PPL Written Test Results.

I have been studying for the last couple of weeks in preparation for my Transport Canada Private Pilot Licence exam. My home and work schedule has been really crazy this past summer and I've tried to put this day off for as long as possible.

On Tuesday I finally called and booked the exam for today, actually today was the last day I could have realistically written it. I have a French exam next Wedsnesday and I have to start studying for it, so I had to stop studying for my PPL and start studying my French. My next French module starts in two weeks and it requires about ten hour per week of home study. So I had to write the PPL this week, do or die.

To make matter worse the testing centre isn't just down the street, actually it's a two hour drive one way, and $41 for the bridge. So I had to take a whole day off of work in order to write it. Since I didn't have alot of time recently to study I didn't have high hopes of passing every section, I figured the navigation section would be my undoing. I felt like I was between a rock and a hard place.

For those of you that have not written this exam I'll give you a brief description. The PPL exam consists of 100 question, which cover Air Law, Navigation, Meteorology and Aeronotics, you have 3 hours to complete it. About 60 of the questions are straight out question and answers, and for the most part they are quickly answered. The remaining 40 questions require most of the time as you have to reference the sample GFAs, METARS and TAFs that you're given. There's some simple calculations that need to be performed and the navigation questions for the most part cover the sample cross country flight that you need to do in order to answer them.

The questions themselves are computer delivered and they are multiple choice. The exam program itselfs is logically laid out and it has two bars at the botton that keep track of your progress and the time.

The exam is divided into 4 sections and you require a minumum of 60% overall to pass the exam and you also need to get at least 60% in each of sections, or you have to rewrite the section again.

I arrived at the testing centre early and met the lady that I had spoken to on the phone previously when I had booked the appointment earlier in the week. She was very pleasant and made me feel really at ease. She reviewed my documents and then led me over to the pay clerk where I paid my exam fee. She then went over the testing format with me, and made sure that I had everything I needed.

I was then led into a room with six testing cubles along one wall and it had a smoke glass wall along the opposite side that allowed them to keep an eye on you. The testing booth itself consists of a computer terminal and a medium size desk, there were other testing stations on both sides of me but I was the only one writing today. I reviewed the navigation information on the sheet she gave me and plotted my sample cross country flight before I started the clock on the computer.

They provided me with a rather large, heavily laminated map which refused to lay in any manner other than tightly rolled up. The cross country trip that I needed to plot required me to use both side of the map. I set everything on the floor and managed to get the map to lay flap by sqeezing it between the ends of the desk and the station dividers. I spent about 20 minutes plotting my cross country, tracks magnetic and true, also the distances for each of the legs as well.

Happy that I hadn't messed anything up I then started the actual computer test itself which then started the 3 hour clock. The first twenty question were simple and quick. The next twenty were on navigation which took alot of time as I think that I read each question about three times to make sure I hadn't missed a key word and then I did my best to answer them, triple checking my answer in each case. Some of the questions gave you winds in true then presented you with the answers in magnetic, be careful with these, as the incorrect "correct" answer is in the pick list.

The navigation section took the longest and then it was onto the METS section, this went quicker but it was still slow as I tended to double and triple check the question and my answer. I eventually found myself in a pickle, with 35 questions remaining and only 20 minutes left on the clock. Where did all the time go...

Luckily the last section of the test were simple question and answers, and I started making up for lost time. In the end I was able to answer all but the last three questions before time expired.

I was not very optomistic on how things had gone. I honestly thought that I had failed at least one of the sections, I sat there and gathered my thoughts before I got up and went out to face the music. I dreaded having to go through all this again.

The lady asked me how I thought things went, I told that I didn't think that it went well at all, that I had run out of time at the end and left three questions unanswered. She went around the desk and hit the key board and then looked up and smiled, she asked me if I'd be happy if she told me that I had passed, I replied that I'd be shocked.

She then told me that I had passed exam with flying colors! She said that my marks each of the four sections were in the eightiest. I was stunned... I asked her if eighties were good and she replied that they were on the high side for the exam I had been given.

She then printed off my results and then congratulated me, I thanked her and wished her a good weekend. I looked at my results for the first time, I had averaged mid to high eighties in each of the four sections. What a huge relief it is to finally get this out of the way.

My Pilot's Licence is now one more step closer to reality.