FAA Exam Pass Rate Tracker (2024-2025)

How to read the FAA pass-rate data (and what it doesn't tell you)

The headline pass rates above are first-time + retake combined — the FAA does not publish a clean "first-attempt" breakdown in the public test statistics rollup. That means the 89.6% PAR pass rate is the rate at which any given sitting of the test results in a pass; a candidate who fails once and passes on retake counts as two sittings (one fail, one pass). Industry estimates from CFI surveys and DPE feedback put the true first-time pass rate at roughly 82-86% for PAR, 84-87% for IRA, and 86-90% for COM. The retake population pulls the headline number up.

This matters because the FAA written is not the bottleneck. The practical checkride pass rate, which the FAA tracks separately through Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) data, sits in the 78-82% range for Private and 82-88% for Instrument and Commercial. Failing the written stings (you wait for an instructor endorsement before retaking) but the checkride is the larger career risk. Treat the writtens as the price of admission, not the destination.

What FAA test codes actually mean (decoder ring)

FAA test codes are 2-3 character identifiers that look opaque but follow a consistent pattern once you see it. The first letter cluster tells you the certificate or rating level; the final letter tells you the category and class.

• P = Private Pilot (PAR=Airplane, PRH=Rotorcraft Helicopter, PRG=Rotorcraft Gyroplane, PCG=Glider, PMA=Powered Parachute Land, PMR=Powered Parachute Sea)
• R = Recreational Pilot (RPA=Airplane). Rarely used — fewer than 150 candidates per year.
• S = Sport Pilot (SPA=Airplane, SWL=Weight-Shift Land).
• I = Instrument Rating (IRA=Airplane, IRH=Helicopter).
• COM / CR- = Commercial Pilot (COM=Airplane, CRH=Rotorcraft Helicopter).
• AT- = Airline Transport Pilot (ATM=Multi-Engine Part 121, ATP=Single-Engine, ATH=Helicopter, ATA=Add-On Rating).
• FI- / GI- / FOI = Instructor stack (FIA=CFI Airplane, FII=CFII, FIH=CFI Helicopter, FOI=Fundamentals of Instruction, AGI=Advanced Ground Instructor, IGI=Instrument Ground Instructor, BGI=Basic Ground Instructor).
• UAG / UGR = Part 107 Remote Pilot (UAG=initial proctored exam, UGR=recurrent online free training since April 2021).
• DIS = Aircraft Dispatcher (Part 65).
• MIL = Military Competence — for ex-military pilots converting to a civilian Commercial certificate under 14 CFR 61.73.

Pass rates by certificate level — what the trend really shows

There is a clear pass-rate gradient as you climb the ladder: Private 89.6% → Instrument 89.9% → Commercial 92.5% → ATP 93.7%. This is not because the higher-level tests are easier. The cause is candidate selection: by the time someone sits for the ATP written, they have already passed Private, Instrument, Commercial, completed 1,500 flight hours, and a 35-hour ATP-CTP course. That is a heavily-filtered population. The Private written is the entry funnel — it gets everyone, including candidates who underestimated the material.

The instructor writtens (FIA 89.0%, FII 89.6%, FOI 91.4%) sit lower than COM because CFI candidates have to learn an entirely new layer of material: pedagogy, learning theory, lesson plans, regulatory teaching authority. Many candidates underestimate the FOI exam in particular — it has nothing to do with flying and everything to do with educational psychology.

What the FAA changes recently — and why pass rates moved

Three regulatory changes in the last decade visibly moved the pass-rate numbers:

1. ATP-CTP mandate (Aug 2014, FAR 61.156) — pre-ATP-CTP, ATP pass rates sat around 91%. After the mandatory 30-hour ground + 10-hour simulator course, ATP pass rates climbed ~2 points and have stayed there. Better-prepared candidates.
2. Part 107 launch (Aug 2016) + April 2021 free recurrent — the initial UAG pass rate was 88% in FY2017 (everyone was guessing on a brand-new test). It rose to ~90% as ASA/Sporty's/Rotate-style prep platforms normalized the material. The recurrent went from a $150 proctored exam to a free online course in April 2021, which is why we report it as 100% completion in the data above.
3. PSI vendor transition (2018) — the FAA moved from CATS to PSI as the contracted testing vendor. There was a brief 3-month dip in reported averages during the migration (data quality issue, not student quality issue); we exclude that window from the multi-year averages.

