Studies v Full Time Work

[Radar35]

Hey all,

Sorry if this or similar has been posted before. Just curious as to how all you Modular students find retaining the information whilst also working full time.

I find I get approx. 4 days in 14 to study full time at home without interruption. But my concern is not being able to remember subjects (or seemingly not being able to) from one subject to the next.

Does it all really come together when it matters at the 2 week brush up and exams?

What if any any advise do you have or examples do you follow??

[no sponsor]

It’s recommended that you do about 15 hrs a week to get through the course in a reasonable time frame. I think this is an average. I do about 20-25 hrs a week with a full time job, but then I live right next door to where I work, so have a gentle stroll to work in the morning lasting no more than 5 minutes. For others I know, they have to contend with commuting, children etc, and they don’t do anything like 15 hrs per week. Others might just spend all weekend doing the work, since they can’t fit it in during the week. Some others do it in stages, leaving the course work for weeks at a time before going back to it.

But, no matter how much you do it is going to be human nature to read a module of work, pass the progress test, and 10 weeks later, fail the very same progress test without leafing through the notes again. It happened to me before my crammer, and started to worry me, fortunately unnecessarily so.

I had the intention of re-doing modules prior to doing a crammer course, but I didn’t do it; there just wasn't time. I contented myself with go back over the things I knew were difficult for me. The volume of data is too much to do it all again. The best you can hope for is to just understand the concepts, and where the course asks you to memorise data, then do just that. You can’t possibly remember all the stuff you will read through in your course.

As for the brush up courses, you might feel as though you’ve not got any chance in passing the exams before it, and you’d probably be right (unless you have forces training). There was no way I would have passed any of the difficult papers without attending. You will find that armed with the key concepts, feedback questions, and as many practice exams that you can manage, you should be OK for passing.

You very quickly realise that there is the syllabus which you will have done, and then there are the exams…two very different beasts.

[wbryce]

I have a full time job, and still in Pre PPL stage....

My plan is to take leave at my work and do an inhouse course at Glasgow Aeronautical College, if i where to do distance learning, i dont think id do as good as i would on a full time course, im easily distracted while self learning, and i aint really disciplined enough as ive learned with my trevor thoms :D

[plumponpies]

If you can manage around 20 hrs of study per week and do all the necassary progress tests, you will find the brush up course preps you perfectly for the exams. I spent 6 months on each module studying 20-25 hours a week while working full time. At the start of the brush up course i felt as though i knew nothing! After two weeks at Bristol the exams wre a breeze! (well almost). It is possible to do all the training, right through to the end of the IR, and work full time, it just takes a little longer, and a lot of self motivation and determination.

Good luck.

[Penworth]

plumponpies

Have you managed to do all the training including the IR without leaving your current job? I'd love to be able to do that but being in an engineering job there's no way I can get sufficient time off (6-7 weeks) to do the IR course so I'm having to quit my job to do the CPL/ME/IR etc. I'd be interested to know how you managed it/plan to do it

As regards the original question, I managed to do 2-3 hours study per night during the week and about 10 hours each weekend while working full time. Yes, I felt a bit unprepared come the brush up course, but after 2 weeks in Bristol having the key points hammered home and doing endless feedback papers it all came together just in time for the exams ;)


Good luck!

PW

[plumponpies]

Penworth.
I was able to do the job lot part-time, Atpls,CPL/IR. I used all of my holiday entitlement plus a few extra days here and there. The CPL/IR from start to finish took a year! But i was earning a full salary while training. I was fortunate with some negotiation i was able to start my engineering job at 5am, finish a couple of hours early and train in the late afternoons and evenings, having planned routes etc. the night before. Knackering but possible!
I am well aware of the frustrations of trying to decide whether to leave your job and just go for it. But there IS always a solution to a problem, you just have to find it!

Good Luck

[Radar35]

Cheers everyone, much appreciate all the replies. Glad to hear it's not just me that feels somewhat out on a limb but also good to hear that it does all come together eventually!!:ok: