I would say after lectures most of my course did about 4 more hours study a day as a mimimum and then at weekends did about 8 hours a day study. This extra effort to commit to studying for 6 months almost solid will give you the edge as when you leave you will all have a frozen ATPL the only thing to distinguish you will be your ground school results and flying grades.
Are you sure about this? I did solid feedback 3 weeks before each set of exams and that was more than adequate to give me high averages.
It is hard work and i had a lot of people telling me i would have no life during the course, but it was opposite in all honesty as most nights were spent in the local with my new pilot mates, albeit discussing flaps and straight in approaches after a few Kronies....