Comair Question
 

I just got my confirmation letter for a June 14th interview and noticed that among other things they want a copy of the ATP written. I have not taken my ATP written yet and from all the gouges that I have studied, most did not have the written completed at the time of the interview. Is this a new requirement and would it be alright to not have my ATP written for the interview? Thanks for tolerating my ignorant post and for providing some helpful answers.

it actually sounds like an old requirement more than a new one, as the current trend isn't on tightening up requirements but instead loosening them. You don't have a whole lot of time left, but...you have more than enough to study up hard for the interview and...get your ATP written done, it'll be one less thing to worry about later. Also, i'm sure you'd feel far better knowing that you have everything completed before going to the interview, heck, if the floor is level, and you're the only one with an ATP written, you're a step above the rest, but if someone else has it and you don't, you're now subpar.

You've got plenty of time to get it...just go to ATP and take the one day course if you're worried about it. You want to have as many boxes checked as you can when going into an interview.

Thanks guys. My main concern is passing, but with a less than favorable score. Would it be better to have the written done with a 75 or like score than not to have it?

go without it. worst case theyll hire you and tell you to come to training with it. which i still doubt. heck i still dont even have mine and im at my second 121 carrier

If you have the funds and are close to an ATP school location, take the one day ATP prep and test. The program is designed so that you don't have to study before you go there. You will go in inthe morning, they sit you in front of a computer to study the question bank (similar to the Gleim, but they reduce it to 500 possible questions) and you take the test later that day. I got a 91 and the only questions that I got wrong were the ones that involved calculations because I didn't want to take the time to do them. I started the studying at 8:30 a.m. and took the test at 2:00 p.m with a couple of breaks for food. Finished the test in under thirty minutes. I have had multiple friends do the program as well, and they have all had silmilar results with scores above 90.

They require it before you start new hire training but they do not require it for the interview. However, they will ask you some part 121 questions during the interview and if you study the ATP written or better yet, take it, then the 121 questions will be really easy. The gouges are pretty much dead on. Good luck.

Thanks, I've been studying the gouges like crazy as well as the study guide from aviationinterviews.com. I got the Gleim test prep CD, so I'll start with the practice tests and hopefully I can knock it out before the interview.

If they tell you to bring something to an interview, you simply have to bring it...that is the first test at any airline interview: Can the applicant follow simple directions?

Generally, you want a score in the mid-90's or higher on the ATP, but who knows.

I agree that the ATP (the school) computer training/testing thing is the solution for you. The first time I took the ATP (immediately after 9/11) I had lots of time on my hands so I studied full time for a couple weeks...I even worked all the flight planning problems, and got a 92%. That one expired, so I took it again a few years later...I did not study, flew an all-night standup (a red-eye really), drove from PHX to ATP at the GA airport, paid $300, spent ten hours (and 28 cups of coffee) in front of their computer, and passed with a 98%.

ATP keeps track of which questions out of that HUGE question bank actually show up on the tests, and their training focuses on those. For many of the problems (flight plan/W&B/Performance) you can just learn to recognize the correct answer when you see it, instead of spending an hour on calculations (to answer one problem).

The one-day cram session is best, because a lot of that knowledge is not relevant to the real world (or an interview) so why pollute your brain with it? Do you REALLY need to know how to do weight/balance/performance calculations for a 727? Use the online gouges to study for interviews.

That's not necessarily true for the calculation based questions. A few years ago, the FAA started using random numbers in the real test instead of the same ones they publish in the practice guides. I don't know if that made it to the ATP test, but the Private and Instrument were supposed to be that way. Could be dangerous just memorizing the answers for calc questions, but by all means do it for the other questions.