How to study for Part 107
A week-by-week sequence, weighted toward the two sections that actually decide the result.
Researched from published specifications and verified owner reviews · updated 2026
The short answer
Plan on 20 to 30 hours across four to six weeks with no aviation background, or 10 to 15 hours across two to three weeks with some. Spend roughly half that time on airspace and sectional chart reading, a quarter on weather decoding, and the remainder on regulations, loading and operations. Book the exam only once you are consistently scoring 85 percent or better on timed full-length practice runs.
The Part 107 exam is entirely passable and it is not a formality. It is sixty multiple-choice questions in two hours with a seventy percent pass mark, and the failure pattern is remarkably consistent: candidates spend their study time on regulations, which is the section they can already half-answer, and skimp on airspace, which is the section they cannot answer at all without chart literacy. This page is a plan that spends time where the risk is.
ASA
ASA Remote Pilot Test Prep
Paperback plus practice software
You do not strictly need it, because the FAA publishes all the underlying material free. What twenty-five dollars buys is a coherent sequence through the knowledge areas and a question bank arranged the way the exam is arranged, which is the difference between studying and reading. The airspace chapters alone justify it for most candidates.
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Work out which track you are on
| Starting point | Realistic study time | Where the time goes |
|---|---|---|
| No aviation background at all | 20 to 30 hours over 4 to 6 weeks | Half on airspace and charts, a quarter on weather |
| Some ground school or lapsed student pilot | 10 to 15 hours over 2 to 3 weeks | Refresh charts, then drill drone-specific regulations |
| Current Part 61 certificate with recent flight review | 2 to 4 hours | Free online course instead of the paid exam entirely |
That third row is worth reading twice. If you already hold a manned pilot certificate under Part 61 and have completed a flight review within the preceding 24 calendar months, there is a free online course path that replaces the knowledge exam, after which you apply through IACRA. It saves the test-centre fee and several weeks. Confirm your own eligibility with the FAA rather than assuming, because the conditions are specific.
The six-week plan for a complete beginner
Week one, regulations. Start here because it builds momentum and because everything later refers to it. Read the operating rules end to end once, then extract every number into a single sheet: altitude limits, speed limit, visibility minimum, cloud clearances, weight ceiling, reporting thresholds and timelines. Numbers on one page, reviewed for five minutes daily, beats re-reading a chapter.
Weeks two and three, airspace and charts. The heaviest investment, and it should be. Learn the classes in order from A to G, then spend most of the time on a chart with the legend beside you. The drill that works: pick a random point on the sectional supplement, name the airspace class, name the floor and ceiling, and say whether an authorization would be needed. Twenty of those a night for a fortnight and the section stops being frightening. Use reading a sectional chart and the airspace classes chart alongside the book.
Week four, weather. Split it. First decode raw METAR and TAF strings until they resolve without effort, which is pure notation practice. Then cover the meteorology: stability, temperature and dew point spread, fog, thunderstorm lifecycle, wind shear and density altitude. Density altitude is the one worth understanding rather than memorising, because it explains real aircraft behaviour you will meet on a hot day at elevation.
Week five, loading, performance and operations. The lightest content week. Loading and performance is conceptual. Operations is broad but largely reasonable from first principles, with two exceptions to memorise as lists: radio phraseology, which has correct forms that are not guessable, and the five hazardous attitudes with their antidotes, which appear as straight recall.
Week six, timed full-length runs. Not more content. Do three or four complete sixty-question runs under real conditions: two hours, no phone, no notes, using the official supplement rather than a screenshot. This is where you find out that chart questions eat time and that your pacing needs work, and it is much better to find that out now.
The free sources that cover most of it
Everything the exam draws on is published by the FAA at no cost, and a serious candidate should have four things open: the airman certification standards for the remote pilot certificate, which tells you exactly what you are responsible for knowing; the Aeronautical Information Manual for airspace and procedure; the relevant advisory circular on small unmanned aircraft operations; and the current testing supplement, which contains the same charts and figures the exam questions refer to.
