How I passed the CAA ATPL Exams in Under 3 months

As a newly qualified pilot who has recently finished all of his training via a modular route, this is my first post showcasing what I learnt on my ATPL journey. 

I wanted to share some tips and advice that would’ve hugely helped me when I began my modular CPL journey over 2 years ago. 

I’m writing this for future student pilots thinking of embarking on this journey to getting their frozen ATPL via a modular route. 

For those going via the integrated route, it’s best you consult and follow the advice of your ATO (Approved Training Organisation), as I don’t have any experience with integrated schools and how they do things. 

If you’re deciding between modular or integrated, some of the following advice could help and show you what to expect as a modular student. 

Disclaimer: Now first things first…. I’m not a certified flight instructor and neither am I an expert on the regulations. What I’ve written here are just my thoughts and opinions. They are subject to change over time and could be incorrect or out of date at the time you read this. 

How I took on the 13 ATPL exams

Studying for and passing the ATPL exams was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done in my life. Some of the subjects are absolutely gigantic and to top it off the passing grade is 75%. 

You have to know your stuff before taking on these exams. Not knowing a topic well enough, and a few silly mistakes can lead to an easy fail.

You have 18 months from the time you take the first exam to finish all of them. Otherwise, you will have to all of the exams again. 

Often ground school training organisations provide you with access to their online learning materials for a period of 12 to 18 months. 

Some subjects can easily take a month or longer to really learn properly, so I’d say prior preparation is essential. Especially if you have a full-time job and other commitments.

In the table below, you can see I took my first exam in the middle of April and finished by the end of June 2023. I was done in about two and a half months.

How did I finish so fast? 

Well, to be honest I had a head start. You see, this was not the first time I did the ATPL exams.

I spent a good part of 2021 to 2022 studying and doing the EASA ATPL exams, which are the same 13 subjects, but for a different licensing authority.

I had just finished my last EASA ATPL exam a couple of months prior to starting my CAA exams, and just as I finished, I thought that since whatever I learnt was still pretty fresh in my mind, it made sense to get the UK CAA ATPL exams done before starting my IR and CPL training. This way, when I complete my flight training, I’d hold both EASA and UK CAA commercial pilot licences (CPLs), opening up more possibilities.

What does this mean for you?

Unlike what I did, if you’re planning to get both EASA and UK CAA licenses I recommend you do both the EASA and UK CAA ATPL exams simultaneously, so you don’t have to go through the ground school twice and restudy everything you learnt. 

There are plenty of ground school providers that allow you to study for both authorities at the same time. You typically do the CAA exams in the UK and the EASA exams with Austro Control (The Austrian Aviation authority).

You need to enrol with a ground school before taking the exams, as they are an ATO (approved training organisation) who can sign you off. 

I recommend giving yourself all the time and preparation you need before enrolling with a ground school. Study and be familiar with the material you’re going to encounter. 

You don’t want to sign up to a ground school, let life get in the way, and then be stuck with 10 subjects to finish in the 3 months before your online access ends.

Trust me, I’ve met and heard about people who’ve gone through this. It wastes a lot of time and money, and can be prevented with prior preparation.

How you can get a head start

Step 1: Get the study material. 

There are essentially only two things you need to start preparing: The study materials and a question bank to practice.

For the textbooks, I had some material provided to me by my previous flight school in Europe, however the best material I found were the AviationExam.com electronic textbooks which I downloaded onto my iPad. As of writing this, you can also read them on Android, Mac and Windows devices as well. 

Why I recommend the AviationExam ebooks:

  • Easy to carry
  • Font size is adjustable
  • Content gets updated regularly
  • Tests your knowledge with practice questions at the end of chapters (requires separate question bank subscription)
  • Special tools are available to draw on performance charts.
  • Cheaper than most new physical textbooks

As of writing this (June 2024), the total cost of the 13 ebooks cost about £417. Not a tiny sum, but absolutely worth it when you consider how good they are and how much time you’ll save. 

You have the added benefit of being able to go back to them when you’re done with the exams. It’s probably the last thing you’ll want to do, but trust me, to refresh my knowledge as I’m preparing for airline interviews, I’m going through the AviationExam ebooks over a year after finishing the exams.

Step 2: Practice using the question banks

There are a bunch of fantastic online question banks out there, and it’s virtually impossible to pass the exams without them. Candidates often flag the questions that showed up, so it gives you the added benefit of knowing what to expect.

I used the following two online questions banks:

I found the ATPLq question bank very relevant for the UK CAA exams, however, the convenience of having the AviationExam question bank in your iPad to travel with and use offline was very handy to have. So I subscribed to it again for the UK CAA exams.

