i've had 4 checkrides. so far so good.
private, instrument, commercial sel, and jus took my multi add on. They have all gone well so far. I was nervous though on my last ride (multi). With all the talk of the CFI initial ride being so hard, i'm already nervous about that one.

You must be a stud... but doesn't #2 still possibly apply? Pride cometh before a fall my friend. I don't expect that you would fail one either... best of luck.

Some FAA inspectors have a 90% failure rate the first time for a CFI. I had one of those inspectors and I did not pass the oral marking my first failed checkride. Felt like crap but I learned a lot and it only made me better the next time around. Some say age can be a factor in the inspectors decisions. I'm 19 so that probably didn't help much because when I went home and talked to my instructor he told me that some of his other CFI students whose ages were in the 40's weren't drilled as hard. It still wasn't easy for them but I have to believe that their age was a factor. I'm not blaming age on my own failure because I just plain didn't do a good enough job to meet the PTS.

I failed my multi ride. Forgot to include carb heat in my engine troubleshoot checklist flow, and then proceeded to feather the engine before backing it up. (I was at 4000agl and had plenty of time to back up the flow)

Lesson learned.

Puppyz you should be. Had I not been so nervous I wouldn't have studied like i did. I spent 8hrs a day at the flight school like it was my job. All I did was read the FAR's, the CFI Oral guide, and ask any CFI that walked by to hammer me. The ride for the CFI wasn't hard by any means. They have their standards and all you have to do is stay in them. If you can't then just tell them. I did mine in a M20s money without any speedbreaks and I told him about that and that poweroff 180's are a real pain in this aircraft. So he changed the mins for me.

The big part is the oral. Know a Vg diagram. Know the hr requirements for all things you can give. Know aeromedical factors, signoffs(back of oral guide), and make acronyms for everything regarding FOI and you'll be just fine. Go through your FAR/AIM and tab everything up. Also only take in FAA publications. Jeppessen books don't cut it and neither do ASA oral guides. Get the airplane flying handbook and the Pilot's handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. If you don't know something you can open those then look them up. Just tell the guy you don't know. It's ok not to know but not ok to be wrong in their eyes. There is an 80%fail rate at the FSDO I went to but my oral was only 1.5hrs including paperwork and the flight was 1h15min and we had to fly a bit to get out of DFW's area. Also have all your lesson plans made up and two copies of each so you can give one to him and teach from another. Also ask for breaks if you get stressed or tired. When he told me what I was going to teach I said "sure. We'll take a 5min break and when you come back I'll have it ready".

What FSDO are you going to?

Alliance FSDO in Ft. Worth is sitting at 80%. Or was when I went.

wow sounds pretty tuff! I'm not sure which FSDO i'll be going to, i still got a while for that. For now I haven't started the cfi training (flying part), i'm taking care of all the ground work / written exams, and reviewing everything there is to review. Right now i'm working on the written exams, next i'll review the FARs.

Puppyz,

This is good stuff, it wouldnt hurt to keep it in mind. I got questioned about how long the AFD and Sectional charts are valid for as well as all of the "normal" stuff. The oral part of my ride was about 2 hours total, not including breaks and lunch. The flying was about 1.5 hours. My examiner made a big deal about clearing behind the plane prior to starting a maneuver, in addtion to left and right. You can remind your examiner that most collisions happen when one aircraft overtakes another. You can really make an positive impression if all of your landings are beautiful. I had spent quite a bit of time in the pattern just prior to my check ride and my examiner complimented my landings several times while filling out the temporary certificate.

When I took my CFI initial there in 99 the fail rate was 82%! At that time no DE's were allowed to do it and you could plan on a serious ball busting event at the FSDO. I had a fantastic instructor and the examiner happened to ask me 4.5 hrs of stuff I could answer!

Well, yes, I am quite a stud but that is for another forum.
COME ON NOW. Seriously. I don't know the stats but I'm surprised to hear these stats like 82% fail the CFI etc... I'm glad I did not know that before my check ride. I doubt the stat was that high for my examiner. As for the chances of me failing a future check ride? I doubt it. The continuing qualification system in place at Alaska is pretty easy and more geared to crew performance. I would have to really F up. Still, I would not get a pink slip so it may not qualify as a failure.