Hard if sat early, much more manageable sat late: it is the syllabus’s great integrator, drawing on Meteorology, Mass & Balance and Performance.
Last updated
Exam
43 questions
In 120 minutes, at the standard 75% pass mark.
Study load
upper end
Of the rough 40–80 h/subject planning range — it is a range, not a promise.
Sit alongside
See pairing
Affinity guidance below — matched to our in-app planner.
Flashcards in the exam
Permitted*
*At Austro Control — see the note below.
ICAO and ATC flight plans, fuel planning, ETOPS, alternate selection, en-route planning and the NAT track system.
A long exam (120 minutes for 43 questions) because the fuel-planning and chart problems are genuinely time-consuming.
For the full topic-by-topic syllabus breakdown, see the Flight Planning & Monitoring subject guide.
Any single number here would be false precision, so we won’t give one. As a rough planning figure, most self-study candidates allocate 40–80 hours per subject, and students report Flight Planning & Monitoring typically sitting toward the upper end of that range. Long, multi-step problems plus dependence on three other subjects put it at the upper end — especially if those prerequisites are not yet solid.
Your own figure depends on background, maths comfort and whether you are studying full-time — treat the range as a budget to adjust, not a target to hit.
The fuel-policy rules and flight-plan codes need memorising; the planning problems do not reward it. The same community observation applies here as in Performance: "every calculation is on the (concept)" — method over answer-recognition.
The most effective preparation is sequencing: sit 033 after Meteorology (050), Mass & Balance (031) and Performance (032), and most of its content is revision rather than new learning.
Not an affinity pairing but a prerequisite chain: schedule Flight Planning after Meteorology (050), Mass & Balance (031) and Performance (032). See the order-of-study guide.
How the pairings fit into a full plan — and why order matters — is covered in the recommended order of study, with the sitting mechanics in sittings & limits.
The detail nobody mentions
Austro Control permits flashcards in the Flight Planning & Monitoring (033) exam — per Austro Control’s own FAQ, flashcards are allowed in subjects 031, 032, 033, 034 and 061. If you are sitting with Austro Control, building a clean flashcard set for this subject is study time that walks into the exam room with you. Other authorities set their own rules — confirm before assuming.
Important: Exam question counts and durations are set per authority and periodically revised, and difficulty reports are exactly that — student reports, not guarantees. Confirm current exam details with your ATO and authority before planning.
Hard if sat early, much more manageable sat late: it is the syllabus’s great integrator, drawing on Meteorology, Mass & Balance and Performance.
The fuel-policy rules and flight-plan codes need memorising; the planning problems do not reward it. The same community observation applies here as in Performance: "every calculation is on the (concept)" — method over answer-recognition. The most effective preparation is sequencing: sit 033 after Meteorology (050), Mass & Balance (031) and Performance (032), and most of its content is revision rather than new learning.
It is a range, and it genuinely varies by background — as a rough planning figure, most self-study candidates allocate 40–80 hours per subject, and students report Flight Planning & Monitoring typically sits toward the upper end of that range. Long, multi-step problems plus dependence on three other subjects put it at the upper end — especially if those prerequisites are not yet solid.
Not an affinity pairing but a prerequisite chain: schedule Flight Planning after Meteorology (050), Mass & Balance (031) and Performance (032). See the order-of-study guide.
Drill Flight Planning & Monitoring (033) questions with per-topic mastery tracking, spaced-repetition review, and timed mock exams at the real 75% pass mark.
