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Advice for improving your English and passing the ICAO English test from Aviation English Asia. Article written by Michael Egerton There are many different types of ICAO English test.  Some ICAO tests are created by independent testing institutions eg RELTA, VAET, TEA and EALTA whereas others are created and administered by airlines themselves.  Some ICAO tests focus on your ability to use technical vocabulary, and what you would say in a particular situation during flight, others are more focused on plain English and your ability to talk about unexpected situations.  We've even heard of some ICAO tests being purely conversational.  With so many different types of ICAO test it's difficult to know how you should prepare for the test. We don't recommend that you try and memorise expected answers to a test, but you can predict the kind of question that could be asked - particularly those that relate to giving personal information.  In this article I will provide some sample test questions that you could realistically be expected to answer - not just for the ICAO English test but at many stages throughout your career.

Sample ICAO test questions

  1. What's your name and date of birth?
  2. What do you like about your job?
  3. How do your family feel about your job?
  4. What aircraft would you most like to fly?
  5. What is the best thing about being a pilot?
  6. Did you ever have any doubts about becoming a pilot?
  7. How did you become interested in aviation?
  8. What do you do to maintain your health?
  9. What is the most difficult part of your job?
  10. What happened during your first solo?

Of course, your answers will be different from your colleagues so memorisation isn't going to help.  And yes, some people (not our students) really do try to memorise answers!  You are going to need to be able to answer questions for yourself and in the correct tense, with suitable articles, prepositions and clauses. You will also need sufficient plain English vocabulary to answer common questions.  In short, your assessor will be able to find out a lot about your level of English by how you answer simple questions.  So let's practice grammar by looking at the questions above - consider which are about the past, which are about the present, and which are about the future?  How would you answer them? ICAO English test answers These are some answers to questions asked in an ICAO English test. What do you think the questions were?  The answers don't necessarily relate to the questions above.

  • June 25th
  • Definitely the F14 Tomcat because of the swing wings
  • Being able to visit many different locations around the world.
  • I experienced some unexpected weather conditions.
  • They are very supportive but it requires a lot of hard work to maintain relationships.
  • As part of military service.
  • Ever since I was a child.
  • I used to collect model aircraft when I was a boy and I became fascinated about how they work.
  • Kuala Lumpur
  • Air Asia

Practice paraphrasing

There is more than one possible question to match each answer above, and also more than one way to ask a question.  Practice paraphrasing by asking the questions you came up with in a different way.  For example:

  • When were you born? / What is your date of birth?
  • What is your motivation for becoming a pilot? / Why did you want to become a pilot?

What to do next


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