This is one question I hear echoed throughout flight schools, internet message boards, and anywhere else student pilots can be found, “how do I pass the private pilot written exam?” Here’s the deal: the written exam is a game. Plain and simple. Much like the ACT or SAT, it is a measurement of one thing: how well you can take the FAA Written Exam. On the one hand, the test is fairly easy. It’s a bunch of multiple choice questions, many of which can be solved by the process of elimination. Other questions are downright tricky and you really ought to be ready for those trick questions.

This is why I suggest you study for the test with Gleim’s study guide. It’s a cheap book that presents the material on the test and only the material on the test in a quick-to-study outline format. As you study, you are presented with every known question in the FAA test question databank, followed by a few random practice tests. Once you get through this book (which shouldn’t take much more than one month), you will be ready to pass – period. It just takes discipline.

Here’s the problem with Gleim’s. They prepare you for the written exam – no more, no less. You really need to use other sources to build the understanding necessary to become a good pilot, not to mention passing the oral exam. But as far as passing the FAA written, I have never seen a more efficient and effective study guide.