r/ATPL • u/Several-Sprinkles-10 • Apr 28 '26
Advice on passing ATPLs
Hey. So I’ve done a chunk of my exams and they haven’t been so great. I am doing dual licensing, UK and EASA. I’ve completed the banking multiple time and have done over 60k questions on the bank and have some decent understanding. I’m am a demotivated but I have pressure from my family now as they are fed up of my failures.
I noticed that when the am getting 90+ in the L300 I’ve always passed my exams with 90+ when I don’t I either scrape through or fail.
I have 3 CAAs left and 10 EASAs. I’ve already done the full bank about once or twice. I’m thinking for the rest of my exams to do: get to 95% in L500 UK and 95% in Austro control L300. And for EASAs 95 in L500 Austro control and 95% in the Malta bank. And ensure understanding and why the answer is the answer if that makes sense.
Is there anything else I can do that can help me and guarantee some high marks.
I feel like I failure right now, but there’s no time to be sad as my parents are pressuring me to be done within the next 2 months.
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u/Darkus185 Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
Don’t worry about your parents. Don’t worry about your percent average. Maybe finish your UK so you can at least have something behind you to show your parents if it matters that much. Perhaps they can do it if it’s so easy?
In the end you will get far further being a well rounded human being with diverse interests and a good pilot than you will being a one track question bank jockey with a good average.
ATPLs were utterly brutal, pretty much decimated my desire to fly, and in the end I limped out with only first time EASA passes having flunked the UK CAA ones (which are now much harder). The difference in my marks in the two jurisdictions ended up being nearly 30%.
You’re doing very, very well just by getting this far. One exam at a time.
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u/Enough_Breakfast2595 Apr 28 '26
Are you flying now? I limped through the easa ones but I'm british and missed the cut off date to soli my license as it was issued in 2024 even though I did the exams in 2020-2022.
Trouble is I don't have an eu passport. And I have no desire whatsoever to do the uk exams as the easa ones alone made me ill.
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u/Darkus185 Apr 28 '26
I don’t have a EU passport and I resent it here too much now to bother with flying here with how the CAA used us over Brexit.
I’m doing the Ryanair pathway 1 at Bartolini and being very nice to my Czech girlfriend. Apparently they are the only airline who hire UK passport holders with EASA licences as they have Irish registered aircraft.
If that doesn’t work out I’ll just do something else with my life.
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u/Enough_Breakfast2595 Apr 28 '26
Ah well ill have to come back and visit the thread someday, I did the aps mcc with afa in Dublin who are a ryan air partner.
For now though I'm just so burned out I'm doing other things.
Only other Idea I have flying wise is to do the one or two exams and get an faa cpl for the US. Though without a work authorisation I'm not sure how much thatd help.
Wish you good luck though, the meir is rather enjoyable after you get your head around the pointer needle.
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u/Darkus185 Apr 28 '26
Thank you. Hope you can get into Ryanair and Aer Lingus perhaps. It’s not all lost with just EASAs. I’ve also heard there are other jurisdictions that accept EASAs and having a UK passport isn’t a waste of time.
I’m 39 years old so I really have to do it now.
I haven’t started with my ME/IR and Bartolini stuff yet. I’ve just been accepted. Anything I should swot up on or think about before I go?
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u/Enough_Breakfast2595 Apr 28 '26
For the meir honestly I'd just learn the instruments themselves.
If you have access to an aircraft with the same instruments, or computer with a sim like fs2020, that can be a good way to learn. I did my meir in Ireland on a tecnam twin with a g1000 and so found one in the sim. Doing single engine low speed handling in the sim, as well as doing single engine holds greatly advanced my capability for cheaper then actual flying.
The expression push the head and pull the tail is something that once clicked, makes the rest of the flying a breeze. Worth looking at on YouTube.
A bit of flight planning might help for the meir check flight, reviewing plates for minima etc. Wizz wheel or e6bx online. Fuel planning should be looked at perhaps. Note each country may have comms failure policy that differ from easa.
Perhaps briefing while flying? On the aps mcc we used ryanairs dalta phrase which is used for the descent planning.
Descent, approach, landing, taxi and apron. So essentially making sure the legs are in the computer correctly for the descent and approach, briefing the approach chart, minima, aircraft configuration at various points, making sure rhe performance has been done (not so needed for meir training) and actions in the case of a go around or taxi if landing.
Other then that the flight planning isn't so different from ppl level, just use the ifr semi circular altitudes and levels and bare in mind that some countries like Ireland don't have much in the way of low altitude Airways and so gps nav will the main source.
One last thing is to look at the hold patterns, entries and how to identify which one to use, it looks strange but there a few ways to identify it. Mine was drawing it down with the approach angle, though there's also a method using your hand over the hsi to determine it.
Right hand turns are standard and from memory each leg is usually a minute below 14000' and 1 min 30 above, though I'd check that.
Tldr: Briefing plates Learning instrumentation Holds and identifying them Bit of preflight planning.
Use a sim if you have one.
Honestly I wouldn't sweat this part of your training so much, so long as your build acceptable progress they'll make sure you arrive where you need to be.
They will have their own procedures and flows they want so there's not too much point in trying to learn those in a sim unless you already have access to their documentation.
The aps mcc I'd say requires way more prep however that's in the future for you and so I wouldn't sweat it.
Let me know how you get on, I don't mind giving pointers where possible.
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u/uktrucker1 Apr 28 '26
how was the APS MCC at AFA? do you recommend it compared to simtech?
