Best Revision Techniques For Atpl???

[jodieroscoe]

Am currently studying at Oxford distance learning. The books are V.detailed and writing notes just seems to take ages! I haven't got any where in 6 months. what would everybody recommend for revising the ATPL exams? Would it be best just to study all the thousands of past papers and 4get about writing loadsof notes on the subjects when the questions never seem to cover these??? Help plz. V CONFUSED!!:(

[TRY2FLY]

Work Hard and Play Hard!! Don't get bogged down!

[Grasscarp]

I used to make little cards of the bits that had to be learnt like GPWS modes and put them up where I could see them, like stuck to a fish tank near the sink, and back of the door in the toilet. May sound weird but it worked. Then I put some bits on tape and played them in the car. I didnt write out loads of notes. With the nav I got an alarm clock and timed myself on practice papers as there was a lot to get through and it speeded me up a bit. Doing past papers is the key to it all, as it helps you find your weak points. Best of luck. There will be a lot of time to relax once you have jumped through all the hoops.

[Leezyjet]

I did mine full time, and in Phase A, I wrote loads of notes, in Phase B I wrote some notes, and some highlighting of the pages, by phase C, hardly bothered with anything.

Just wrote out prompt cards for the important bits for each subject, formulas etc and used them and past papers.

It is actually surprising when you condense it down how little you really have to remember.

:ok:

[Whirlygig]

Once you've gone through the books, then it's down to question practice.

I made extensive notes but that was because I found that by writing things down, I could remember them. The very important stuff like formulae and data, I wrote down in a notebook which I carried with me to revise from whenever.

When I went through the QBs, I made a note, in a pocket notebook, of all the questions I got wrong so that I could go through those again and again.

Cheers

Whirls

[jamie230985]

data bases are the way forward i think, i read the notes several times then hammered bristol & the italian database's till i was blue in the face!! got a 93% average and only failed 1 exam (POF) o the first sitting!!

either way u do it its hard work but jus stick at it & dont over do it in one night or else u'll burn urself out!!

[welliewanger]

For my ATPL exams (completed about 18 months ago) I made sure I understood everything by the end of each week. As a matter of practice I would never be more than 2 weeks out of date with my notes. Notes were kept to a bare minimum. If it was something I understood, I didn't make notes on it. If it was a single fact or equation, I'd note it down and do an example. Each chapter of notes (e.g. VOR or grid nav or thunderstorms) was kept to 2 sides of A4 maximum. This made sure I understood everything, and the facts and figures were easily accessible. I could revise an entire exam in 15 minutes with these notes. By the end of the course (all 14 subjects) my notes could fit into a single A4 folder (a small one!) Too many notes = overload!

The above study made sure I understood stuff for real. The Bristol online question bank made sure I passed all exams first time with 95% average!

[Another TD]

Have just completed DL OAA course and passed all exams. The books are too detailed in some subjects so I bought Bristol Ground school notes from ebay for £80 and these helped.
Ops procedures OAA...dont waste your time with that one BGS was spot on.
Nav OAA... book excellent better than BGS.
Met OAA dvd and cross referring to OAA book got me a pass.
Law OAA ...at first hated it but all info is there but make sure you make an index as you go along with this book.
POF OAA excellent
Perf OAA.....crap use BGS
Loading OAA....Crap use BGS
Flt Planning OAA okay
Comm OAA...very good
Radio OAA... good
ect ect
TOP TIP: Buy 3 months of BGS online QB nearer to exams...all questions are there,in the actual exams it became a test of question recognition...easy, it was no harder than GCSE's just a lot of them. God knows why the airlines pay so much to their pilots !Hopefully I will find out oneday.

[HappyFran]

'God knows why the airlines pay so much to their pilots !Hopefully I will find out oneday.'

Maybe because if the side of aircraft blows off, or engines doesn't spool up on finals into LHR, you ensure no one dies ! :=:=

Hopefully most of us will never find out for real !!:)

[Another TD]

I forgot to mention the brush up courses are quite good and full of good advice. With hindsight many mentioned that it would be a good idea to do the course 6 weeks prior to exams rather than 2 weeks but that is subjective.I did and it allowed time to go through the BGS QB and OAA course feedback with a bit more knowhow which was missing prior to the course but I was also starting to forget some info from the course so good note taking is important. The brush up courses are quite enjoyable and nothing to worry about,I was sorry when phase 2 ended as that was the end of my time at OAA. PM me if need any more info.