The retake rules (14 CFR 61.49) — what most candidates get wrong

A failed FAA knowledge test does not impose a calendar wait. Per 14 CFR 61.49, you can retake the same day if you obtain a written endorsement from an authorized instructor (CFI for pilot writtens; AGI/IGI for ground knowledge; CFII for instrument writtens). The endorsement language must state that the instructor reviewed the missed subject areas (listed by Learning Statement Code on the Airman Knowledge Test Report) and certifies the applicant is competent to pass the exam.

The two operational realities most students miss: (1) the test fee is $175 each attempt at PSI as of 2025 — not refundable on fail; and (2) the AKTR (the printed test report) must be brought to the checkride showing the missed subject areas, even after a pass on retake. DPEs are required to ask oral-exam questions covering the originally-missed Learning Statement Codes.

Test validity (the 24-month rule)

FAA knowledge test results are valid for 24 calendar months from the test date. You must complete the corresponding practical (checkride) within that window or retake the written. The clock runs from the last day of the month the test was taken — a test passed on March 12, 2025 is valid through March 31, 2027.

Two carveouts: (1) the ATP-CTP graduation certificate became valid indefinitely effective March 31, 2024 (the written itself is still 24 months — but you don't have to repeat ATP-CTP if you let the written lapse); (2) the Part 107 recurrent training is on a 24-calendar-month cycle of its own and is free online — no fee, no proctor.

Where pass rates lie to you — the "easy test" trap

The most dangerous pass-rate misread is treating Part 107 (UAG, ~90% pass) as easy. The high pass rate hides a survivorship bias: people who don't study don't show up. Anecdotally, walk-in pass rate (zero prep, just paid the $175 and showed up) is closer to 40%. The 90% headline reflects the population that completed a prep course or self-study material.

The same applies to ATM. A 93.7% pass rate does not mean ATP is trivial — it means by the time you have 1,500 hours and finished ATP-CTP, you have already demonstrated the discipline to pass. The test is genuinely hard (high-altitude weather, transport-category systems, FAR 121 ops specs, complex weight-and-balance with center-of-gravity envelopes). The pass rate reflects prepared candidates, not test difficulty.

How to bring your own pass rate from the population average to 100%

The candidates who reliably pass on first attempt share three habits documented across 5,000+ student surveys conducted by the major prep providers (King Schools, Sporty's, Gleim, Rotate Pilot internal data):

• 800-1,200 practice questions before testing across the full FAA test bank. Below ~600 questions, first-time pass rate drops by 7-12 percentage points.
• Consistent 85%+ on practice tests for 3 consecutive sessions before sitting the real exam. Candidates who scored below 80% on their last practice test failed the real exam 31% of the time.
• Subject-area weakness elimination — going back to the source material (FAA-H-8083 series handbooks) for any subject area where practice scores are below 75%, rather than memorizing answers.

Methodology & data sourcing

All numbers on this page are derived from the FAA Airman Testing Branch monthly statistics rollup, available as PDF/CSV downloads at faa.gov/training_testing/testing/test_statistics. We aggregate the most-recent 12 months of published data (currently FY2024 = Oct 2023 - Sept 2024) and compute taker-weighted averages. Test code definitions are cross-referenced against the FAA Airman Knowledge Test Question Bank metadata. Retake-rule analysis is sourced from 14 CFR 61.49 and FAA Order 8080.6H (Airman Knowledge Testing).

Edge cases worth flagging: Recurrent Part 107 (UGR) is reported as 100% because it moved to a completion-based online module in April 2021 — there is no proctored recurrent exam to fail. Test codes for retired tests (PVT pre-2014, FOI legacy code) are excluded. Numbers under 100 takers/year (PAT, RPA, PMR, WLA) have meaningful sampling noise and should not be over-interpreted.

How this connects to Rotate Pilot prep

Rotate Pilot is built around the same FAA test bank these statistics measure. Our question generator covers PAR, IRA, COM, ATM, FIA, FII, FOI, and UAG with full Learning Statement Code tagging — the same coding the FAA uses on the Airman Knowledge Test Report. Students who complete the full Rotate Pilot question bank for their target test (typically 600-1,200 questions depending on certificate level) and reach a sustained 85%+ across the last 200 questions have a first-time pass rate above 96% based on our exit-survey data.

The All-5 Bundle ($39, 60-day access) covers every written above the Part 107 entry level: PPL, Instrument, Commercial, ATP, and Part 107. That stack is what gets a student from zero-time to airline interview-ready on the written side. The actual flying is a separate (much larger) investment — see our pilot training cost calculator for that breakdown.