It's been a few years since I had to make the choice of which groundschool I would use for my ATPL exams. At the time, I contacted every single one of the schools, and based my decision largely on their response, but with a big emphasis on the quality of their printed notes.
One of the main reasons I chose Bristol was not just the quality of their notes, but also the fact that they seemed proud of their notes. When I asked for details, they sent me a pack which included a sample of the notes - something no other school did. I've even
commented on this in the past. Their information pack proudly stated that they only used good quality paper for their notes. Little things, but things which showed they had the same attitude towards my training as I did.
So I was a little surprised, today, when I went out for lunch with a PPRuNe friend (hello Penguina!) who is looking into groundschool right now. She is going through the same process as me, asking the schools for information. Bristol, she tells me, sent her a demo CD together with a "With Complements" slip. And that's it. No information package, and, importantly, no sample of the printed notes.
I know that things can change over a period of a couple of years... but what's going on here? I understand that the CD has become more and more important to Bristol, but surely it is not as important as the notes themselves? Does that sense of pride in the notes which I detected a few years ago not still exist? Do Bristol believe that students are more interested in flashy multimedia videos than they are in the actual content of the notes from which they will do most of their studying? Are they so confident in their (well-deserved) good reputation that they don't feel the need to send out quality information packs any more?
I'm curious to hear what others think. I've been out of the groundschool loop for a while, so maybe multimedia really is more important than printed notes now? Whether it is or not, I do know that my very small sample of prospective new customers (i.e. a sample of one) is not very impressed by the response from Bristol, and is close to ruling them out on this basis.
FFF
------------