The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) will be changing the way it runs ATPL Theoretical Knowledge Examinations from 14 August 2017. The changes are being made across EASA states, and has already been put in place in Australia and New Zealand.
The new platform is called Quadrant and it will offer four styles of questions:
- Multiple-choice – the current question style where the candidate selects a single answer from four options.
- Multi-select – candidates must select options from a list to correctly answer the question. This question style will replace some of the current questions where a list of numbered options is provided in the question stem – and the candidate must select the correct group of options in the answer.
- Inline – involves the correct completion of sentences using a dropdown menu containing words, numbers, or a combination of both.
- Text – type-in-the-answer questions requiring the input of keystrokes. This style may be used to answer calculation-type questions, or questions requiring the extraction of data from a chart or table.
The CAA says all questions will be reviewed to ensure their suitability to be delivered in this manner and to make sure it does not disadvantage the candidate. The CAA has also confirmed it will be monitoring candidates’ comments made during and at the end of each exam to identify questions that may require amending or withdrawing.
The first exam to be affected is Air Law on 14 August 2017, with others being rolled out in following weeks.
Added 10 July: The CAA has a presentation on its website about the new style exams here including this video:
