What's on the Part 107 exam?
The Part 107 exam, officially the Unmanned Aircraft General – Small (UAG) knowledge test, has 60 multiple-choice questions with three answer choices each. You get 120 minutes and need 70%, or 42 correct answers, to pass. Questions cover five areas: regulations, airspace, weather, loading and performance, and operations.
Each test is drawn from a larger question bank, so no two people see an identical exam. Keep that in mind when someone online says their test was "all weather questions."
Here's how the questions are weighted. Use it to decide where your hours go: nearly half the test is regulations.
| Knowledge area | Share of test | About this many questions |
|---|---|---|
| Regulations | 48% | 29 |
| Operations | 25% | 15 |
| Airspace classification and operating requirements | 20% | 12 |
| Weather | 5% | 3 |
| Loading and performance | 2% | 1 |
Within those five areas, you'll see questions on these topics:
- FAA drone laws
- National Airspace System (NAS)
- Reading sectional charts
- Airport operations
- Weather and micrometeorology
- Flying a drone at night
- sUAS loading and performance
- Emergency procedures
- Crew resource management
- Radio communications
- Effects of drugs and alcohol
- Aeronautical decision-making
For costs, scheduling, and the rest of the certification process, see our full guide to getting your drone license.
What changed on the Part 107 test in October 2026?
Starting October 26, 2026, the Part 107 test includes image-based questions built from current FAA sectional charts, and those images aren't in the printed testing supplement. The rules themselves didn't change, and the format is still 60 questions, 120 minutes, and 70% to pass.
The FAA announced the change in its Airman Testing Community Advisory. The September 2026 Special Edition confirmed the October 26 start date, correcting an earlier edition that listed October 27. The test already showed some images on screen. What's new is that some chart images now come from current sectionals instead of the supplement, so you can't have seen them before test day.
What changed
Some chart questions now show an excerpt from a current sectional chart on screen. The FAA's sample questions ask about things like an airport's CTAF frequency and airspace authorization.
What didn't
The regulations, the subject areas, the question count, the time limit, and the passing score are all the same. You still get the printed testing supplement (for now), and recurrent training isn't affected.
What this means for how you study: memorizing the supplement's figures won't carry you through the chart questions anymore. Learn to read a sectional chart from scratch, then practice on current charts. The FAA publishes them for free, and free viewers like SkyVector make it easy to pull up the chart around any airport.
Early signs are reassuring. The first 10 of our students to report their scores after the change all passed, with scores from 85% to 100%.
How long does it take to study for the Part 107?
Most people need 15 to 20 hours of study. Spread over three weeks, that's about an hour a day. If you can study about three hours a day, you can be ready in a week.
These are the two schedules our students follow inside the course. Both cover the same material in the same order and add up to about 20 hours. The order works with any study materials, so feel free to borrow it.
One-week schedule (about 3 hours a day)
| Day | What to study | Approx. time |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Drone rules and FAA regulations; flying a drone at night | 3.5 hours |
| Day 2 | The National Airspace System | 2.5 hours |
| Day 3 | Reading sectional charts | 3.5 hours |
| Day 4 | Airport operations; weather and micrometeorology | 3 hours |
| Day 5 | Drone flight operations: loading and performance, emergencies, decision-making, and more | 3 hours |
| Day 6 | Take two practice tests, review every miss, and score at least 85%; review your cram sheet | 3.5 hours |
| Day 7 | Review your cram sheet and test-day checklist | 1 hour |
Three-week schedule (about an hour a day)
| Week | What to study | Approx. time |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Drone rules and FAA regulations; flying a drone at night; the National Airspace System | 6 hours |
| Week 2 | Reading sectional charts; airport operations; weather and micrometeorology | 6.5 hours |
| Week 3 | Drone flight operations; practice tests until you score at least 85%; cram sheet and test-day checklist | 7.5 hours |
Two things make either schedule work. Book your test date before you start, so the schedule has an end. And don't move on from airspace until it makes sense, because everything on the charts builds on it.
Both plans, built in
Drone Pilot Ground School puts every lesson, quiz, and practice exam in this order, so you just follow along.
How to study for the Part 107: a step-by-step plan
Pick a test date, learn the regulations first, learn airspace before sectional charts, give weather and loading real attention, then take full-length practice tests until you score 85% or higher on three of them. That last step is how you know you're ready.
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Step 1 — Pick a test date and a schedule
Decide when you want to test, then work backward. If you can give it about three hours a day, the one-week schedule above gets you there in seven days. An hour a day gets you there in about three weeks.
A date on the calendar is the best defense against studying "someday." You'll need an FAA Tracking Number to book your exam, so create one in IACRA first if you haven't. It takes about ten minutes.
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Step 2 — Learn the regulations first
Regulations are nearly half the exam, so they come first. Read the regulation itself (14 CFR Part 107 is shorter than most people expect), then work through operating rules, registration, Remote ID, night operations, and operations over people.
This is also where our students miss the most questions in total, simply because there are so many of them.
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Step 3 — Learn airspace, then sectional charts
Sectional charts only make sense once you know what each class of airspace is and what it requires of you. Learn Class B, C, D, E, and G and special-use airspace first, then practice finding them on charts.
