(To save some effort in retyping, my answer from Nick's original question posted in PPE)
Some thoughts, if I may ....
Part 61 MOS. It only lists the knowledge topic names
No, the MOS gives you the syllabus and, more importantly, puts a fence around how imaginative the examiner may get with regard to the questions asked. It REALLY is quite important that the student reads critically through the relevant subject areas of the MOS to get a feel for what is required. Sure, it’s a pain but it is ESSENTIAL unless you just want to trust in others and go with the flow.
My understanding is Bob Tait Books religiously follows these topics
Bob endeavours to cover the syllabus (and yet folks then complain because his material goes “beyond the exams”. Sheesh, you can’t have it both ways). Keep in mind that, if it’s in the MOS, it’s fair game for the examiner to examine !
.. does CASA actually publish any official or legislative docs/books that break down each of these topics
Not CASA’s job so to do. The syllabus tells you the range of material which you need to know for the CASA exams. How you go about acquiring that knowledge is your problem, not CASA’s. CASA’s job is to sample test your knowledge base to establish that you do/don’t appear to have your head around the syllabus items. Folks like Bob do a fair bit of your legwork for you and make that knowledge acquisition much easier. But be very wary as many of those who purport to know and teach tend to be legends in their own minds and possess very little hard knowledge. In the absence of theory trainer technical qualifications accreditation requirements, you are thrown on your own resources to try to sort the wheat from the chaff. Probably unfair, but that’s the way the system goes ...
.... is the only way to get the nitty-gritty details on those topics in Part 61 Schedule 3 Aeronautical knowledge standards from a Bob Tait book?
Or similar material. One of the problems is that, to go it alone, requires sufficient starting knowledge to know where to look and sufficient critical thought to separate the OWTs stuff from the competent. The internet is both friend and enemy in this regard.
I've seen plenty of posts on forums where people even fail due to tricky questions
You don’t think, as an alternative story, that the problem lies more with the inadequately prepared student in the face of reasonable, if not always simple or straightforward questions ? Often, the comments (gripes) I hear suggest that CASA really isn’t setting out to make you fail. The only caveat I have there is that, in our multicultural society, CASA, in respect of question interpretation and comprehension, probably makes things unnecessarily difficult for those students who aren’t native English speakers. The students who I routinely take represent both native, and non-native English speakers. Given, in respect of learning, that English is considered to be one of the most difficult languages to acquire idiomatic fluency, I have absolutely nothing but the greatest admiration for those folks who start off with another language and then wade through the not inconsiderable task of acquiring English fluency. I think back to my (totally) inadequate schoolboy attempts to learn French and German and don’t envy our non-native English speaking students their task one little bit. Salut !
... they want us to draw lines between two values or follow a curve on a runway surface, and CASA dings you because of a millimetre error or reckons your line wasn't spot-on ..
Putting aside your hyperbole, I don’t really think this is a fair comment. I’m quite sure that the CASA examiner would be only too happy to see 100% pass rates. However, he is not going to give those sort of results out for attendance in the nature of Weeties collection cards. The student has to put in the hard yards to reap the rewards ! I see students at both ends of the spectrum ... those who do the work, reap the rewards, those who slacken off, find themselves wanting in the examinations.
(... and from follow-on posts in the PPE thread... )
The exams are trying to equip you with the tools to be an effective and safe pilot
Hear, hear.
People who cannot do all the TO and LDG charts or understand what difference a hot day makes will become case studies for ATSB
Sadly, a statement of fact.