Happyfran....thanks for clearing that little matter up.Flight crew are well trained and skilled in the execution of emergency procedures as well as the years of routine operations and obviously deserve remuneration that reflects that....it just surprised me the level of the license examinations.

[Captain_djaffar]

HI JODIE... if am no wrong,i may guess that your problem is quite similar to mine...quite.Actually i acquired all the oxford ATPL books and some CBTs (met,gas,piston,performance,exam banks) recently on a personal learning basis.I've plan my official ATPL exam sitting in a lil less than 2 years.So got plenty of time ;-)I am mostly at home, learning between 5-7 hours a day and till now have completed many subjects & practising papers.My conclusion to this day (like many others have stated) is that oxford really gets in a lil too much in depth the subjects, somehow good for those who have time, but for the majority, who are in restraint time boundaries, this can be a period of pain...'Another TD' highlights well about what has to be done.Nevertheless, i would recommend you to get the PERFORMANCE & MET CBT of OAA if you want to accelerate your pace in these subjects.

[cessnagirl]

-Go through the manuals, summarise understand what's happening and make your own notes.

-Make up easy ways to remember things, like mnemonics.

-Study the diagrams and graphs and know how to interpret them. A picture tells a shed load of words and you'll be surprised how many diagrams appear in some of the exams. Theroy of flight/Performance diagrams very usefull. Instrumentation and Radio nav diagrams;know them thoroughly. Systems diagrams know the parts and what they do.

-Make a list of relevant formulae and put them to memory.

-Get the feedback and list of past exam questions. Make sure you know which answer is correct and which ones are wrong. Make sure you know why.

-Get to know the basic layout for each paper and realise that there may be some over lapping between subjects.

-Brush up on your exam techniques such as time management. The feedback questions are very good for testing yourself.

-I had a bit of trouble initially with the oxford manuals as I did distance learning. I got some alternative text books to look at in conjunction with the oxford ones and that helped a great deal.

-Get a globe and some washable felt tip pens. I found this very useful for practicing some aspects of general nav. Also it was useful for met for remembering climatology and the position of jetstreams etc.

-Get help and advice with anything you're not sure of. Brush up courses are also handy when preparing for exams.

That's how I got through them, 1 year and just had to repeat 4, while holding down a full time job. It can be done. Stick with it and give it your best shot.

Regards, Cessnagirl

[jodieroscoe]

Thanks a lot guys! Im starting the revision again on Friday! after a stressful month of moving house! Ive bought some more books now on Ebay and am restricting my notes to just 2 pages of A4 as advised and revising the past papers like hell! nemore tips guys keep them coming!

[Captain_djaffar]

P.S

one more thing...i really recommend you to avoid oxford book for PERFORMANCE...which is merged with MASS & BALANCE.
Get some other books if you wanna grip the subject really tight in your brain.

[Spit-Fire]

Work hard, Purchase Brisyol Ground School on-line Q' Bank and use it as a TOOL. It works every time. Don't get stressed out about knowing everything there is to do - it's not a perfect world. The ATPL organisations are purely here to get you through the exams which proves you are able to learn. It is impossible to learn everything in the Sylabus in such a short period of time.

Good Luck

[A and C]

I agree with Grasscarp make up some Idiot Cards and sick them in our pocket, look at them whenever you have a free moment.

But please don't get distracted in the loo and use the wrong bit of paper!

[jasonjdr]

Past paper, past papers, past papers...........you get my dirft;)

Same old questions pop up indifferent formats. You will soon get to know which are the most important areas to develop your knowledge in. I know from my OATS days that their notes were (may have changed) padded out quite thickly with background information. Which, while useful and interesting, was not really necessary reading to pass the exam.

There was a guy who published his notes on the web, and after just checking, 6yrs later their still there and updated! So see if the following helps ATPL Course (http://jar-atpl-notes.fateback.com/) :} Good Luck! :ok::ok:

I'm just preping for my interview tech questions :{:{:{