Passing the Instrument Rating Written Exam: Bridging Test Prep to the Oral Checkride
The trap of the 90 percent from a memorized deck
You can score in the nineties on the Instrument Rating written by grinding a memory deck for two weeks. Plenty of pilots do. Then they sit down with the examiner three months later, get asked to brief a hold out loud, and the memorized answer is attached to nothing they can explain.
The written is 60 questions, 70 percent to pass, and it is really the first rehearsal for your oral, not a separate box to check. Holding entries, alternate minimums, clearances, chart symbols: the examiner will make you demonstrate every one of them. So learn each topic well enough to teach it back, and the same effort clears both the written and the checkride. That is the whole strategy.
Holding entries, made mechanical
Holding entry questions look intimidating and are pure geometry. You are handed the holding course and your heading to the fix, and you choose direct, teardrop, or parallel. Draw the picture and the answer is obvious. Guess without drawing it and you have a one-in-three shot. The FAA recommends the entry by splitting the airspace around the fix into three sectors, so learn the sectors and you never guess.
The 70/110 rule you can draw in five seconds
What each entry looks like
- Direct. Cross the fix and turn right into the pattern. It covers the biggest slice, the 180 degrees on the holding side.
- Teardrop. Cross the fix, fly a 30-degree offset outbound on the holding side for a minute, then turn back to join the inbound course.
- Parallel. Cross the fix, turn to parallel the outbound course on the non-holding side, then turn back through the course to the fix.
Alternate minimums: two questions, not one
This topic hides two separate decisions, and mixing them up is the most common way people miss it. First: do you even have to file an alternate? Second: does the airport you picked legally qualify as one? Different rules, different moments in the flight. Keep them apart.
| Approach available at the alternate | Ceiling | Visibility |
|---|---|---|
| Precision approach (ILS, LPV) | 600 ft | 2 statute miles |
| Non-precision approach | 800 ft | 2 statute miles |
| No instrument approach at all | Enough to descend from the MEA and land under basic VFR | Basic VFR |
Copying a clearance without falling behind
A full route clearance comes fast, and the examiner expects you to copy it and read it back. The word CRAFT is how controllers build it and how you should write it down, top to bottom.
- C, Clearance limit. Usually your destination.
- R, Route. Departure procedure, airways, and fixes, as filed or amended.
- A, Altitude. Your initial altitude, plus any altitude to expect and when.
- F, Frequency. The departure control frequency to expect.
- T, Transponder. Your squawk code.
The written cares more about what the phrasing means than about the shorthand itself, but writing in CRAFT order keeps a wordy question from tangling you up while you find the answer.
The four enroute altitudes the test loves to confuse
Low-altitude enroute chart questions live and die on a handful of altitude definitions, and the wrong answers are built by swapping one for another. Know these cold:
- MEA gives you both obstacle clearance and a usable navigation signal for the whole leg.
- MOCA gives obstacle clearance but only guarantees signal within 22 nautical miles of the VOR.
- MRA is the lowest altitude where you can reliably identify an intersection.
- OROCA clears terrain and obstacles off-route, but promises nothing about navigation coverage.
When the examiner points at a chart and asks which altitude gives terrain clearance and a good signal the whole way down the leg, the answer is MEA. Being able to say why MOCA is not the answer is the understanding the written should have built.
Study once, pass twice
The test is easy to game and the checkride is not, so study to the checkride standard and the written comes free. Practical rule: for every question you miss, say the rule behind it out loud, the way you will in the oral. Miss a holding entry? Redraw the sectors. Miss an alternate question? Name which of the two decisions it was. The Instrument Rating Practice Test cites the regulation on every explanation, so each miss becomes a line you can reuse in the oral instead of a fact to cram again.
