak yourself out too much. It was almost entirely what I had studied.
Click to expand...

This was my experience as well. Took mine last month and got a 90.
 
I've taken the commercial written, foi, cfi written, and cfii written over the last few months. The only one that really was a surprise was the FOI which I barely passed.
 
denverpilot said:
Confirmed from here also, tailplane icing, specifics about de-icing equipment that anyone who hasn't used it wouldn't possibly know, and more icing. Lowered my score 10% at least, but since I was shooting mid-to-high 90s, I'm fine with the outcome. I missed a few other questions.

Wasn't my best outing. Getting tired of taking the Instrument written and then letting it expire.

Kinda peeved me off a little bit though... I like 90s or higher.

I'd love to see which FAA book (not a frakkin' AC) they claim to have used for the "source" material for these questions.

(It doesn't exist. They're adding questions to cover their butts for the Colgan crash.)
Click to expand...

Don't understand your attitude about Advisory Circulars...they are used as source materials in dozens of questions on all knowledge exams. Ignore them at your peril.

Bob Gardner
 
I took it in February and while it has not changed as drastically as the FOI, it's certainly different. There were about 10 questions I had never seen in my life, but like someone mentioned earlier they were along the lines of the other questions so it wasn't a big deal (unlike the FOI)
 
Took the test today and scored an 87. Two questions were my bad.... the rest were questions I had not seen before, including the King supplement, the ASA supplement, and the Advisory Circular. Divided between new icing questions and baro-LNAV questions. I even had one on advanced avionics failure and default system backups?? Since I had 61 questions, I'm guessing that one was an evaluation question. I had been scoring consistent 90-93 on the practice tests, so I wasn't too disappointed. At least I feel I understand the important matierial and concepts! Now, on to the practical.
 
bobmrg said:
Don't understand your attitude about Advisory Circulars...they are used as source materials in dozens of questions on all knowledge exams. Ignore them at your peril.
Click to expand...

Could you provide some examples that aren't in the book publications that also aren't also published test questions available for pre-study?

Not saying the information isn't useful and even based on the Colgan accident, but where's the "textbook" and published question pool update?

Thousands and thousands of licensed Instrument Pilots weren't surprised with stuff on their written tests that wasn't in the "textbooks" with proper references and published question pools.

This isn't supposed to be a game of whack-a-mole with applicants. The learning process includes studying published questions with published direct references to the source material.

What's the point of not publishing them other than to jack with applicants? If we're going that route, close the entire question pool.
 
Just a follow up. Took this today, it was pretty much as people said above.
If they stick with not releasing questions, I do hope they end up publishing a list of topics covered. When reading various publications, I skipped over topics that didn't apply to me. And several of those areas were covered in the new questions.
 
bobmrg said:
Go to www.asa2fly.com and click on Customer Service. Follow the links to the Update page for the instrument exam. Then, the next time you are thinking about buying aviation supplies or a textbook (like THE COMPLETE ADVANCED PILOT?), think of what ASA has done for you. :thumbsup:

Bob Gardner
Click to expand...

Bob, how often does ASA reprint your books with all the updates ?
 
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