Andrew Sarangan wrote:

As for skipping questions because you are confident of passing the test,
this too displays an attitude towards taking shortcuts. It might be
worthwhile for you to read about risk management.

I understand there are things you can risk, and then there are things
you just can't risk. When you are on final approach, you just *can not*
skip those final checklist items. On the flip side, when you are doing a
cross country, you *can* afford to skip writing down your time en route
between checkpoints in your flight log if you are preoccupied with your
VOR receiver failing. I felt like I could afford to skip certain
questions on my test and not have it negatively effect (meaning fail)
the test.

Risk management is all about *managing* risks, not avoiding any sort of
situation imaginable that may in some slight way have a negative effect.
There are tons of things experienced pilots do that could in some way
negatively effect safety of a flight, such as neglecting a micrology
while dealing with an emergency. These are unavoidable and they happen
all the time. The difference between a good pilot and a bad one is that
pilot's ability to deal with these situations, and what they choose to
omit, and not omit.

I didn't go in there and skip every question, as that would have been
poor risk management. I only skipped those questions which I knew would
not effect my ultimate goal which is, and always has been passing. When
I did the SAT, I did not skip any questions because that would have
lowered my score and the goal there is to get the best score you can.
The FAA knowledge tests are not the SAT.

Now on the other hand, if the grade is something that could come back to
haunt me come time to get a job, then I would say what I did was wrong.
That was the whole point of this thread. Will the grade effect me? If so
then I'll try to get a 100 next time. If it doesn't, then I won't sweat
it. Either way I'm going to pass the test and begin my training aloft
where I'll cement the things the things in my mind that I didn't already
know. Isn't that the whole point in doing the oral part of the checkride?