I'm scheduled for my AT-SAT and then the FAA Academy pipeline. Right now I'm putting in about 3 hours a day on aviation weather, airspace, and the regulations. I've been at it for 6 weeks and scoring around 78% on practice sets, but everything I read says you need 85%+ to feel safe going in.
The spatial reasoning portion is what's messing with my head. I can work through the problems but I'm slow - way slower than I expect I'll need to be under real exam conditions. I've been doing paper exercises and some online tools but I'm not sure if I'm actually improving the right skill or just memorizing patterns.
Also curious about the medical requirements side. I know Class 2 medical is required but I've heard the disqualifying conditions list is pretty specific. Did anyone go through the FAA medical process and find surprises they weren't expecting?
I don't have any prior aviation background - just a strong math foundation from an engineering degree. People keep telling me that helps but I'm not seeing it translate to confidence yet.
The FAA medical surprised me with the vision standards. I had mild color vision deficiency that I didn't know would be tested that specifically. Got flagged and had to do additional testing. Check the full AME worksheet before your appointment.
I studied about 220 hours total over 14 weeks before my AT-SAT. Passed with an 84. The written portion felt very manageable - the real grind is the Academy simulator training after you're accepted.
Math background absolutely helps with the radar separation and mental arithmetic portions. That part of the test will feel almost easy compared to people coming in without that foundation. Lean into it.
The spatial piece does get faster - give it another 3-4 weeks of daily reps. I went from averaging 48 seconds per problem down to 27 seconds over about a month of consistent drills. Speed comes, just trust the process.