Aviation Exam in India: How Training Organizations Prepare Candidates for DGCA Exams

An aviation exam in India, for pilot and aircraft maintenance engineer (AME) licensing, is a written exam set and run by the Central Examination Organisation (CEO) of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) through its online Pariksha portal. Training organizations do not deliver those exams. What they control is how candidates are prepared and how the organization decides a candidate is ready to apply.

This guide is for heads of training, chief ground instructors and exam officers at flying training organizations, maintenance training schools and ground schools, and for small companies that sell DGCA exam preparation. It is not a how-to-pass guide for candidates, and it contains no real exam questions.

The facts below were checked on DGCA’s portal and documents as of November 2026. Several widely repeated numbers, including the pass mark, were not found in any DGCA document opened for this post, so each is labeled. Rules change, so check DGCA’s current notices before you change a program.

Key takeaways

• DGCA’s CEO runs pilot and AME licence exams on the Pariksha portal. A training organization’s job is preparation, readiness decisions and records, not delivery of the official exam.
• Pass mark, validity and question counts are repeated on many coaching sites but were not stated in the DGCA portal documents read for this post, and the sites disagree with each other on validity.
• A mock score near the pass mark settles little. On a 100-item mock, item-sampling error alone is about 8 points at 95% confidence, so set a readiness gate well above the pass mark and require it twice.
• Keep a per-candidate record of mock forms, scores, the readiness decision and the DGCA session applied for, because DGCA’s own rules count applications and attempts by session.

Who runs an aviation exam in India, and what does DGCA publish about it?

DGCA’s Central Examination Organisation conducts licence exams for flight crew and AMEs. The portal’s welcome page says it “will be used for all the future Examinations conducted by CEO for AME and Flight Crew” (quoted). Candidates register there, obtain a Computer Number, and apply for papers session by session.

The portal’s About page says the exams will generally be “conducted on-line” (quoted) at designated centres, and cites the Aircraft Rules 1937, CAR Section 7 for flight crew licences and CAR-66 for the modular AME licence.

The notice board on the Pariksha portal home page shows two session types side by side. As of November 2026 it lists Flight Crew Regular Session 04 of 2026 (28 September to 15 November) and Flight Crew OLODE 08 of 2026 (25 September to 2 November). OLODE is the Online On-Demand Examination, which DGCA announced in October 2021, as reported by Business Today, as an addition to the regular online sessions. The same page links the exam calendars, syllabus, reference books and user manuals.

Which DGCA exam facts are published, and which are only repeated by coaching sites?

Registration rules, session structure and application limits are in DGCA’s own portal documents. Pass mark, validity, question counts and duration are not stated in the DGCA documents opened for this post. They appear on third-party sites, which sometimes disagree. Treat them as unverified until you read the current CAR Section 7 text or user manual.

The table below sorts each fact by where it was found and what a training organization should do about it.

The validity row is the clearest conflict. The 2013 Delhi High Court judgment in Sachin Solanki v. Union of India explains that CPL written exams must be passed “within five years” before licence issue and that clause 6.6 of the CAR sets two and a half years for most exams. It is a 13-year-old quotation, not the current CAR.

Pro tip: Date Every DGCA Fact You Teach From. Give one person the job of checking the portal notice board weekly, and log the date and the manual issue number next to every rule in your candidate handbook. A handbook that says “Issue IV, checked 1 November” can be audited. One that says “70%” cannot.

What does a training organization decide, and what does DGCA decide?

DGCA sets the exam, the syllabus, the schedule, candidate eligibility and results. Your organization decides how candidates are taught, when they sit internal tests, who is judged ready to apply, and what records you keep. No source opened for this post says DGCA requires mock exams or evaluates any mock-exam software.

The table shows where each decision sits.

Do Part-147 style rules in India affect your own exams?

For maintenance schools they can. A copy of DGCA’s CAR-147 for type training (Issue 1 Rev 0, September 2014, read on a third-party host) says the approved organization conducts its own type exams, that “The examination staff shall ensure the security of all questions” (147.A.135(a), quoted), and that a knowledge examiner may not prepare or invigilate an exam in a subject they taught.

Those rules govern an organization’s own approved exams, not DGCA’s CEO exams. They are still a sensible house standard for mocks. For the EU equivalent, see EASA Part-147 examinations, and remember DGCA’s text may differ.

How should you design mock exams for an aviation exam in India?

Build mocks from DGCA’s published syllabus, not from remembered exam questions. Write original items mapped to syllabus topics, run them on screen in a timed single sitting, and keep them apart from teaching quizzes. No DGCA document opened for this post offers an official question bank, so the blueprint is yours to own.

Step 1: Take the blueprint from the syllabus. The portal lists the syllabus for AME and flight crew papers. Tag every mock item with one syllabus topic.

Step 2: Write original items. Questions reconstructed from candidates’ memory are unreliable and turn a mock into a memory test. Our guide to aviation MCQs that test understanding covers how to write items that ask for a decision rather than a recalled phrase.