Armed with the ebooks and question banks, you can start preparing months or even years prior to taking your first exam. 

Before you go all in, you can purchase one or a few of the ebooks, and take out a shorter subscription for the question banks to see how you get on. When you’re going to do the ATPL exams, then I recommend at least a yearly subscription.

How much time you need to set aside

You will realistically spend in the high hundreds, if not over a thousand hours, studying the material, doing practice questions, and progress tests en route to passing all the exams.

Once you’ve signed up to a ground school, you’ll have to set aside time to finish their progress tests and attend the revision weeks.

With CATS Aviation, the ATO I used, they divide the 13 subjects into 3 stages. When you attend a revision week, there’ll be 4 consecutive days when you have to be on a zoom call from around 9am to 5pm. You’ll typically spend a day per subject. Every month there’s a revision week for 1 of the 3 stages. Say the revision week in June is for Stage 1, the next time you’ll be able to attend a revision week for Stage 1 would be September. 

Here are the subjects covered in each stage:

STAGE 1

Human Performance & Limitations
Air Law
Operational Procedures
Communications
Meteorology

STAGE 2

Principles of Flight
Performance
Flight Planning
General Navigation
Mass & Balance

STAGE 3

Aircraft General Knowledge
Instrumentation
Radio Navigation

With the UK CAA, you can always book the exam in advance if you’re confident you can finish the progress tests and attend the revision weeks prior to sitting the official exam.

I was luckily free from work commitments, so I went all out and attended all the revision weeks for 3 months consecutively. I decided to do it as fast as I reasonably could in order to begin my IR and CPL training in the summer of 2023. Check your ATO’s schedule ahead of time to have an idea of when the revision brush up days will be held.

How much will the exams cost?

This is definitely one of the less expensive parts of your flight training, but once it is all done, it’s not cheap and you’d have spent a couple of grand. 

Here are some of the items you’ll have to spend on, or at least what I highly recommend you budget for. If you can get by with borrowing a former student’s material and equipment, then do so.

  • Ground School Enrolment (£1500)
  • 13 Exams (assuming 1st time passes) (£82 x 13 = £1066)
  • Jeppesen Student Pilot Route Manual (£83)
  • Aviation Exam Question Bank (One year subscription – £144)
  • ATPLq Question Bank (One year subscription – 200 euros)
  • 13 Aviation Exam Textbooks (£417)
  • iPad (£500. I recommend the mini and a stylus to draw on the charts on the AviationExam app. This was extremely handy to have)
  • CRP-5 Flight Computer (£82)
  • Stationary (Calculator, Compass, Ruler, Pens, Pencils)
  • Travel and Accommodation 
Everything you’ll need to take into the exam centre. Minus the iPad.

The Exam Taking Strategy

I enrolled with CATS at the beginning of February, which granted me 18 months access to their online e-learning system.

You have a maximum of 6 sittings to do the exams. A sitting is a period of 10 calendar days. 

In order to get more exams done per sitting, I went to multiple examination centres. Doing this allowed me to have several days off in between exams, which were much needed!

If you stick to one examination centre, you’ll typically have a few consecutive days per month when the exams will be held, and you’ll have to memorise a lot for those days. 

Spreading things out in a single sitting can make things easier, don’t plan on using too many sittings.

I used 4 out of 6 sittings, and that’s probably the maximum I would recommend. There have been candidates who passed 12 out of 13 exams in 5 sittings, and failed the 13th exam on the 6th sitting, giving them no more chances to retake the failed subject. This meant that they’d have to go through the entire ground school again and repeat the 13 exams.

Below is how I planned my sittings. There is no right or wrong order to take the exams in, the most important thing is that you’re prepared and scoring at least 85% in the mock exams for the subjects you’re going to take.

1st Sitting (14th April to 20th April. Gatwick and Luton)

  1. Air Law
  2. Human Performance
  3. Operation Procedures
  4. Communications
  5. Radio Navigation

2nd Sitting (9th May to 17th May. Luton and Oxford) 

  1. Mass and Balance
  2. AGK
  3. Performance
  4. Principles of Flight 

3rd Sitting (5th June to 8th June. Luton)

  1. General Navigation
  2. Flight Planning and Monitoring
  3. Instrumentation

4th Sitting (27th June. Oxford)

  1. Meteorology

I hope you’ve gotten some value from reading my experience doing the ATPL exams in under 3 months. You definitely don’t need to do them all so fast, however you can finish in far less time than you think if you prepare in advance.

I wish you the best of success on your journey to becoming a commercial pilot. If you have any questions, drop me a line and I’ll do my best to get back to you.