science

Practical Test Standards

Practical Test Standards is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Practical Test Standards rather than just read about it. In short: Practical Test Standards or PTS are sets of guidelines, standards, and criteria formerly used in the United States by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Safety Inspectors or Designated Pilot Examiners to determine the suitability of airmen to be issued an airman certificate by conducting a checkride. Each certification level features unique criteria published by the FAA both electronically and in hard copy format.

Key takeaways

Practical Test Standards belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Practical Test Standards to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Practical Test Standards from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Practical Test Standards or PTS are sets of guidelines, standards, and criteria formerly used in the United States by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Safety Inspectors or Designated Pilot Examiners to determine the suitability of airmen to be issued an airman certificate by conducting a checkride. Each certification level features unique criteria published by the FAA both electronically and in hard copy format. The system was partially superseded, beginning on June 15, 2016 (2016-06-15), by a new set of publications called Airman Certification Standards, though the PTS is still used for select FAA practical tests. A list of the following common "Special Emphasis Areas" was shared by all certification levels:

Positive aircraft control; Positive exchange of the flight controls procedure; Stall/spin awareness; Collision avoidance; Wake turbulence avoidance; LAHSO (Land and Hold Short Operations); Runway incursion avoidance; CFIT (Controlled Flight Into Terrain); ADM (Aeronautical Decision Making) and risk management; wire strike avoidance; checklist usage; Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) Special Use Airspace Aviation Security Single Pilot Resource Management (SRM) Other areas deemed appropriate to any phase of the practical test.

Airman Certification Standards Beginning in 2011, the FAA began an effort to supersede the Practical Test Standards with the Airman Certification Standards. These would add "task-specific knowledge and risk management elements." This took effect for PAR and IRA in June 2016, with revisions (such as slow flight proficiency and testing of the initiation of a stall) and the addition of CAX in June 2017. The ACS not only replaced PTS but also combined or integrated the Knowledge Test Guide, Learning Statement Reference Guide, and Knowledge Exam Testing Matrix into a single standard. Several ratings, notably those for helicopter, and balloon, as well as flight instructor and aircraft mechanic certificates are still tested to the PTS.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Practical Test Standards

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Practical Test Standards claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Practical Test Standards before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Practical Test Standards ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Practical Test Standards

In research: Practical Test Standards appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Practical Test Standards in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Practical Test Standards is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Aviation law, Aviation licenses and certifications, Aviation publications, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Practical Test Standards outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Practical Test Standards in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Practical Test Standards means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Practical Test Standards out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Practical Test Standards in simple terms?

Why does Practical Test Standards matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Practical Test Standards?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Practical Test Standards.