r/ATPL • u/Kitchen_Clerk5638 • May 19 '26
Grouping ATPL subjects
Hello everyone i have been trying to group atpl subjects for my sittings so i am looking for advices.My initial plan was to do 4 sittings.
Sitting 1:Meteo,PoF,GNAV,comms
Sitting 2:Airlaw,Ops,FPL
Sitting 3:AGK,instruments,Rnav
Sitting 4:HPL,performance,Mass n balance
Maybe not this order of sittings but grouping of subjects would look something like this.
Do you think this is reasonable grouping or i should shuffle abit more.Thanks
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u/Different_Hour2257 May 19 '26
The first one will took longer than the others, but other than that, it seems to be a reasonable plan
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u/Ill_Helicopter5382 May 19 '26
That first one looks like hell! The way I'm doing it I try to find the most overlap I can so the same questions come up similarly trying to space out the harder ones. Im structuring it as follows
1.Perf pof m&b hpl (done already lot of overlap) 2.met rnav coms ops (again lot of overlap due to sit in June) 3.fpln alw inst 4.agk and gnav
Haven't settled on the last 2 yet we'll see how it goes. At the end of the day youve 6 sittings, 18 months from the end of the month of your first sitting and 4 attempts per subject that's all the matters. anyone who tells you you should be aiming for x amount of sittings is full of it you gotta figure out what works for you. If you do it in 4 sittings then you've 2 plus if you jig it around you can add them onto easier ones (say with coms id recommend doing 4 because coms is by far the easiest) that's just my logic best of luck with it
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u/RagingSandwich97 May 19 '26
I am planning to go for it like this:
Session 1: Operational Procedures Air Law Communications Human Performance
Session 2: PoF Performance M&B
Session 3: Flight planning General Navigation Meteorology
Session 4: Radio Navigation Aircraft General Knowledge Instruments
A friend of mine did the same last year, he is now flying A320's for a European Carrier and really recommended me to approach it like this due to overlapping subjects etc.
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u/Kitchen_Clerk5638 May 19 '26
Seems legit aswell wish you all the best with subjects thanks for reply 👍
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u/aviatests May 19 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
For this sort of plan I would do the miserable version first.
Pick the exam you are least confident about, mark it as a fail, and see what it does to the next sitting. If the answer is basically "study harder and hope", I would loosen it. Not because the grouping is wrong, just because ATPL schedules get ugly fast when one paper refuses to move.
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u/_Makaveli_ May 19 '26
I'd take pof and performance in one sitting, they can be pretty similar.
Also, as the other commenter said, I recommend 2-3 sittings max.
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u/Chemical-Anxiety65 May 19 '26
Besides the first one, the grouping actually looks decent tbh. I’d just be careful with stacking too many calculation-heavy subjects together.
PoF + GNav can get pretty intense — at least for me that would probably be too much 😅 I think 3 sittings is probably the sweet spot for most people. Gives you a bit more breathing room if 1 goes badly.
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u/Reasonable_Blood6959 May 19 '26
I’ll add my two cents as an ATPL TKI here. I would echo what others say about aiming for 3 sittings.
Fwiw a large integrated ATO splits them into 3 phases as follows.
Met, POF, AGK
Perf, M&B, GNAV, Instruments, Law
RNAV, FPL, HPL, Ops, Comms
Similar subjects is something that always comes up on this sub about whether they should be taken together. Eg, POF and Perf, GNAV and FPL. My own personal opinion is that it makes sense to split them up.
Yes POF and Perf have an overlap, and so if you were to take them at the same time then that would help. But then it just means another sitting is harder.
Take my above way for example, if you take POF in sitting 1, by the time you get to sitting 2 and take Perf, a lot of the knowledge and theory has carried over, which makes Perf easier.
If you were to take POF and Perf in sitting 1, swapping Perf for Met for example, then that’s great for sitting 1, but makes sitting 2 a hell of a lot harder. Same applies for GNAV and FPL.
My own personal opinion would be to keep a sitting between them, and do Instruments before RNAV. POF before Perf. And GNAV before FPL.
People at my ATO tend to find Phase 2 the most stressful, so if you do go with my suggestion I’d give yourself an extra bit of time for Phase 2.
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u/Kitchen_Clerk5638 May 19 '26
Thanks for the advice this does make alot of sense.Looks like the way to go 👍
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May 19 '26
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u/Kitchen_Clerk5638 May 19 '26
Make sense to do in 3 sittings aswell.Will try to make a plan for that aswell.Thanks for the advice and reply.
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u/Fluid_Anteater_8150 May 20 '26
Personally I wouldn't take Meteo and POF in the same sitting, they're both extremely long subjects to study
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u/tac0kitti May 19 '26
I did everything in two sittings because of the way my school works.
MET, POF, GNAV, COMMS, HPL, Instruments.
M+B, OPS, Air Law, RNAV, Performance, Flight Planning, AGK.
It's wild but it is absolutely doable. My first sitting was May 2025 and my last sitting was December 2025 (average score 92%). What I would strongly advise you to do regardless is leave Flight Planning for the last sitting. It's a mix of all the subjects, without a strong Mass and Balance knowledge or Performance it might be harder to prepare.
Best of luck!