FAA Written Test Prep, Compared
Updated July 2026 · by Jeff, pilot and builder of Zeekin Around
The short answer: combine, don't choose. A ground school teaches the material, a question bank rehearses the exam, and spaced repetition keeps it in your head until test day — most products do one of the three well. As of July 2026, none of the major test-prep products schedule reviews with true spaced repetition; that gap is what this site fills, free. (Disclosure: Zeekin Around is our product — the rest of this page plays it straight.)
| Product | Covers | Price* | Format | True SRS? | Guarantee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sheppard Air | IR, Commercial, CFI, ATP, Dispatcher — no Private | $40–$90 per test | Rote memorization of the reconstructed question pool | No — exhaustive repetition, not interval scheduling | Money-back if a real question wasn't in their prep |
| Gleim | Sport through ATP | ~$90 test prep · $200 with ground school | Question bank + online ground school | No — adaptive weak-area sessions | Pass first attempt or refund |
| Sporty's | Private, Instrument (Commercial via all-access) | $199–$249 per course · $399/yr all-access | Video ground school + test prep bank | No — custom sessions + analytics | Triple guarantee: written, oral, and checkride |
| King Schools | Sport through ATP | ~$179 test prep · $349 complete course | Video ground school + test prep | No | Pass guarantee + 30-day refund |
| ASA Prepware | Sport through ATP | $30–$100 | No-frills question-bank drilling | No — tracks misses only | None stated |
| Boldmethod | Topic courses (airspace, weather, IFR) — not test banks | $25–$500 per course | Interactive concept-teaching courses | No | None for the knowledge test |
| Pilot Institute | Private, Instrument, Commercial | $249–$279, lifetime access | Modern video ground school + practice questions | No — flashcards without interval scheduling | Pass first try or $175 + full refund |
| Zeekin Around (this site) | Private through ATP, plus multi-engine & tailwheel | Free study content; optional Premium for unlimited flashcards | ACS-organized study guides + FSRS flashcards | Yes — FSRS interval scheduling per card | It's free to try — nothing to refund |
*Listed prices as of July 2026; most vendors run near-permanent sales — check current pricing before buying.
What's the best Sheppard Air alternative?
Depends on why you're looking. Sheppard Air is the fastest, highest-certainty path to passing the harder writtens (instrument through ATP) by drilling the reconstructed question pool — and they honestly don't sell a Private Pilot product. If you want the same drill-to-pass approach cheaper, ASA Prepware ($30–$60) is the budget bank. If you want to actually understand the material, Gleim or Sporty's pair a real ground school with the bank. If your complaint is that rote-memorized answers evaporate a week after the test — that's a scheduling problem, and spaced repetition is the fix, not another bank.
What's the best prep for the private pilot written?
Sheppard doesn't cover it, so the field is video ground schools: Sporty's ($249, triple guarantee), Pilot Institute ($249, pass-or-$175-plus-refund), King ($349 complete), and Gleim ($200 with ground school) are all solid first-contact teaching. Whichever you pick, add retention: here's the full study method for the private written.
Which prep uses real spaced repetition?
None of the seven above. Several resurface questions you missed — useful, but that's error tracking. True spaced repetition models your memory per fact and schedules the review just before you'd forget (the approach Anki made standard, now scheduled by FSRS). Zeekin Around is, as far as we know, the only aviation-native tool doing this — free study content for every ACS task from private through ATP, with FSRS-scheduled flashcards. It's deliberately a supplement: keep your ground school, keep your bank drills the final week, and let the scheduler carry everything you learned to test day — and past it to the oral.
Vendor details verified against sheppardair.com, gleimaviation.com, sportys.com, kingschools.com, asa2fly.com, boldmethod.com, and pilotinstitute.com in July 2026. Corrections welcome via the feedback form.