G'day, and welcome to PIRCmate.
Some dread it and some love it, but whether we like it or not every instructor candidate has to do it, and I like to believe that with some study and motivation everyone reading this can not only pass the exam but also find some valuable nuggets of information that they'll use with them throughout their instructing careers.
I started this website shortly after sitting the exam myself and finding the Australian content out there being, to put it bluntly, too damn expensive. I don't believe you need to spend $60 or sign up to a monthly service in order to pass this exam, and I've modelled PIRCmate with this in mind.
Some people like to describe PIRC as a sort of CPL Human Factors exam, and I don't think that's too far from the truth. What CASA is really testing is a mix of human psychology, teaching methods, and your knowledge of Part 61 privileges and limitations, all wrapped up with the usual CASA wording that catches the best of us out.
With all this in mind, here's what actually helped me when I sat it, and what I'd tell any instructor candidate before they walk into the exam.
Know the key ideas of the FAA Handbook
Seems obvious to say, but there is no substitute for actually having a good grasp of the key concepts in the FAA Handbook. It is a bit of a dense read, and that's not to say you need to read it cover to cover, but you'll do yourself a big favour if you at least understand the bigger ideas in there. Sooner or later CASA will ask a question you haven't seen before, and that's where having a conceptual understanding becomes far more valuable than simply remembering an answer.
You can almost certainly expect scenario-based questions on levels of learning. CASA loves describing a student demonstrating a particular skill or making a particular mistake and asking what level of learning that represents. What actually helps here isn't memorising a list, it's understanding the difference between something like application and correlation, because that's what lets you work through a scenario you haven't seen before.
A few other areas come up again and again and are worth knowing properly: Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the barriers to communication, defence mechanisms, and the instructional aids CASA likes to test. Don't be surprised if you run into something asking about which way instructional aids should be oriented or how perception influences understanding.
I've made every effort to make the questions on this site as exam relevant as possible, and I'd happily back them against what's out there, but there's genuinely no substitute for knowing the content itself. Practice questions can prepare you for the style of the exam, but they can't replace actually understanding the material.
Know your privileges and limitations
Following on from knowing the key points and themes of the FAA Handbook is knowing your Part 61 privileges and limitations back to front. You can expect questions on this, if perhaps not extensively in PIRC, then almost certainly during the oral component of your Grade 3 flight test with the examiner. Either way, it's content that's genuinely useful and not particularly difficult to find.
Know what being a Grade 3 allows you to do, and especially what you're not allowed to do. Know the difference between a Part 141 and Part 142 operation and, perhaps most importantly, know how to find this information if you don't know it off the top of your head.
Find your way over to CASA's permitted materials page and make sure you bring all the documents you're allowed to have with you, and that they're up to date.
The section covering instructor privileges and limitations isn't particularly large, and in particular the table in regulation 61.1235 is well worth spending some time with. It summarises the various instructor training endorsements and their requirements, and it's one of those references that'll continue to be useful long after you've passed PIRC.
RTFQ and have a plan
PIRC won't be the first CASA exam you've sat, and if you're lucky it might end up being one of your last. RTFQ is a simple reminder you can give yourself to read the f____ question. Read it once, read it twice, read each word slowly, make sure you've understood what it's actually asking, and then read it again.
You probably know the feeling by now of walking out of an exam feeling confident, only to look at your KDRs later and find a question you answered with absolute confidence sitting there as one of your misses. More often than not, it isn't because you didn't understand the topic. It's because you answered a question that wasn't actually being asked.
The subject matter of PIRC isn't technically difficult in the sense that IREX or CPL Performance might be, but it does demand respect because you actually have to answer the question that's in front of you.
Be especially aware of double negatives. Something as simple as IS versus IS NOT is easy to skim over and lose marks. I've deliberately included a handful of questions like this on PIRCmate. They're not there as "gotchas"; they're there because they're representative of the wording you can expect to encounter on exam day.
Along the same lines, having a plan for how you're going to tackle the exam can pay dividends. My advice would be to answer the questions you're confident in first. If something is giving you trouble, move on and come back to it later. This isn't an exam that requires lots of calculations, but if you do need to spend time looking something up, it's better to already have as many marks on the board as possible before you start running down the clock.
CASA gives you enough time to complete PIRC. In my experience, when people get into time trouble it's usually because they've spent too long on one or two difficult questions before securing the easier marks.
The bottom line
PIRC isn't the hardest exam you'll sit, but it does demand a certain amount of respect. Recent CASA statistics indicate that around one in four candidates (roughly 25%) don't pass the exam on their first attempt. Needless to say, you don't want to find yourself in the position of having to rebook and repay for another exam, or worse still, having to delay your course and have your classmates move ahead while you wait to resit.
Those who do fail generally don't do so because the content is beyond them. More often it's because they've underestimated the exam, relied too heavily on memorising practice questions, or been caught out by CASA's wording.
I've made every effort with PIRCmate to write questions that reflect the wording, logic and style of the real exam, with an emphasis on replicating the sort of scenarios CASA likes to ask. I always appreciate feedback from people who've sat the exam recently and I'm constantly looking for ways to make the question bank even better.
Remember that prior preparation prevents poor performance. Feel free to give PIRCmate a try for free, and if you like what you see we'd love to have you join as a member.
All the best with your exam,