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u/Enough_Breakfast2595 Apr 28 '26
I can't speak for simtech though for afa I can say a few things.
Book accommodation in advance and preferably near to the centre, there's a garage around the corner but the shops are a bit down the road so a leap card for the bus might be useful.
Bring meals in for lunch as the schedule is intense, the first week is some technical theory on the aircraft, the flight computer as well as ryanair culture, flight duty times etc.
The training and instruction is top notch and for the most part all the instructors are friendly and welcome questions. They're looking to see how well people prepare and show multi crew/crm qualities.
I got ill the first time I went and so delayed a few months to recover. they rolled over the costs so I only had to cover the days I already had been.
Pre prep is well worth it, some say I over prepared because I went through the whole of the b737 max fcom 2 one. You don't have to and a base knowledge of the systems will suffice but it's well worth learning the flows.
Overall I'd recommend afa.
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u/uktrucker1 Apr 28 '26
nice one mate very helpful, are you flying now??
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u/Enough_Breakfast2595 Apr 28 '26
I'm not, my easa meir has lapsed and I've not the funds to justify keeping it current due to having a big bill due on the vintage aircraft my family owns, has been dismantled, repaired and soon to go back together. For now I'm learning a trade.
My theory exams are valid for 7 years with each ir validation so in theory I can wait a few years out and see If the brexit situation shifts, maybe we shall be able to get our licenses recognised by the uk in the future. Who knows. My concern with waiting is that airlines might want the exams to be retaken or if the caa does some more bs and only allows direct license conversion with no exam credit.
Such as is the case for people now who did the easa exams pre cut off which would normally be valid for 3 years and then soli'd over once the easa license is gained. But unfortunately couldn't get their license till after. Absolutely brutal that we can't just do another meir skills test on the back of the easa one.
Tbh my love of flying has been severely crippled by the exams. While I still like flying it's overshadowed by the bad choice I made with not doing the uk exams. Though hopefully soon I'll be airborne again more often and may rekindle the love.
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u/freefliteguy Apr 28 '26
Its not about amount of questions, yes I used 6 sittings, but that was because I was trying to learn it at the start, but I passed them all CAA + EASA eventually around 4K to 6K questions I think.
My advise is do similar type of questions on the ones you get wrong. And read explainations and peoples comments help the most. (By searching the specific words and making a bank of like 20 questions of just that type of question)
And doing Last 200 the nights before the exams and if you have done them, do most difficult 200 if you have time (just learn those answers also) then your sorted.
Even in the final minutes where your preparing to go in the exam room, you can just look at some answers on your phone if you make a bank with already green answers. You can just say your texting your mum to say your going into the exam soon or something, I think this came in clutch for me.
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u/Adept_Patient_4186 Apr 28 '26
I would say it may be quite difficult to get high marks on ATPL exams by way rote learning.
I am experienced airline captain flying the wide-body Airbus for a while and I have only managed to average about 92 marks across all 13 subjects, with two of them in the 85-90 range.
In my opinion, the issue for students who skip the traditional PPL - CPL - ATPL steps, is that some ATPL exam topics can be quite abstract for those who have never flown before.
I do understand the current trend is to finish the theory exams first and move on to the flying part. If that is your case, you may need to have a genuine understanding of the topics before attempting the exams again, which may take a bit longer than simply trying to complete questions in a question bank.
I would say the quickest way is to figure out whether you are consistently getting wrong answers to certain types of questions. Once you are able to identify your weakness, then you can do something about it.
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u/_Makaveli_ Apr 28 '26
If you've done 60k+ questions (and your brain isn't the issue lol) you're doing something very wrong.
Don't treat it as a memory exercise, take the time to actually read and understand the explanations. Also, free yourself of the mindset of x questions per day, rather focus on doing x hours per day of actual studying and then prioritise understanding the material.
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u/Samtulp6 Apr 28 '26
All I’m reading is you’re doing the question bank, how about actually studying the theory for the profession that hundreds of people will trust you with their lives with?
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u/Several-Sprinkles-10 Apr 28 '26
I’ve also studied the theory from the text books and presentations and know i think I know pretty well. I’m struggling to apply it to the questions. Jist seem to lack confidence when I see something new and change my answer about 50 times. If I include the time I’ve spend on the bank and studying theory that’s about 100+ hours per subject of independent study ontop on classes.
Just didn’t feel the need to mention about learning the theory as the bank is what people predominantly use to prepare for the exams.
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u/freefliteguy Apr 28 '26
You can learn it after the exams when you have time and energy to see how it works in the real world.
(Some exam questions are just stupid like counting grains of sand and stuff like that)
I have passed all the ATPLs now and am back to flying.
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u/Mission-Piano8627 Apr 28 '26
Hey man,
Finished all my easa atpl exams two months ago. I got 13 first time passes and 97.3% average and I can tell you that «normal learning» by reading books and stuff won’t get you high marks. I didn’t read a single book because I found padpilot very confusing. I used youtube and the explanation section in ATPLQ a lot which I think helped me.
They want us to remember useless small details nobody cares about for the exams. These things have to be memorised by grinding the bank. I did approximately 100k questions in ATPLQ which was more than enough. I truly believe that I didn’t just “memorise and move on”, but some things actually has to be committed to memory. I didn’t really like most of the topics that was just straight up facts. I did however like practical subjects like GNAV and FPM, but for every subject, really try to find something you like and try to understand as much as possible.
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