Since October 26, 2026, the test can show chart images that aren't in the printed supplement, so practice on current sectional charts, not just the supplement's figures.
- 4
Step 4 — Don't skim weather and loading
After charts, cover airport operations, weather, and flight operations. Weather and loading and performance are only about 7% of the test, which is exactly why people skim them. Our students miss those questions at nearly three times the rate of the rest of the exam.
Give METARs, TAFs, density altitude, and center of gravity real practice time.
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Step 5 — Take practice tests until you hit 85% three times
Take timed, full-length 60-question practice tests and review every question you miss, including why the right answer is right. When you've scored 85% or higher on three full-length tests, you're ready to book.
That's the same benchmark our pass guarantee uses.
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Step 6 — Review, then go take the test
The day before, review your notes or a cram sheet and a test-day checklist. Don't try to learn anything new.
Arrive at the testing center 15 to 20 minutes early with a government-issued photo ID that matches your registration.
What do people get wrong most on the Part 107?
We tracked the knowledge codes on 317 score reports our students shared between September 2024 and August 2026. The most-missed single topic was drone registration rules: 38% of students missed at least one registration question. By area, weather and loading and performance make up only about 7% of the test, but students missed those questions at nearly three times the rate of everything else.
Every FAA score report lists an Airman Certification Standards (ACS) code for each question you missed. Pooling those codes across hundreds of students shows where the test actually trips people up:
| Knowledge area | Share of test | Questions missed (est.) |
|---|---|---|
| Loading and performance | 2% | ~25% |
| Weather | 5% | ~22% |
| Airspace | 20% | ~9% |
| Regulations | 48% | ~8% |
| Operations | 25% | ~6% |
How we estimated this: missed knowledge codes per student in each area, divided by the expected number of questions in that area. It's an approximation, since a score report lists each missed code once even if you missed two questions on it.
And these are the ten specific topics our students missed most:
| Topic | ACS code | Students who missed one |
|---|---|---|
| Registration requirements for drones |
UA.I.B.K1
| 38% |
| Special-use airspace (prohibited, restricted, MOAs, and more) |
UA.II.A.K2
| 23% |
| When Part 107 applies |
UA.I.A.K1
| 17% |
| Terminal aerodrome forecasts (TAFs) |
UA.III.A.K3
| 14% |
| Atmospheric stability, pressure, and temperature |
UA.III.B.K1c
| 14% |
| Aeronautical charts |
UA.V.B.K6a
| 14% |
| Standard Remote ID |
UA.I.F.K1
| 13% |
| Aeronautical knowledge recency |
UA.I.C.K4
| 13% |
| Class D airspace |
UA.II.A.K1c
| 13% |
| Balance, stability, and center of gravity |
UA.IV.A.K1b
| 12% |
How to shore up the most-missed topics
- Registration. Under Part 107, every drone must be registered, no matter how light; the under-0.55-pound exception applies only to recreational flyers. Registration costs $5, lasts three years, and the number has to be displayed on the outside of the aircraft.
- Special-use airspace. Learn each type's chart symbol and what it asks of you. Prohibited areas are off-limits, restricted areas need permission from the agency that controls them, and areas like MOAs and alert areas flag hazards you're expected to plan around.
- Sectional charts. Practice on current charts, not just the supplement: find an airport, read its CTAF frequency, and work out the airspace above it. Those are the kinds of questions the FAA previewed for the October 2026 change.
- Weather. Decode real METARs and TAFs from an airport near you until the format reads naturally, and know what high, hot, and humid conditions do to density altitude.
- Loading and performance. Understand how weight and where it sits affect balance, and how load factor increases in a turn. It's only a question or two, which is exactly why people skip it.
How does Drone Pilot Ground School teach the test?
We follow the same order as the plan above (rules, airspace, charts, then weather and operations) across nine modules and 80+ short lessons. Quizzes along the way check your understanding, and the course finishes with unlimited full-length practice exams and a clear benchmark for when to book your test: 85% or higher on three of them.
Built from real score reports
The most-missed topics above aren't a guess. Since 2024 we've logged the knowledge codes from hundreds of student score reports. When a code keeps showing up, we add to or rewrite the lesson that covers it.
Updated for the new chart questions
Our sectional chart lessons and practice exams reflect the October 2026 change, so you practice reading charts you haven't seen before instead of memorizing the supplement.
A real person to ask
When a chart question doesn't click, you can reach Mike McGuirt by phone, email, or voice message, or bring it to Ground School Live, our optional Zoom study sessions on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Here's how our students report doing on the real exam:
Self-reported in our post-exam survey between September 2024 and November 2026. Most people who answer it have just passed, so treat these as a benchmark rather than a controlled comparison. For context, the national average score in 2025 was 79.31%.
What are the best free Part 107 study resources?
The best free resources are the FAA's own documents (the Remote Pilot Study Guide, the Airman Certification Standards, and the testing supplement), long-form YouTube series like Mike Sytes', the r/Part107 community on Reddit, and free practice tests. Plenty of people pass with free material alone. The trade-offs are time, structure, and keeping up with test changes.
