For readers who don’t know what “partial” means, it is when you write the exam, get an overall pass, but fail in one of the four areas, i.e. you “partially pass” the exam, but have to go back and re-write the one area you did not pass. This means you have to do considerably better than a basic pass in the other three areas, in order to ensure your overall average is still high enough for a "pass" mark.
To be honest, I was fairly certain that I would fail completely.
I knew I had not prepared myself for the test: I am leaving for PEI on Monday, and although I had planned
The lack of proper preparation, combined with my average-at-best “understanding” of aviation-related matters in general, was a recipe for disaster. I went like a lamb to the slaughter on Friday the 13th, assuming I would not pass, but thinking that at least I would have the experience of writing the exam, and then I’d know what to focus on over the summer.
So, I was pleasantly surprised when the invigilator called me over after marking the exam, and shared with me two rather decent scores, and one acceptable score, which were enough, together, to pull my superbly crappy “Aeronautics – General Knowledge” out of the gutter and squeeze me into an overall “partial pass” bracket.
Although I am a little bit frustrated about still having to re-write one section of the PPAER, I am actually feeling pretty positive about the whole experience.
On two of the four sections I got a considerably higher mark than I had hoped for, and although I am sure some of it could be attributed to lucky guesses (the test is all multiple choice, and for the NAV part I was given a chart of PEI and Atlantic Canada, for which I have lots of schema, thanks to last summer's flying adventures out there), I was nevertheless impressed with my ability to sustain focus for three hours, and really try to reason through the questions I wasn’t sure about, in order to come up with as many correct answers as I did.
I also feel like doing well in most areas, and not so well in only one (rather than just barely passing each section), will make me a better pilot in the long run. One area is manageable to focus on – Just barely squeaking by on all sections would have left me with an uncomfortable “not quite ready to be a real pilot” feeling. This way, I can really consolidate my knowledge in Aeronautics, and go back and rewrite that section “properly”!
Transport Canada lists trends concerning areas of weakness in the different sections of various pilot exams, and I did not disappoint. For nearly all the suggested “focus areas” for the PPAER, I could think of at least one question that I had been unsure of while writing.
So, I got the bulk of the exam out of the way, still have a bit of study work to do, and then it will be time to finally finish the flying and flight test, and GET MY PPL ALREADY!!!!
But first, it's time for a little down time.... PEI, here I come!