Step 3: Match the sitting. DGCA exams are online at designated centres, so run mocks on screen, timed, in one sitting.

Step 4: Set paper length from the blueprint. Pick a length that samples every syllabus topic, and record that it is your design, not a DGCA figure.

Step 5: Keep teaching quizzes and mocks apart. An item candidates have practiced in class no longer measures readiness.

What mock score means a candidate is ready to apply?

No DGCA document opened for this post sets a readiness rule. Set your own gate well above the official pass mark, require it on two different mock forms, and treat a single score near the mark as undecided. A 100-item mock carries about 8 points of item-sampling error at 95% confidence.

Here is the arithmetic. Assume, for illustration only, a pass mark of 70% (unconfirmed, see the table above) and a candidate whose true ability is 75%. On a 100-item mock the standard error of the observed score is the square root of 0.75 x 0.25 / 100, about 4.3 points. A 95% range is therefore roughly 66.5 to 83.5. That candidate could score 67 one day and 83 another with no change in knowledge, so one 72 does not mean ready.

Averaging two independent 100-item forms narrows the standard error to about 3.1 points, a 95% range of roughly 69 to 81. This simple calculation counts only which items were sampled. It ignores fatigue and day-to-day variation. Once you have real cohort data, replace it with a measured standard error, as shown in our guide to setting cut scores for professional training courses.

The table turns that into a gate your organization could adopt. It is an example of a provider policy, not a DGCA rule, and the 10-point margin is a rounded half-width of the 95% range above.

Pro tip: Seal One Gate Form. Keep one mock form that no candidate sees until the readiness check, and never use it in class. Retire it after one cohort and replace it.

What records should you keep for each candidate?

Keep enough to explain every readiness decision and rebuild the application history: which mock form, when, score by topic, who decided, which DGCA session the candidate applied for, and the outcome. DGCA’s rules count applications and AME attempts by session, so your own ledger prevents disputes.

A workable record for each candidate has these fields:

• Computer Number and the DGCA paper targeted;
• mock form identifier, version and date taken;
• total score and score by syllabus topic;
• the pass mark you assumed, and the date you last confirmed it;
• the readiness decision, who made it and why;
• the DGCA session applied for, attempt number and official result.

The topic-level scores are where item analysis for trainers pays off. Keeping the assumed pass mark and its check date in each record lets you re-run past decisions if DGCA confirms a different figure.

What should you do next?

Pick one paper this month. Confirm its rules in the current user manual and CAR Section 7 text, or ask the CEO help desk, and write the answer with a date. Then build the syllabus blueprint, write a first original mock form and set a gate.

When you compare tools, ask each vendor to show how it stores form versions, topic-level scores and attempt history. SimpliAssess’s features page lists item banking, test management, examinee management and analytics and reporting, but its published pages do not describe DGCA, India or offline use, so test fit with a pilot before committing.

If your school also tracks training and certifications, SimpliTrain’s aviation page lists Assessments & Exams, Question Banks, Certifications & Grading and Skill Tracking as features and refers to EASA and FAA. It does not mention DGCA or India, so confirm fit with the vendor directly.

Frequently asked questions

Who conducts DGCA exams in India?

DGCA’s Central Examination Organisation (CEO) in New Delhi conducts the licence exams for flight crew and aircraft maintenance engineers. The portal FAQ says they are conducted under Rule 41A of the Aircraft Rules 1937. Candidates register and apply on the Pariksha portal, and training organizations do not deliver the official exam.

What is OLODE in DGCA exams?

OLODE stands for Online On-Demand Examination. The Pariksha portal lists OLODE sessions alongside regular sessions for both AME and flight crew. Business Today reported DGCA’s October 2021 announcement of it as an addition to regular online exams, with a first session in Delhi. Centres and capacity change, so check the portal notice board.

Is the DGCA pass mark 70%?

That is unconfirmed here. Coaching sites report 70%, but the DGCA portal documents opened for this post do not state a pass mark, and the flight crew user manual says it does not cover pass marks. Confirm the figure in the current CAR Section 7 text or with the CEO help desk before publishing it to candidates.

How many attempts does DGCA allow?

For AME modular papers, a 2019 DGCA instruction quotes a maximum of three consecutive attempts for each QPREF, with further sets after a one-year wait. The flight crew manual says a candidate may apply only once in a particular session. Neither is a general cap for every paper, so check the current manual.

Does DGCA approve mock exam software?

No source opened for this post says so. The DGCA documents read do not mention mock exams or practice software at all. Treat any vendor claim of DGCA approval as unverified until the vendor shows you the DGCA document that says it, and keep the readiness decision with your own organization.

Can a training organization set its own readiness rule?

Yes. The documents opened for this post set no readiness rule, so the decision to apply belongs to the organization and the candidate. Write the rule down, base it on more than one mock result, and keep the evidence, as the gate table above shows. It is your policy, not a DGCA requirement.