Hi. My name is Willy and I am going to attend ATP Flight School July 3rd at Mesa-Phoenix.
Prior to the start date, I am going to take a couple written exams.
For now I am focusing on PAR.
I downloaded suggested app Sporty’s Study Buddy.
I read from the forum and tactics for the exam is ROTE memorization. And that is what I am doing.
But I have one concern.
What about calculation questions or sectional reading questions?
Don’t I have to know how to calculate them or know how to read sectional?
because number might be different in the real test. That means I actually need to know how to calculate them. Correct?
It depends on how you learn. You absolutely could just recognize the question and memorize the associated answer. There are only so many chart and math related questions. If that’s not working, you can also learn a basic understanding of the concept so you don’t have to memorize those ones. Instead just take a few extra minutes to actually figure it out. You should still have plenty of time in the exam to do that. Up to you.
Once you start the program, you’ll learn everything you need to know in terms of ground knowledge so don’t worry about that part now.
Rote means ROTE. The questions and calculations are the same and you’ll be fine. That said IF you can figure out how to use the charts that’s less to memorize so that can be beneficial but ultimately it’s whatever works best for you.
We definitely can just memorize the answers as they are identical. That being said, I learned how to do the math to make “less things” to memorize. It also helped on the following tests as the basic math is the same and they “sometimes” add an additional step.
As far as the sectional (just had my first day today) my instructor said ground school should cover that and if I needed any help he would help out. But again all the exams refer back to a sectional, so it made subsequent tests “easier” as I already kinda knew what I was looking at.
But as Hannah and Adam already stated it is whatever is easier for you.
I’m surprised how quickly I’ve started figuring out how the calculation and charts and stuff work. Lock down the rest of the stuff and then depending on your time, spend a little time (doesn’t take long at all) figuring out how the charts and calculations work. At least on the paid version of the Sportys buddy ($13) the answers come with an explanation how to get to that answer and the reference material as well.
Probably the hardest at this point for me are the sectionals and finding courses/headings, distance. Hard to do on the phone with no tools.
Thanks all of you for helping me. Now I got an idea for study.
Actually I am trying to understand the questions to study and figure out the calculation, sectional, and charts
When I am stuck on something and cannot understand nor find anything from internet, is there any ways to get help from ATP? If not, it’s okay. I will just remember the questions and answers.
This IS help from ATP and if you can’t find or figure something out rote, rote and did I mention ROTE?
Don’t make your harder than it needs to be. I said IF (and that’s a HUGE IF) you understand the charts, figures etc than that’s great but if you don’t… I’ll let you answer that.
Rote memorization for the questions is the way to go; however, if you need to ‘understand the question’, grasp a concept on the formula that you could apply. I think you will be surprised come testing time how long it will take you to complete the test. Generally the PAR is the longest I’ve seen because it’s a new format of test, but you have 2.5 hours for testing IF you need it.
A lot of the studying you will do during your flight training (all levels) is self-study, you can ask instructors questions and that’s what they’re for. I would also use my peers if I had a question, sometimes learning from someone in the same phase or ahead of you slightly is beneficial.
If I could chime in on this… I started the program at the beginning of march and had every test completed prior to my start. Rote is 100% the way to go. Also, don’t forget, this is only a 60 question test. You might get one chart question and one math question. If you know how to do the math, great. If the chart doesn’t make sense, don’t stress yourself out. If you know 95% of answers of the 1100 questions in the study bank, the chances are really good that you’re going to do better than 90% on the real thing. The questions on the real test are literally question for question, answer for answer, the exact same questions.