Originally Posted by slats fail

Exactly. People hear the word failure and relate that to crash or being unsafe. I really think they need to reevaluate the checkride process. I'm not advocating for lowering standards by any means, but maybe each maneuver or evaluating factor should be scored on a 1-10 and you actually receive a percentage grade. Scoring an 85% but having to do a retrain on something is certainly better than say somebody really mucking it up and scoring a 50% overall. The way it is now, there is no differentiation.
So rather than having to ask how many failures a pilot has, we could ask what's your overall checkride score? You could really differentiate a pilot's skill level. Is there really a difference between a guy or gal who averages a 95% but messed up a steep turn in their private checkride, compared to someone who averages a 90% with a clean record? I don't think so but the way the system is setup now, there's no way to compare pilots in that way.
The pass/fail system we have now does not equate to the pass/fail system in some college courses that the public is familiar with. I had a couple pass/fail classes in college and you had to try really hard to not pass the class, basically show up and you were all good. We all know approaching a checkride that way is a recipe for disaster.