staircase,
As a recipient of the training under the Systems Approach I am inclined to agree. I found the Ground School in particular to be a box-ticking exercise; very little of the stuff I'd not been familiar with prior to starting actually stuck (flight instruments, engines, fuel, hydraulics in my case). I had to wait until doing the ATPL course during extended post-Loan-Service leave (14 weeks!) 7 years later before I actually understood much of it - just in time for my own CFS(H) course which definitely cemented things in place
When it came to harbingers-of-doom I was surprised how superstitious many of my course-mates seemed to be - apparently 9 Course used to refer to a particular instrumental track (Doina da Jale by Gheorge Zamfir - as used in the film "Picnic at Hanging Rock" that came out around that time) as "The Chopping Song" and would rush to turn the music orft if it came on the radio lest yet another of their number fall by the wayside.