Feedback and % before exams?

[buster172]

Hi there all,

As an ATPL student getting closer to the big week and my first 8 exams, that’s right 8! in one go

I have been using friend’s feedback from his ATPL's a few years ago together with BGS excellent online material.

At the moment I’m making bloody stupid mistakes and altogether messing it up. But...I am improving slowly and with time running out I wondered if I could ask you all, whom have been in mine and many others shoes what sort of % you were getting prior to your school brush up or exams?

At the moment I’m getting about 70% for everything except Comms and Hpl, doing better in those. Is this ok? I know it’s not a pass but can the brush up bring me up an extra 10% or so? I have two weeks to try and do this myself but seem to have struck a level of knowledge with no room left for more!

Distance learning is a lonely business,

Kind regards,

Buster172

[karanou]

I am a bit further from the mod 1 exams than you but understand EXACTLY where you are coming from

I dont know if you have noticed, but there seems to be an absence of posts on PPRUNE of people crowing from the rooftops about how easy they found/are finding the ATPL groundschool, perhaps its not just you and I that are finding the course a bit of a 'tow'

maybe you are not as alone as you think!!!!

best of luck with the exams .... hang in there

[flyfish]

No its not easy, if for no other reason than the vasts amounts of information you are required to retain.
However if you are getting 70% average prior to a brush up at Bristol then you will have no problem.
The 2 weeks at the school are very very good and I would go so far to say that you don't require that greater understanding of the subjects prior to the course. The team at Bristol really will give you what you need.

Best thing you can do is go over anything that you think is a bit of a pig and get the questions in your head that you need to have resolved when you get there.

Dont be under any illusion though the course will be sleep and study , dont take a book or beer money !

good luck with the exams youl be fine im sure.
Flyfish

[High Wing Drifter]

Buster,

70% prior to the brush should do nicely! Incase you or somebody else finds it useful, my general feedback technique for the exam is:

Just keep redoing the feedback again and again until you have every question sussed. If you do this you will learn a suprising amount too because of the cross polination between similar questions with different answers and looking up unexpected answers.

My technique was to use a light pencil that can easily be rubbed out so that you can't see at all. I do the feed back and mark it. I then rub out my answers and mark the questions that I got wrong or felt that I was unsure about. That paper would go to the bottom of the pile. I would then revisit that paper next day or maybe in two days (long enough to forget) and answer only the questions that I marked. I would expect to know all the questions by this point. It takes about a day or two to go through all the BGS feedback for a module so this works out pretty well.

The day before the exam I remove all my marks from all papers and do the whole lot again in one big go! By this point you should be getting 99.999% on all the feedback. The amount of spare capacity and time this gives in the exam cannot be overrated.

[CAT3C AUTOLAND]

Not sure whether this will help, but for the questions that you are getting wrong, make sure you understand why you are getting them wrong. I think it is easy to fall into the trap of doing feedback time and time again, and simply learning the answers. In no time at all you will be getting in the high 90's and feeling pleased with yourself and perhaps in a false sense of security.

Make sure you know why the answer is C and not B. Just a word of caution, good luck with your exams.

[Benix]

id say that you should be fine with 70%. During my mod 1 with BGS I was failing tests by a greater margain that that before I went on the course. Even during the brush up on the second week I was failing a lot of the in class tests we were doing. However through a lot of hard work I got it together over the weekend before the exams and passed the lot first time. Just be prepared to put some hours in when you are there, it aint no holiday, especially the met feedback from Ken (u'll see what I mean when you get there)

[buster172]

Hi,

Thanks to those who posted.

I must say it makes you feel a lot better to here that 70ish % is somewhere in the right region. I’m looking forward to meeting the team at BGS and the other students now and in sharing the stress for two weeks. Everyone on here sings there praises about the magic they can do to a no hoper in two weeks! I just wish I was going for 4!

I spent 6 hours solid getting the hang of scale on charts the other night, Have been up until now cracking the time in this country or that, two things I had struggled with, I think I have finally got. It’s just the multitude of other little things to get sorted now

Its funny, or not, I had only left Met for about 3 days and when I go back to it I think I have forgotten everything. Will focus on Nav, Met and Instruments over the next two weeks and try to keep my hand in on the others.

Thanks again for all your tips and encouragement. I hope some other students take something from it too.

Depending on how I do, I’ll be back on here in a month with a big smiley face, looking for advice on the next lot or how best to handle re sits, do them straight away or after the rest!

Thanks again,

Kind regards,

Buster172

[ram33]

Hi I'm currently researching ground schools and I gather that BGS is Bristol Ground School !!! Are they any good, plus any positive feed back re ground schools would be much appreciated.

[silverknapper]

You'll be amazed just how much you'll learn on the brush up. It's only recently that the feedback was available before going down so you are already at a head start. I wasn't getting marks like that 'til the end of the course so would say you're looking good.

All the best

[buster172]

Hi Ram, Silverknapper,

Thanks for your posts.

Ram, from what I have seen, my exp so far is that the notes are good, the CD and videos used to explain thigns are really helpful and the school and staff have been prompt and relible.

Of the brush up I have yet no idea, but if you do a search on here you will be hard pushed to find anything negative. I certainly based my decision to go with them on all the positive feedback both on PPrune and from my flying instructors.

Silverknapper,

Thanks for the words, the nerves are still very much there but there is a glimmer of hope.

Cheers and good luck Ram in your quest

Kind regards,

Buster172

[ram33]

Hi Buster,

Thanks for the reply and good luck to, Sir.

[kissmysquirrel]

With the 70% now and the brush up course still to do, you should find it a walk in the park.
When I did my cpl's a while back, some of the guys were getting over 80-90% consistently on the brush up course but failed the actual exam with only 60-70%. Nerves?

[buster172]

That doesnt sound good. I have got nerves now and I am three weeks off the actual exams!

Thanks for the words though, been struggling today, all my mates are off out and im in, have been all day and will be all weekend...and all next week.

Beautiful day today though and thought how much better it would look from up there

One day...one day

Kind regards,

Buster172