The PPL theory isn't one exam, it's nine subjects sharing one pass mark. And they don't weigh the same at all: revising in the order of a manual's table of contents is the surest way to spend hours on what barely counts.
The 9 EASA subjects
The PPL (A) theory syllabus is set by EASA regulation (Part-FCL) and covers nine subjects, identical across every EASA member state:
| Subject | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Air Law | Airspace, rules of the air, licences, aircraft documents |
| Aircraft General Knowledge | Airframe, engine, propeller, systems, instruments |
| Flight Performance & Planning | Mass and balance, distances, nav log, flight plan |
| Human Performance | Physiology, illusions, decision-making biases |
| Meteorology | Atmosphere, clouds, fronts, METAR/TAF, icing |
| Navigation | Charts, heading and drift, dead reckoning, radio aids, GPS |
| Operational Procedures | Departure, arrival, abnormal situations |
| Principles of Flight | Lift, drag, stalling, stability |
| Communications | Phraseology, radio procedures, emergencies |
That much is fixed EASA-wide. What is not fixed EASA-wide is how each state organises the sitting: the number of questions per subject, the time allowed, the number of attempts, and the exam calendar are all set by your national aviation authority (the CAA in your state — DGAC in France, IAA in Ireland, CAA Malta, and so on). Always check the current format with your own authority or training organisation; a forum post from a few years ago is not a source.
The pass mark is EASA, the paper is national
FCL.025 sets one rule that applies everywhere: 75 % per subject, and each subject is examined and retaken independently. A weak result in one subject cannot be offset by a strong one elsewhere — the goal isn't a good average, it's no gap anywhere. Results also stay valid for 24 months, again an EASA-wide figure.
Everything else — question count, timing, attempts — varies by state. France, for example, splits the nine subjects into nine separate papers, 128 questions in total, 212 minutes, a format in force since December 2023. That is a French DGAC figure, not an EASA one: don't assume it transfers to Ireland, Malta, or anywhere else without checking. If you're not sitting in France, ask your authority or ATO for the exact breakdown before you build a revision plan around numbers that may not apply to you.
The weighting is very uneven, wherever you sit
What does travel across states is the relative weight EASA gives each subject in the underlying question bank. As a rough order of magnitude:
- Navigation: roughly a fifth of the questions, by far the heaviest subject.
- Communications: roughly a seventh.
- Meteorology, Flight Performance & Planning, Principles of Flight: roughly an eighth each.
- Air Law, Human Performance: roughly an eleventh each.
- Aircraft General Knowledge, Operational Procedures: the two lightest, about half the weight of meteorology.
Practical conclusion: navigation alone outweighs aircraft general knowledge and operational procedures combined. If your revision time is limited, there's no reason to split it evenly across subjects.
Where the marks actually go missing
Failures cluster in a few predictable places, rarely where candidates expect:
1. Timed calculations. Drift, groundspeed, fuel, mass and balance, unit conversions. These questions aren't hard, they're slow. A candidate who hasn't automated the nav computer loses marks to the clock, not to a gap in understanding.
2. Double-negative or trap wording. "Which of the following is not required…" Most errors here come from reading fast, not from not knowing the material.
3. Regulatory values that sit close together. VMC minima, overflight heights, document validity periods. These are numbers to be memorised, and the wrong answers are built to look plausible.
4. Vocabulary mix-ups. Altitude / height / flight level. Ceiling / cloud cover. Clearance / radio contact. Indicated airspeed / true airspeed. A good share of missed questions turn on one word, not one concept.
A revision order that works
A sequence that avoids relearning the same material three times:
- Principles of flight and meteorology first. These are the explanatory subjects: they make everything else understandable rather than something to memorise by rote.
- Navigation next, because it's the heaviest and the slowest to automate. It needs repeated practice, not more reading.
- Air law and operational procedures in parallel, in short, regular sessions. This is memorisation: spacing beats cramming.
- Communications, human performance, aircraft general knowledge near the end, building on what practical flying has already reinforced.
- Full mock exams in the final weeks, under real timing.
What this changes in your preparation
The theory is won less on hours revised than on how those hours are distributed and tested. Three habits change a preparation:
- Question banks early, not just at the end: they expose gaps that re-reading notes hides.
- Systematically revisit missed questions a few days later: that's where most of the real progress happens.
- Timed mock exams before the real sitting, so time pressure is discovered on a practice paper, not the actual one.
One more thing decides your real timeline: in most EASA states, it's your training organisation, not you, that registers you for the exam. Check your own authority's registration route before counting on a date.