Definition
Assessments conducted by an instructor during normal training activities — without a formal grade, score, or recorded outcome — to gauge a student's understanding, skill, or progress and to guide the next step in instruction.
Plain English
A quick, on-the-spot check by the instructor to see how the student is doing. Nothing is scored or written down — the instructor just uses what they observe to decide what to teach or correct next.
Context Anchor
Used in flight and ground instruction when an instructor watches, asks questions, or gives feedback to see whether the student understands the material or can perform the task.
Derivation
Informal' comes from Latin informalis, meaning 'not following set rules or forms.' In training, it signals that the check is built into normal activity rather than set up as a graded event.
Why Pilots Care
Helps instructors catch and fix confusion right away so small issues do not grow into larger problems later in training.
Intuition Check
Do not assume informal means careless or unimportant. Here it means the assessment happens during normal instruction instead of as a scheduled formal test.
Example Sentence 1
During the traffic pattern, the instructor used informal assessments to see whether the student was anticipating power and pitch changes correctly.
Example Sentence 2
Through informal assessments during the lesson, the CFI noticed the student needed more practice with crosswind corrections.