I'm looking for suggestions on what's the best way to prepare for the IATRA exam. I'm considering Aerocourse (which I took for my IFR and was pleased) or online ground school. How difficult is this exam?

IATRA??? Just grab a copy of the Study and Ref Guide or book is okay for the IATRA. Study for a few days and then go write. Its not very tough. I wrote mine almost two years ago and if I recall there wasn't much on Air law.

Its pretty simple.

BTD

I got the aerocourse ATPL book for my IATRA.....it covers everything! Though it was made for the ATPL exam...

Try searching 'IATRA' in the search query. Others have posted all the questions that will appear on the test. Did myn a month ago, it was pretty simple.
Just know how to do Critical Point and PNR formulas.

what can you bring in to write the exam? Can you bring in a CX-2? Whiz wheel?

I bought the books for the ATPL and they have it split up great into ATPL and and IATRA sections. I haven't written yet but I'm feeling pretty ready for it.

Just curious, is the IATRA exam $35 or $105 now?

35$ I believe

Try the pro-IFR ATPL/ IATRA seminar....You get a whole crapload of ref material at the end. I'd recommend taking the course once you are ready to write or a about a week or so from writing. The material will come at you like a firehose on full blast.

as for materials:

FGU
AIM
TC- De-icing vid.
Human Factors Manual (advanced/ basic)
Turbine Pilots Manual
Air command manual
CARS online


alot of the topics in the study and ref guide are pretty ambiguous..So I did a ton of studying..

As much as I'm all for seminars, I can't justify spending $300 on a seminar to prepare me for a $35 exam. I think this one will be a self study.

This is NOT a difficult exam. (almost disappointingly easy) I did zero study and came out of it with very good marks. We had a day or two of groundschool included in our course, of which a lot was review of CPL. However, I would recommend the Study & Reference Guide as it will give you an idea of what to expect. Not gonna denounce those $300 courses, but I think you're wasting you money if you're writing the IATRA (not necessarily the case with ATPL's).

Most seminars are IATRA/ATPL as was the one I took. All but 2 people in the class were prepping for their ATPLs.

So seminar for me = (1)lots of schmoozing with people with close contact to places where I could potentially get a low time job.
+ (2)staying fresh with concepts I am going to have to write an exam for one day anyway
+ (3) 300$ + 35 for the exam is a better option than
(1) 8Gs instructor rating
(2) more Gs to buy hours and fly around aimlessly
(3) buying that other thing that costs some Gs.

Seminar = buying networking time, that was my take anyway.
Did it get me a Job, no. But some new leads, yes.
But yes I probably would have got the same mark with self study.

KCM

Good point about the networking side of it, could pay for itself right there, probably did last year for a few. This year the networking has to be a bit deeper for a job though...