Way back in 1972 my scholarship PPL may well have helped me scrape through Biggin Hill as it no doubt showed that I had a keen interest in a career as a pilot and had some basic pilot aptitude. Having got through IOT at Henlow the RAF then decided to save money by waiving my Chipmunk flying at Church Fenton and 'up-coursed' me straight onto the JP at Linton! That was a very steep learning curve and my flying club habits did me no favours. 37 years later I was still flying for the RAF when I retired not having killed myself or anyone else so all's well that ends well. ;-)