We sell a course, so weigh this section accordingly. Here's what each free option does well and where it leaves gaps.
The FAA Remote Pilot Study Guide
The FAA's own free study guide for the Part 107 test (FAA-G-8082-22).
Good for: It's the official source, and it's free. It still covers the fundamentals of airspace, weather, and operations well.
Where it falls short: It was published in August 2016, before the 2021 rules on Remote ID, operations over people, and night operations existed. All three are on the test now, and Remote ID shows up in our students' most-missed list.
The ACS, testing supplement, and FAA sample questions
The Airman Certification Standards (ACS) list every knowledge code the test can cover. The testing supplement is the same booklet of charts and figures you get at the testing center. The FAA also publishes a set of sample questions.
Good for: Knowing exactly what's testable, and practicing with the real supplement figures.
Where it falls short: These are reference documents, not lessons. They tell you what's tested, not how to learn it. And since October 26, 2026, some chart questions use images that aren't in the supplement at all.
Remote Pilot ACS (PDF) · Testing supplement (PDF) · FAA sample questions (PDF)
Mike Sytes' YouTube series
A free, multi-part video series covering the rules, Remote ID, night operations, crew resource management, weather, and charts. It's one of the free resources recommended most often on Reddit.
Good for: Detailed explanations from someone who knows the material, at no cost.
Where it falls short: It's many hours of long-form video with no built-in check that you've understood it, and no one to ask when something doesn't click. You'll also need to check each video's upload date against the October 2026 chart change.
The r/Part107 community on Reddit
An active community of people studying for the test or just back from taking it, with plenty of "how I passed" posts.
Good for: Recent test-day experiences, testing-center logistics, and encouragement from people in the same spot.
Where it falls short: Advice is anecdotal and scattered across threads. One person's "here's what was on my test" is a single draw from a large question bank, and study recommendations range from excellent to out of date.
Free practice tests and apps
Course companies (including us) and app developers offer free practice questions.
Good for: Getting used to how the FAA words its questions.
Where it falls short: Many are short samplers or lead-ins to a paid product. Some are out of date, and many don't explain why an answer is right. A good score on a 10-question sampler doesn't tell you much about a 60-question exam.
AI chatbots
Tools like ChatGPT can explain a concept in different words when a textbook explanation isn't landing.
Good for: A patient explainer when you're stuck on a concept.
Where it falls short: They can state a regulation or a number confidently and get it wrong, and they can't tell you what's on the current chart. Check anything they tell you against the regulation or the ACS.
Can you pass the Part 107 with free resources?
Yes. Plenty of people do, especially if they're comfortable teaching themselves technical material. What a course gives you is time and certainty: one sequence instead of a dozen browser tabs, a clear benchmark for when you're ready, a person to ask, and content that keeps up with the test.
We save you time and hassle, and guarantee you pass
Studying on your own
Scattered and uncertain
- Jumping between YouTube videos, PDFs, flashcards, and forums
- Trying to figure out what actually matters vs. what you can ignore
- Studying more without feeling any more confident
- Still guessing whether you're actually ready to schedule the exam
- Missing out on the latest changes to the test
With Drone Pilot Ground School
One clear path to passing
- Everything in one place, organized into 80+ clear and concise lessons
- A 99%+ first-time pass rate
- A structured path to confidence with quizzes and recaps along the way
- Clear benchmarks so you know exactly when to schedule your exam
- Real experts to ask, 1-on-1 and in 2 live sessions every week
- Up-to-date content that reflects the latest changes to the FAA test
Our guarantee: complete the course and score 85% or higher on at least three full-length practice exams. If you still don't pass the FAA exam, we refund 100% of your course fee and pay you $350 cash, about twice the cost of a retake.
Guaranteed to Pass
Pass or get your money back, plus $350 cash.
Where can I take a free Part 107 practice test?
The FAA publishes a free set of Part 107 sample questions, and many course companies, including us, offer free practice questions. Whatever you use, finish with full-length, timed, 60-question tests, because short quizzes won't tell you whether you're ready.
How to get the most out of practice tests:
- Take one before you study. The score doesn't matter yet. The misses show you where to start.
- Go full-length and timed once you've covered everything. A 60-question, two-hour test is a different experience from a 10-question quiz.
- Review every miss and every lucky guess. Read why the right answer is right, not just which one it is.
- Stop when you hit 85% three times. That's your signal to book the exam.
How should you approach the test itself?
Budget two minutes per question; most people finish with time to spare. Go through once and answer everything you know, flag anything that needs a chart or a calculation, then come back to the flagged questions. There's no penalty for a wrong answer, so don't leave anything blank.
- Read what the question is asking before you look at the answer choices.
- Supplement questions name a figure. Find it in the booklet before you start reasoning.
- On-screen chart images work like any sectional: find the airport, read its information, then work out the airspace.
- With three answer choices, ruling out one leaves you a coin flip at worst.
If you don't pass: your score report lists the ACS code for every question you missed. You'll wait 14 days and pay the $175 fee again, so use that time to study exactly those codes.
For check-in, ID rules, and what's allowed in the room, see what test day is actually like.
