Mon Feb 28, 2022 1:34 pm
#1901714
Rjk983 wrote:nickwilcock wrote:
It was the lamentable lack of security and level of cheating in UK PPL exams which led to the current e-Exam system and requirement for invigilation by Ground Examiners.
This isn’t a troll post, I’m genuinely interested, can you point me towards any evidence of this prolific cheating? Is there a publicly available document or research that details the lack of security and the cheating going on?
I wouldn't quite go so far as to call it cheating - FWIW, I think us pilots are a genuinely honest lot and I think most of us recognise the value in treating an exam with proper consideration, rather than a hoop to be jumped through.
That said - certainly a few years back when I took my exams - my experience was very much in line with what others have said: no real invigilation, sat on a bench in the sun outside, tatty exam papers with notes already scribbled on them...if I wanted to cheat, then I doubt it would have been hard; I have no desire to cheat though.
To a separate point, I totally agree that exams shouldn't be viewed merely as hoops to jump through, but the problem is that the mix of questions doesn't align with that perspective.
There is a world of difference in needing to know who has right of way in different situations, versus knowing which Clause of the ANO specifies X, Y and Z. We should be testing people on the stuff that matters, not wasting questions to test memory of references that someone can look up in their own time in the real world.
Personally, I think it's great that the exams are being made tougher. I always thought that they were shambolic and just a tickbox exercise; I actually resented paying a non-negligible sum of money for each one as they were pretty much pointless.
I'd be fascinating to know the pre and post pass rate for the tests.