To a flight instructor, a ground instructor rating may seem about as useful as this:

However, the FAA wants to see that you have the ground instructor tests if you want to become a Gold Seal flight instructor.

Additionally, the ground instructors ratings are more stuff to put on your CV.

So, you might as well take the ground instructor tests at the same time as you take your flight instructor writtens. You don't have to purchase additional software as the ground instructor tests are essentially the same as the flight instructor tests - perhaps varying only in the number of questions. The only ones getting slightly richer from our advice here are the testing centers, so this is unbiased advice from us.

Back to FAA Flight and Ground Instructor Written Test Prep Software page.

(do you get the feeling that this web page was constructed just to show the Disney co-pilot license picture?)