This turned out to be a long post. The short version is this: Sheppard Air teaches you to pass the test. I studied in the evenings for about a week and half and got a 95% on my instrument written. Highly recommended.
Let me preface this by saying that I feel like the written tests for the FAA are a box to be checked on the path to expanding your capabilities as a pilot. To me, learning the material relevant to the skills and knowledge required to be a safe pilot is paramount; however, I do not think, for me, that the written tests reflect a command of that knowledge. As such, when I decided to tackle an instrument rating, I attacked the written as learning to pass the test. For many, there is merit in using the test as a gauge of their knowledge. If that's you, great, more power to you. Sheppard Air isn't likely for you.
With that said, I wanted to prep for the test in the most cost (time and money) effective manner. Over on Reddit, the patrons of /r/flying rave about Sheppard Air for test prep. It costs $40 for one year of access to their system. It's a system designed to get you to pass the test. Broadly speaking, they literally put every question in the test bank in front of you and you learn the answers. They also have memory aids/cheat sheets that you commit to memory and write out on your scratch paper during the test.
Maintaining the question bank is kind of difficult as the FAA does not publish the test questions. Sheppard has a system to maintain the current list of questions by making use of their clients. If you get a question on the test that you didn't see in your studies, you do your best to remember the question and write it down as soon as you leave the test center. Then, you call Sheppard and tell them about it. If it's not in their database, you get a full refund as their way of saying thanks. For reference, the current instrument written test bank is north of 1100 questions.
The actual test prep takes place on a Mac, PC, or (in my case) an iPad. On the iPad, the app is anything but slick. It's definitely a clunky cross platform app but I overlooked this as I was after the content.
Sheppard has a definite strategy that you need to follow to get the most out of their system. They break the question bank down into knowledge categories. On the instrument, there was weather, aircraft performance, navigation, etc.. Step one is to go through the first category and look at every question but only viewing the correct answer. Step two is to go back through that same category but this time showing all of the answers with you picking the correct answer. Step 3 is repeat steps 1 and 2 for each category. This gets the info in your head.
Next is reviewing and testing your newly acquired knowledge. Step 4 (and this took a couple of days for me with 1100 questions) is to go through all categories (in a randomized order) with all answers shown. If you get the question wrong or had to guess, you mark that question. I completed this and wound up with around 120 questions.
Step 5 is go back over the marked questions. Finally, you take 1 or 2 practice tests. On my practice test, I got a 100.
A big help in this was their memory aid sheet. It's a different manner of knowing the answers without having to commit all of them to memory. On the instrument, they had handy guides for knowing which holding pattern entry was correct based on the figure specified and the holding direction. Another example would be rate of climb. For those questions, all of the answers are high (except the questions related to two specific questions). This means that of the 3 answers you can choose from, it is always the highest value. To help even more, I used some tricks from the excellent book, "The Memory Book."
So, after about a week and a half I took my instrument written. I scored a 95. I saw at least one question I didn't see and I'll call Sheppard but won't ask to get my money back. They earned it.
Now, on to actually learning the knowledge needed to be a safe pilot. I've got Machado's Instrument Pilot Handbook and his Instrument Pilot's Survival Guide, Gardner's Complete Advanced Pilot, Dogan's Instrument Flight Training Manual, Eckalbar's IFR A Structured Approach, and Heron's Instrument Flying. Anybody got any other good books?
Let me preface this by saying that I feel like the written tests for the FAA are a box to be checked on the path to expanding your capabilities as a pilot. To me, learning the material relevant to the skills and knowledge required to be a safe pilot is paramount; however, I do not think, for me, that the written tests reflect a command of that knowledge. As such, when I decided to tackle an instrument rating, I attacked the written as learning to pass the test. For many, there is merit in using the test as a gauge of their knowledge. If that's you, great, more power to you. Sheppard Air isn't likely for you.
With that said, I wanted to prep for the test in the most cost (time and money) effective manner. Over on Reddit, the patrons of /r/flying rave about Sheppard Air for test prep. It costs $40 for one year of access to their system. It's a system designed to get you to pass the test. Broadly speaking, they literally put every question in the test bank in front of you and you learn the answers. They also have memory aids/cheat sheets that you commit to memory and write out on your scratch paper during the test.
Maintaining the question bank is kind of difficult as the FAA does not publish the test questions. Sheppard has a system to maintain the current list of questions by making use of their clients. If you get a question on the test that you didn't see in your studies, you do your best to remember the question and write it down as soon as you leave the test center. Then, you call Sheppard and tell them about it. If it's not in their database, you get a full refund as their way of saying thanks. For reference, the current instrument written test bank is north of 1100 questions.
The actual test prep takes place on a Mac, PC, or (in my case) an iPad. On the iPad, the app is anything but slick. It's definitely a clunky cross platform app but I overlooked this as I was after the content.
Sheppard has a definite strategy that you need to follow to get the most out of their system. They break the question bank down into knowledge categories. On the instrument, there was weather, aircraft performance, navigation, etc.. Step one is to go through the first category and look at every question but only viewing the correct answer. Step two is to go back through that same category but this time showing all of the answers with you picking the correct answer. Step 3 is repeat steps 1 and 2 for each category. This gets the info in your head.
Next is reviewing and testing your newly acquired knowledge. Step 4 (and this took a couple of days for me with 1100 questions) is to go through all categories (in a randomized order) with all answers shown. If you get the question wrong or had to guess, you mark that question. I completed this and wound up with around 120 questions.
Step 5 is go back over the marked questions. Finally, you take 1 or 2 practice tests. On my practice test, I got a 100.
A big help in this was their memory aid sheet. It's a different manner of knowing the answers without having to commit all of them to memory. On the instrument, they had handy guides for knowing which holding pattern entry was correct based on the figure specified and the holding direction. Another example would be rate of climb. For those questions, all of the answers are high (except the questions related to two specific questions). This means that of the 3 answers you can choose from, it is always the highest value. To help even more, I used some tricks from the excellent book, "The Memory Book."
So, after about a week and a half I took my instrument written. I scored a 95. I saw at least one question I didn't see and I'll call Sheppard but won't ask to get my money back. They earned it.
Now, on to actually learning the knowledge needed to be a safe pilot. I've got Machado's Instrument Pilot Handbook and his Instrument Pilot's Survival Guide, Gardner's Complete Advanced Pilot, Dogan's Instrument Flight Training Manual, Eckalbar's IFR A Structured Approach, and Heron's Instrument Flying. Anybody got any other good books?
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