For the last couple of years, many have managed to succeed in the JAA ATPL written exams by memorizing the question bank. Some have simply purchased access to one of the many commercial question banks on the market, who these days all claim to have the JAA question banks CQB (Central Question Bank) 13 & 14. In reality, most do not have CQB 14 or for that matter CQB 13.
But all of these claims are falling behind the times with the introduction of CQB 15. A European publication company which is the arm of a major European airline has been contracted to write 10,000 new questions, with the final questions delivered by November 2011. These questions are a very closely guarded secret and are not expected to be pubished.
EASA has apparently completed a study on how many questions need to be in the bank to prevent memorization. This number is deemed to be in excess of 10,000 questions, and as the previous question banks have been compromised, the new questions are sure to result in a significant depreciation of the first time pass rate.
Although Gulf Coast Training Solutions does have the most up to date question bank available on the market, we have never endorsed question memorization. Instead, our course manuals and the support from our experienced instructors has resulted in a 94% first time pass rate over the last 12 months. This is well above industry averages.