ATPL Exam Sittings, Attempts & Time Limits

FCL.025 caps you at 6 sittings — but Part-FCL never says what a sitting is. The definitions article, FCL.010, has no entry for “sitting”. Each national authority fills that gap itself, and the answers differ by a factor of two:

• UK CAA: a sitting spans 10 days.
• Transport Malta: 5 consecutive working days — and, in their words, “Only one attempt at each examination paper is allowed in one sitting”.
• DGAC (France): 5 consecutive days for ATPL/CPL, 3 for the IR.

A 10-day sitting lets you spread the same group of subjects across two working weeks; a 5-day sitting does not. That two-fold spread directly determines how many subjects you can realistically group per sitting — and it is one of the genuinely differentiating factors when choosing which authority to sit with.

These rules come from FCL.025 of the consolidated Reg. (EU) 1178/2011 (30 April 2026 consolidation) and apply in full whichever member state you sit with:

• Pass mark 75%, per paper. And, quoting the regulation: “No penalty marking shall be applied.” A wrong answer costs no more than a blank one — never leave a question blank.
• A maximum of 4 attempts per paper.
• A maximum of 6 sittings — noting the cap applies to ATPL/CPL/IR-level theory. LAPL and PPL candidates get the 4-attempt limit and the 18-month window without the 6-sitting cap.
• All papers passed within 18 months, counted from the end of the calendar month in which you first attempted an examination. The provision opens “Unless otherwise determined in this Part” — so treat it as the general rule, not an absolute with no exceptions.
• Miss any of these limits and you retake the complete set of examination papers, after further training at a DTO or ATO.
• An ATO/DTO recommendation to sit the exams is valid for 12 months.

Once the full set is passed, validity depends on the licence you are working towards:

• ATPL: the theory pass remains valid for 7 years from the last validity date of an IR entered in your licence (or, for helicopter pilots, a helicopter type rating).
• CPL, MPL and IR: accepted for licence or rating issue for 36 months.
• BIR: valid without a time limit.
• LAPL/PPL: 24 months.

The limits reward planning your groups of subjects before your first attempt: the 18-month clock starts at the end of that first calendar month, and every visit to the exam centre spends one of your 6 sittings. Most candidates plan 3–4 sittings and hold the rest in reserve for resits.

Which subjects to group together — and which to sit first — is its own question: see the recommended order of study, and check which ECQB version your authority examines from before you book anything.