Every question and every grade comes from a real regulation, not a guess
Before the AI examiner asks a regulation-dependent question or scores your answer, it looks up the actual FAR, AIM, Advisory Circular, or handbook text first. You can see exactly what it found.
Here is an unedited excerpt from a real session. The applicant had just answered a question about IFR alternate airport requirements, and before confirming that answer and moving on, the examiner checked it against the actual regulation. The Sources panel shows exactly what it retrieved.
Applicant: “I’d look at ceiling and visibility forecast for the 1 hour before through 1 hour after my ETA at the destination.”
“Since you will be checking your weather and planning for the route ahead, how do you typically go about finding and interpreting NOTAMs for your flight?”
Click Sources above, this is the exact same panel you would see inside a real session.
The contrast
Without grounding
A tool that has no verified material to work from still has to say something. It falls back on whatever pattern its training data suggests is likely, and it states that guess in the same confident tone it would use for a fact it actually verified. There is no way to tell, from the answer alone, which one you got.
With grounding
MockDPE only cites a regulation, AC, or handbook passage after it has actually retrieved that passage from the reference library. If a lookup comes back empty, the examiner does not paper over the gap with a plausible-sounding citation. It asks a question that does not depend on the missing material, or it says nothing rather than invent something.
How it actually works
Before the examiner asks a question that depends on a regulation, it queries MockDPE’s own seeded reference library, the same FAR, AIM, Advisory Circular, and handbook text used to build the checkride, and pulls the specific passage that applies. That passage is what shapes the question and, later, what the grading step checks your answer against. The examiner never writes a citation from memory. If it cites something, it looked it up first, and the Sources panel shows you the lookup.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the AI examiner ever make up a regulation?
No, by design. The examiner is instructed to never cite regulatory or handbook text from memory. It calls a lookup tool to retrieve the actual FAR, AIM, Advisory Circular, or handbook passage first, and only the retrieved text is used to shape the question or check your answer.
What happens if MockDPE's reference library doesn't have the passage it needs?
The lookup simply returns nothing, and the examiner is instructed to continue without citing or guessing at that specific text. It does not fabricate a citation to fill the gap, and it is also instructed never to tell you the lookup failed or treat a failed lookup as evidence against your answer.
Is this the same reference library used to build the checkride content, or a separate fact-check step?
It's the same library. The examiner queries the same FAR, AIM, Advisory Circular, and handbook text used to build the scenario and the ACS-aligned questions, then pulls the specific passage that applies before asking or grading.
Can I see the actual source text it retrieved?
Yes. Every time the examiner looks something up, the retrieved passage is available in the Sources panel attached to that question, the same panel shown in the excerpt on this page. Nothing is hidden between the lookup and the citation you see.
Is grading grounded the same way as the questions are?
Yes. The examiner checks your answer against the same retrieved regulation, AC, or handbook text it looked up for the question, not against its own memory of what the rule says. If nothing was retrieved for a given point, that point is not held against you on the strength of an unverified assumption.
Which sources does MockDPE actually cite?
14 CFR Part 91, the Aeronautical Information Manual, relevant FAA Advisory Circulars, and the rating-appropriate FAA handbook (the Instrument Flying Handbook or the Airplane Flying Handbook), the same primary sources MockDPE's study guides cite inline.
See it check its own work
Start a free session and open the Sources panel on any regulation question to see exactly what the examiner looked up before asking it.
Curious how the rest of MockDPE’s content stays accurate? Read how content stays accurate on the about page.