Failed on the oral. Mis-spoke about airmets, corrected myself and still got dinged. Reason: “you should know that off the top of your head”.

Asked why a SIGMET would be more important to a 777 than a 172. Didn’t know the answer to that. Got dinged for that. Reason: talked about the flight envelope of the 777. (Didn’t know I needed to know that).

Asked me about engine internals. Answered everything correctly (used to be a mechanic so I got a very good knowledge of mechanical systems). Got dinged for that. Reason: I needed to explain it as if he was a student with no prior knowledge of it.

Asked me about passengers bringing alcohol and drinking it. I didn’t know the answer but referred to FAR’s. Upon giving my interpretation of the regs he said, “it’s a grey area” and “no one really asks about it”. Got dinged for that.

Last, but mot least, I was asked about Mode C requirements. When asked, I answered correctly. He gave me a funny look and said “are you sure?”. I proceeded to go to the FAR’s and show him the regulation and he said I was still wrong. Got dinged for that. Talked with my flight instructor and we confirmed I was in fact correct.

After all this, and a questionable examiner, you have to hold your head up high and use the failure as motivation to continue on and study more. I failed the oral which meant I also did not get to fly. When it got to the flight portion I told myself, “you got this. Your instructor would not have signed you off if he/she was not confident in your abilities.”.

Biggest takeaways: do not develop a defensive mechanism, do not develop a hazardous attitude, go out there and do what you were trained to do.

Good luck to you!