EASA Part-66 Module 1: Mathematics

Three subjects, divided into six topics, and the division rewards a close read because neither the knowledge levels nor the questions are spread evenly across it. Arithmetic comes first and comes at level 2: arithmetical terms and signs, methods of multiplication and division, fractions and decimals, factors and multiples, weights, measures and conversion factors, ratio and proportion, averages and percentages, areas and volumes, and squares, cubes and their roots. That’s a long list for one topic, and at level 2 you’re expected to work each item out rather than just recognise it, yet EASA’s guidance gives the whole topic 6 of the 32 questions.

Algebra splits in two, and the split matters more than the subject does. Evaluating simple algebraic expressions sits at level 2, so you have to be able to do it: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, brackets, and simple algebraic fractions, and EASA gives it 4 questions. Everything harder sits at level 1: linear equations and their solutions, indices and powers, negative and fractional indices, binary and other applicable numbering systems, simultaneous equations, second degree equations with one unknown, and logarithms. Level 1 wants familiarity and the typical terms rather than working fluency, but this is also where EASA puts 12 questions, the largest share of the paper, so what it asks for is breadth: every item on that list, recognised quickly, rather than hours grinding through quadratics.

Geometry then takes three topics of its own. Simple geometrical constructions sit at level 1 with 3 questions, while graphical representation sits at level 2 with 4, meaning the nature and uses of graphs, and graphs of equations and functions, which is the part of this module that most clearly earns its place, because you’ll read curves off charts for the rest of your working life. Simple trigonometry also sits at level 2, with 3 questions covering the relationships, the use of tables, and rectangular and polar coordinates, and it’s there because forces have directions and Module 2 is about to start splitting them into components.

EASA sets 32 questions and 40 minutes, all multiple choice with three answers each, and no essay. The clock is arithmetic rather than judgement: Appendix II allows a standard 75 seconds a question across every module in the set, so the time here follows the count and says nothing about how hard anyone thinks the questions are. EASA’s own guidance, its AMC to Part-66, then spreads the 32 across the six topics: 6 on arithmetic, 4 on simple algebraic expressions, 12 on equations, 3 on constructions, 4 on graphs and 3 on trigonometry. Whoever sets the paper may depart from that spread, with justification, as long as it still totals 32, so treat it as the shape of the paper rather than a promise about any one sitting.

At the 75% pass mark, that means 24 correct answers with 8 spare, so think about where that spare margin goes before you sit down. In numerical questions, Appendix II requires the wrong answers to match procedural errors, such as a correction applied the wrong way round or a unit converted wrongly, so the answers you lose will often be to questions you knew perfectly well how to do: a sign carried across, a decimal shifted one place, a bracket expanded in the wrong order. The margin is there to absorb the working you did too quickly, and that’s a different thing to prepare for than ignorance.

Every maths paper attracts the calculator question, and Part-66 never answers it: Appendix II sets the format, the timing and the pass mark, and says nothing at all about calculators or reference material. The closed book line that gets quoted at people belongs to Appendix III, which governs type training rather than the basic modules. In practice it’s settled by whoever runs your exam, which is a Part-147 approved organisation or the competent authority, so ask them.

The table below is the EASA syllabus for Module 1: six rows, each with the knowledge level EASA sets for category B1 and the number of questions its guidance gives the topic, and the UK CAA’s level beside it. It’s one of the quiet tables in this set, because the two level columns never part company: the UK asks for the same depth in every row. The UK table also still prints the detail inside each row, and that is the detail EASA now lists in its guidance under the same heading, so the two describe the same material.

Not in any way that changes what you have to learn. The UK CAA sets Module 1 as 32 questions in 40 minutes with no essay, the same paper as EASA, over the same six topics in the same order and at the same knowledge levels, and it keeps the module number 1 with no letter added. Elsewhere in the licence there are papers the two authorities genuinely set apart, and this one sits among the nine they set alike rather than the four they don’t.

The only difference is in how much each table prints, and it always runs the same way: the UK table says more. Under 1.2(b) it names linear equations, indices and powers, numbering systems, simultaneous and second degree equations, and logarithms where the EASA table says only “equations”. Under 1.2(a) it reads “Evaluating simple algebraic expressions” where EASA says “simple algebraic expressions”, and under 1.3(c) “Simple trigonometry” where EASA says “trigonometry”.

None of that changes what you can be examined on. When EASA rewrote Part-66, it moved the detailed description of each topic out of the regulation’s table and into its guidance, and that guidance lists the same items the UK table prints. So a UK CAA candidate can use everything on this page as it stands; the one thing here that is EASA’s alone is the question spread by topic, which comes from EASA’s guidance.

The wider split between the two authorities is on the EASA versus UK CAA page: mutual recognition, which licence to go for, and what happened to the conversion route.

This page covers one of the 13 papers. The rest of the guide covers the route they sit inside: what the exam is, what else you must have done besides passing it, and how the two authorities differ.

EASA requires thirteen modules for category B1.1, and the UK CAA examines the same thirteen subjects. The UK CAA syllabus differs in nine of them, and the UK still adds an A to four module numbers where EASA dropped it, so its number follows the EASA one here, as in 7/7A. Each module has a page of its own, with the EASA paper first and the UK CAA differences marked.