The most common booking mistake isn't waiting too long — it's booking too early. Candidates hit a good practice score once, feel ready, lock in a date, and then find out exam day is a different experience than a 20-minute practice session on their couch. Here's how to know the difference.

The number that actually matters

The INRAT passing score is 70%. You need to be consistently hitting 80% or above in practice before you book. That 10-point buffer isn't padding — it accounts for exam-day nerves, slightly different question phrasing, and the fatigue that sets in after two hours of focused concentration.

Candidates who practice to 70% and squeak through in drills often find themselves at 66% on the real exam. That's a fail that could have been avoided with another week of prep.

One high score doesn't mean ready. Score variance is real. You can hit 85% one session and 72% the next on the same material depending on which questions come up. The signal you want is three or four sessions in a row above 80% — not a single peak.

The checklist before you book

Book when you can say yes to all of these

  • Scored 80%+ on at least three consecutive full practice exams
  • No single category consistently below 70%
  • Completed at least two full timed simulations (50 questions, 3 hours)
  • Reviewed the TP 691E and can explain why your wrong answers were wrong
  • Comfortable with GFAs, holding entries, comm failure, and instrument approaches — the four highest-loss categories

What a full timed simulation reveals

Short practice sessions test knowledge. A full timed simulation tests whether you can sustain focus and accuracy for three hours straight. They're not the same thing. Plenty of candidates who score well in short sessions find their accuracy drops significantly in the final 30 minutes of a full simulation — that's when exam-day failures happen.

Run at least two full simulations. The first one is diagnostic — it shows you how your performance degrades over time. The second confirms you've addressed it. Book after the second, not the first.

Category scores matter as much as overall

An 82% overall with a 55% in two-way comm failure is not exam-ready. That weak category will get worse under pressure, and a cluster of wrong answers in one area is exactly how candidates fail by two or three marks. Check your category breakdown, not just your total.

If any category is below 70% after your full practice run, go back to the TP 691E for that section and drill it specifically before booking.

The week before

Don't cram new material the week before the exam. You're not going to learn something meaningful in seven days that changes your result — but you can tire yourself out and show up flat. The week before is for light review, confidence-building practice, and making sure the logistics are sorted: exam centre location, what to bring, when to arrive.

Sleep the night before. That's not obvious advice — a surprising number of candidates underperform simply because they stayed up reviewing until 2am. The knowledge is there. Rest so you can access it.

Don't book a date first, then prepare to meet it. Book when you're ready, not when it's convenient. The re-exam fee and the delay aren't worth the pressure of an arbitrary deadline.

Find out if you're ready

Run a full timed simulation across all 13 INRAT categories. See your score by category. Know before you book.

Try Free →
Ash H
Flight Instructor  ·  Transport Canada

Ash H has been a flight instructor for 12 years — New Brunswick, Toronto, Collingwood — and has helped hundreds of students prepare for Transport Canada exams. He built IFRTEST.ca because most IFR prep online is written for the FAA, not for this exam.

← All articles