Wrong answer in the New Member Orientation Test

[Sven Rowoldt]

Hi everybody,

 

I just completed successfully the New Member Orientation Test, but I think one question is not formulated clearly:

Altimeter settings can be set using the inches mercury (in. hg.) or hPa scale depending on where you are in the world: true or false?

I clicked 'False' because altimeters can be set using hg or hPa everywhere and at any time and not depending where in the world You are.

This answer was judged as being not correct.

What Do You think?

[Dace Nicmane]

Well, different countries use different measurement units, so the test is right. And while you can in theory set hPa in the USA, what would be the point of it? ATC, ATIS and METAR will give you inHg. 

[Sven Rowoldt]

I understand the sense of that topic. 

But the ability setting it to hg or hPa is not depending on where in the world You are.

You can set it to the units as You wish everywhere. Would not help You, but it is possible. 

[Dace Nicmane]

Well, that kind of attitude is sort of unhelpful if you know what the question really is about. 

[Andreas Fuchs]

You will find similar questions in real pilot exams - sometimes you just need to know what the aim of the question was, not what it mean literally.

[Simon Kelsey]

As Dace and Andreas have said, the intent of the question is the principle that different countries use different units for altimetery and that is the way in which it is expected to be read.

However, it's a great example of a terrible question, which is one of the reasons we're in the process of completely overhauling the NMOC and reviewing/rewriting the question bank!

[Sven Rowoldt]

While filling out the form I did not get the intent of the question.

I thought, the simple question "can You switch the unit of altimeters between hg and hPa?" would have been too easy.

A clueless beginner would have clicked "Yes" by saying, why not, and why should this be fixed to a certain unit? So to me this was too easy and I read more carefully.

But the addition "depending on where in the world You are" is absolutely unimportant for the real intent. So why is it there?

When You turn around the order in the sentence like:

"Depending on where in world You are, You can switch altimeters between..."

This is also correct grammawisely - there is no doubt. But now "depending on..." becomes a higher weight and that is, what I thought:

Your coordinates gives a restriction for having the ability of switching the unit to a certain value  or not. And this is not true. So I choose "false".
 

If I wanted to test the beginner if he knows about the altimeter setting I would have made a multible choice question like:

"To which units can You set an altimeter in an airplane?"

a) hPa

b) bar

c) in. hg and hPa

d) in. hg

[Andreas Fuchs]

17 minutes ago, Sven Rowoldt said:

If I wanted to test the beginner if he knows about the altimeter setting I would have made a multible choice question like:

"To which units can You set an altimeter in an airplane?"

a) hPa

b) bar

c) in. hg and hPa

d) in. hg

I don't think that this would be overly useful. The intention of the question that you stumbled upon is clear (to us) and as Simon wrote, he has taken note of this and will revise it to make it better.

The learning objective of this question is that in some parts of the world we use hPa (QNH) for our altimeters, in some we use inHg. I think you made a good point that the question was poorly phrased, but I suspect that the vast majority of candidates got the answer right. Simon, can you see any statistics regarding the question?

[Sven Rowoldt]

4 minutes ago, Andreas Fuchs said:

... I suspect that the vast majority of candidates got the answer right. 

Me too but not because they are better in getting the intent of the question than my sick brain but because the question is too easy by not offering some other choices.

[Simon Kelsey]

7 hours ago, Andreas Fuchs said:

The learning objective of this question is that in some parts of the world we use hPa (QNH) for our altimeters, in some we use inHg. I think you made a good point that the question was poorly phrased, but I suspect that the vast majority of candidates got the answer right. Simon, can you see any statistics regarding the question?

Sadly I don't think that data is available (or at least if it is, nowhere that is immediately obvious to me), which is another(!) reason why we intend to move the NMOC to a proper Learning Management System which will give us access to much more data. I'll check with the tech team as I thought there were at least some stats available and if they are available I will be both interested to see them myself and of course will post here as well!

[John McMurdo]

When I first started simming I thought the pressure was in millibars since its a 1:1 relation as far as I can tell,  until I flew an airplane where you could switch between hPa and inHg.