I studied and passe all ATPL exams in 9 months while working a full time job. I spent 3 years 40 hours a week in lectures and struggled to gain a diploma in Engineering years earlier.
Something not right about this.
So, do you not give any credit to the improvement in your mind by your previous work?
I left school at 14 with not so much as an 11+. I studied TV repair and that, and eyes that focussed at 8", made me a wizz with the sliderule. However, that CPL was quite a slog in the 50's and 60's and if I'd not already spent the money on flying there were dark days when I could well have given up. By the time I took the ALTP (ATPL) 5 years later, the exams were a breeze despite being more in-depth. Knowledge seemed to flow in at that age - providing the subject was interesting.
This is precisely why I don't think it wise to cram a lot of irrelevant stuff into student's brains. Especially doctors. Science covers and ever-widening part of the learning spectrum, and there simply is not time in the modern world for the dross.
The ATP still required quite a bit of refreshing, though I finished in one hour. The one question they docked, I'd written a long spiel about, but the computer didn't want to talk to me. The flying test was however much more demanding. The FAA bod asked questions I didn't know but seemed okay with my off-the-cuff answers. One I recall was how long before reaching a beacon must your speed be stabilized? Having spent years coming off BPK for Luton with the speed clacker going, I just said, 3 minutes. He just nodded. Most odd. All the more so because the night before my flight test someone had spread my Seneca down a Texas runway. I took the test in a 172.
But I'll tell you what, you get to know an aircraft when you get told to make a tight 180 not above 500' . . . and then get told to tighten the turn. My skipper looked at me and grinned. 'You loved doing that, didn't you?'
Lady Zia Wernher was not so amused. (just looked. Gosh Luton Hoo has got some history!)