so ive been studying for part 107 for about 6 weeks now and honestly the aeronautical knowledge stuff is killing me. like i get the airspace stuff mostly, i can read a sectional chart well enough at this point, but the weather section... TAFs and METARs and all that, i just can't make it stick. i bought the Sportys course and also have the ASA test prep book but im not sure im using them right or something.

anyone have a good way to actually learn how to read weather reports without just memorizing stuff that i forget two days later? also how hard is the actual test compared to the practice exams? i keep scoring like 78-82 on the practice stuff which i know is passing but it doesnt feel comfortable enough going in

METAR/TAF stuff really clicked for me when i stopped trying to memorize the format and just started actually looking up real METARs every day on aviationweather.gov for my local airport. like even airports i wasnt planning to fly near. after a couple weeks of just reading them for fun it starts to feel like a language instead of a code you have to decode every time.

as for the test vs practice exams, honestly the real test felt slightly harder in the sense that the wording is more deliberate and tricky than some of the cheaper practice apps. the ASA book questions are pretty close to the real thing in my experience though. if youre hitting 78-82 consistently id push to get that up to like 85+ before you go in, not because you need it to pass but just because the test has a way of getting in your head and you dont want to be right on the edge mentally.

i took mine back in february and was in the exact same spot with weather. what helped me was youtube honestly, there are a couple pilots who do METAR breakdowns that are way more intuitive than any textbook. just search like "how to read METAR for pilots" and find one you like. took me maybe 3-4 days of watching those before it actually made sense.

dont stress too much about the score tbh, 78 is passing and the test is 60 questions so you have some room. i went in at like 80% on practice tests and ended up with an 85 on the real one weirdly enough