Cambridge physics graduate sitting next to me in Cass looking very stressed.
'It's not that there is anything particularly difficult in this, it's just that there's so much of it.'
The stresses then were often to do with job offers and or getting one's first command. CPL first, some years of flying and then the ALTP - in my case, via a Senior Commercial PL was quite usual.
Those hand written papers were quite searching but to anyone with a good education an a lot of time, they were quite fair. Lots of stuff one never needs of course. I never ever adjusted a latitude nut. However, I did once sit in and sign off a DC3's compass swing.