Learning how to Learn

[Kevin31]

Hey all,

Embarking on the ATPL's in December self studying but very hesitant as I was never very academic neither did university. I am committed to putting in the time but I don't want to waste my time by not studying correctly.

I did the course learning how to learn but wonder what others did to manage and remember all the information?

I struggle to remember most things I get shown. I got to 40 hours of my ppl with everything done but then fell off a cliff and couldn't remember all the early stuff.

[foliot-pilot]

2 years ago when I did mine, I absolutely smashed the back doors out of the question bank. 3 hours a night, 6 hours on a saturday, saturday night down the pub. Off on Sunday. Came out with 14 first time at 91%. However, I believe the format/style of questions has changed now....Hopefully someone currently in ground school can advise you.

[mike172]

I'm assuming you're going with the distance learning option?

It was a struggle for me and most I spoke to. Learning from home requires a lot of motivation and self discipline but it is entirely doable. Like yourself I'm not particularly academic and having left school ten years previously it was tough to get back into that learning mentality.

You have to just keep plugging away at it. Some of it will make no sense and at times you'll feel frustrated with yourself but it will all click one day if you put in the effort.

Make sure you actually study the material and not just the question banks. The QBs are great to supplement your theoretical training and get you used to the style of questioning but you still need to learn and understand the theory behind it.

As I said, I'm no genius and I came away with a 90% average so it's entirely doable. Provided you put in the effort.

Good luck!

[Kevin31]

2 years ago when I did mine, I absolutely smashed the back doors out of the question bank. 3 hours a night, 6 hours on a saturday, saturday night down the pub. Off on Sunday. Came out with 14 first time at 91%. However, I believe the format/style of questions has changed now....Hopefully someone currently in ground school can advise you.

Wow that is some serious hours on the QB. Yes your right they started changing all the exams as of August this year not sure if they have all changed now tho but will be.

[foliot-pilot]

To clarify, are you self studying or doing a modular 'ground school?'

[Kevin31]

Thanks for your feedback Mike. Yes Iam doing it distance. So what were your study methods?

That's what I want to avoid want to learn the material but no the QB are necessary. Did you do it around a full-time job? how many hours a day it takesyou?

[Kevin31]

To clarify, are you self studying or doing a modular 'ground school?'

Sorry self studying

[foliot-pilot]

Right. Ignore my advice then! I did that on top of ground school at an integrated course

[mike172]

Thanks for your feedback Mike. Yes Iam doing it distance. So what were your study methods?

That's what I want to avoid want to learn the material but no the QB are necessary. Did you do it around a full-time job? how many hours a day it takesyou?

I didn't really have a study method as such. It was a case of reading the material and testing myself until it stuck! Once I consistently hitting over 90% on the QB I was happy and would move on.

I would also go back to previous subjects and lessons periodically to ensure it was fresh in my mind. It can be easy to forget the stuff you learnt earlier on as you work through the rest of the module.

I did work full time to begin with but I ended up packing it in to concentrate on the exams and the rest of my training. I was lucky enough that this was an option for me and it certainly helped.

As for number of hours each day? It varied greatly. When I was working I'd come home pretty tired (aircraft maintenance, physically tiring at times) and would only manage an hour or two. When I wasn't working I'd spend most of the day just going through the material.

I also bought some post-it notes, stuck on various formulae, conversions and the like and stuck them all over my wall above my desk. Stuff like the departure and convergency formulae which are similar but must be learnt for the Gen Nav exam. I'd see these notes every day and they were soon drummed into me. I've forgotten them all now, mind!

[felixflyer]

It's the only time I have been glad of a 3 hour a day train journey.

What saved me were the little mnemonics and diagrams I would come up with for remembering stuff.

I really recommend learning some memory techniques for remembering list items. I memorised all the annexes of the Chicago Invention by identifying them with parts of my morning walk to the station. I can still remember them all years later.

In every exam, as soon as it started I would draw or write out around 5 - 10 diagrams or phrases I had memorised and use these throughout.

[mike172]

This is a good point. Exactly what I did too. The second I had hit the start button I would grab my sheet of paper and spend a minute or two writing out every formula, conversion, diagram I had memorised for that particular test.

If I had time remaining I would also query any questions I thought were ambiguous or had more than one correct answer (quite a few unfortunately). Not really sure how much that does, if anything, but it's worth a shot and I'd always encourage everyone to do the same. The more people that query a question the more chance of them looking into it. You would think...

[paco]

Yeah, and would you like to be treated by a doctor who has only used Passmedicine, which is their equivalent? I don't think so....

You do owe a duty of care to your future passengers, and the authorities will ask schools about students who have had accidents. I had such an enquiry just three weeks ago.

It is true that some of the information at the start of your career may appear to be irrelevant, but you will need to know it by the end of your career, and for the tech interview, at which they will not be asking multi-choice questions. You will look a complete dork if you don't know your stuff - to quote a flight school who rang me up one day about someone who had turned up for training "is it possible to pass the JAA exams and still know d*ck?". The FAA know this, but allow you to learn it as you go along.

And for your information, Negan, I was using convergency and conversion angles when flying around large open spaces, such as the North of Canada, as were many of my colleagues, not to mention doing my own weather forecasting because you are out there on your own. Ask the people whose navaids suddenly don't work in Africa or who have to get through to the base using HF, which was still being used over the N Atlantic not that long ago.

And you won't learn a whole subject through the QB - only that stuff relevant to the questions contained in the database. The QBs are useful for consolidating the knowledge you acquire in your studies (assuming the study material is up to scratch - much of it isn't) and getting used to the style of questioning, and some of the quirks. Period. You need both.

[foliot-pilot]

I agree with you Negan. At least 60% of the material you learn these days is utter sh*te.

"How long is the president of ICAO elected for?"........"What is annex 4 of the such and such convention"........learning deeply about the intricacies of how beacons transmit radio signals...Questions that have been written in a foreign language and crudely translated into broken English that simply don't make sense..Sometimes you have to just 'know' the answer. There merely isn't enough time to commit the finer details to memory.

Get rid of the nonsense and make the exams relevant. As you say Negan, plenty of time to re-read the books later on.

[redsnail]

Use flash cards. The best ones are the ones you make. There are apps to assist you for the iPhone etc. Distill the bulk of the knowledge into 1-2 sentences, even better, a few words. Keep referring to them to build a complete answer from the cue of a couple of words.

Good luck

[kpd]

May I ask how much maths and physics you need to succeed for ATPL? is it really GCSE level or above??

[paco]

Yep, about that.

[pulse1]

We are all different and the best ways to learn will also differ. My wife has a photographic memory and needs to learn from the same books all the time.

I learned a long time ago that I have only one way to learn properly and that is to write things down as if I am explaining it to another person. I do this over and over again until it is well and truly learnt.

This lesson was learned the hard way when I did extremely badly in an exam in which I thought I had done well.