In response to a post on another similar thread started by PPRuNer, I have decided to answer his questions on this thread so not to clog up the forum.
PPRuNe member New Crew asked me who I used in the States for my flying training, I haven't started out yet, I was at Gatwick today (Monday the 22nd) for my Class 1 and was told I have passed it efectively although they have to wait for the Chest X-Rays to come back from the Radiologist. However the Consultant there told me there were no complications he could see and it looked OK. So over the moon on that front, not with the £340 ish I paid however.
Next stage was to book a seat on a Virgin Atlantic flight to LAX in early January next year. Some of you might have noticed I started another thread asking who was best to fly with out of all the carriers. Virgin won but I'll still probably fly BA on domestic flights here in the UK, 4 free shorts on each trip (if you remember to ask for a double when the bar comes along with the mini bottles), a bite to eat and an assigned, comfy seat with copious leg room (seats 11A/F and 12 A/F because of the emergency exits).
As for the Oxford CD-ROM's I read the magazine reviews linked from the Oxford website. Now its worthwhile to remember that Oxford etc. spend a lot of money advertsing with these magazines every year but one review in particular made good reading. The gist was although the CD's are very useful, there are a few minor omissions or errors, but on the whole they are good and get across the majority of the course but should be used in conjunction with books.
As for books I decided that I was going to use the Pratt ones if I did my PPL in the UK, as it happens I'm doing it in the US so will use the Jeppesen Manual instead. I either heard or read on here the Thom books were a little dry.
The flying school I'm about to start my internship program with is called Angel City Flyers based in Long Beach, Los Angeles, California.
http://www.digital-reality.co.uk/acf/
Hope I've answered your questions.
Stephen