Start at faa.gov/uas and work from the official documents rather than from summaries, including this one. A study guide is a route through the material; the material itself is the authority, and when the two disagree the FAA is right and the guide is out of date.
How to use practice questions properly
Question banks are the most misused tool in Part 107 preparation. Answering two thousand questions until you recognise them produces a practice score that has nothing to do with your knowledge, and the exam rephrases enough to expose it.
Work slowly at first. For every question you get wrong, and every question you got right for the wrong reason, write one line explaining the actual rule. That written line is the study; the question was just the prompt.
Track by knowledge area, not overall. An 82 percent overall score that hides a 55 percent in airspace is a failing score waiting to happen, because airspace carries too much weight to absorb.
Save timed runs for the end. Stamina and pacing are separate skills from knowledge, and burning your fresh question pool on early timed runs leaves you nothing honest to measure with later.
Worked examples in the style of the exam, with the reasoning shown rather than just the answer, are on practice questions.
Booking and sitting the exam
Register in IACRA and obtain your FAA Tracking Number before you book, because it identifies you at the testing centre and links the result to your application. Then schedule the UAG exam at an FAA-approved knowledge testing centre. Bring government photo identification. You do not need to bring charts: the supplement is provided, and it is the same one you should have been practising with.
On the day, answer the regulations and operations questions first and quickly, then return to the chart questions with the time you have banked. Flagging and returning is allowed and it is the right strategy, because a chart question can absorb four minutes and a regulations question can take twenty seconds. You get your result before you leave.
After you pass
Complete the application in IACRA using the exam result, wait for TSA vetting, and print the temporary certificate when it becomes available. Then register the aircraft, because under Part 107 registration is required at any weight and the 250 g exemption does not apply to you at all. See how to register a drone.
Two habits to start on day one. Keep a flight log, because clients and insurers ask for one and a ASA Standard UAS Operator Logbook ($10) costs less than a set of propellers. And put a calendar reminder at 22 months for recurrent training, since there is no reminder from the FAA and the privileges lapse without it.
Then go and fly the thing. The exam tests aeronautical knowledge and never once tests whether you can hold a smooth orbit, which is the skill a client is actually paying for. The cinematic moves guide and the commercial mapping build are where that half of the job starts.
Questions people ask
+ How long does it take to study for Part 107?
With no aviation background, plan on 20 to 30 hours spread over four to six weeks of evenings. With some aviation exposure, such as a ground school or a lapsed student pilot background, 10 to 15 hours over two to three weeks is realistic. Holders of a current Part 61 certificate with a recent flight review can skip the paid exam entirely by taking a free online course instead.
+ Can I pass using only free materials?
Yes. The FAA publishes everything the exam draws on, including the airman certification standards for the remote pilot certificate, the Aeronautical Information Manual, the relevant advisory circulars and the chart supplements. The reason people buy a test-prep book anyway is ordering and question structure, not access to content, and roughly twenty-five dollars for a coherent sequence is defensible.
+ How many practice questions should I do?
Fewer than you think, and more carefully. Drilling a bank until you recognise the questions produces a score that collapses on unfamiliar phrasing. A better target is a few hundred questions worked slowly with the reason for each wrong answer written down, then a small number of timed full-length runs at the end to build stamina and pacing.
+ What score should I be hitting before I book the exam?
Consistently 85 percent or better on full-length timed practice runs using questions you have not seen before, with no single knowledge area below 75 percent. The pass mark is 70 percent, and leaving no margin above it is how a nervous morning turns into a retake and another test-centre fee.
+ Is an online course worth paying for?
It depends on whether structure is your problem. Paid courses do not have access to material the FAA does not publish freely, so what you are buying is sequencing, video explanation of chart reading, and a question bank with worked answers. If you learn well from a book you can skip it. If sectional charts have defeated you twice, video is genuinely a different modality and may be worth it.
+ What is the single most common reason people fail?
Underinvesting in airspace and chart reading, then discovering that a quarter of the exam depends on it and cannot be reasoned through. The secondary cause is time pressure: chart questions take longer than regulation questions, and candidates who have never done a timed full-length run run out of clock on the section that carries the most weight.
