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Old 3rd August 2006 | 07:42
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Wee Weasley Welshman
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Joined: Feb 2000
: ATPL
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From: England
I'd plan on gaining good A level and GCSE results - C grade or better. The process should at least teach you how to study. Because IF you are ever to become a professional pilot you will have to pass the ATPL exams which follow a long period of classroom study featuring very heavy books with long words, small typeface and few pictures. You will have to sit two very large exams covering a wide range of material of differing nature.

If you have only a poor education to GCSE level you will struggle in the most extreme fashion. At the moment your standard of written English suggests that you have a poor educational standard for a 16 year old. I'm not sorry to say that. It is the only judgement I can make based on the information provided.

So you will have to overcome your boredom and get motivated.

I attended a very bog standard comprehensive and three of my classmates have done or are doing >4yr prison sentences for either violent or drug crime. But I wanted to join the RAF and I knew that you HAD to have A's and B's to stand a chance on even the application form. My parents left school at 15 and 16 and my school was graffiti ridden and most of the pupils were marking time until they could leave to work back on the farm. But by means of pure aspiration to fly phantoms/tornados/hawks/anything I got AAAABBBC for GCSE and ABB for A level.

So the lesson is that you have to harness your desire to be a pilot and use that force to propel you to academic success. You won't need university so it would be as well to talk to your mum and dad now. Tell them you want to fly professionaly and explain how you want to re-approach your education with renewed vigour as a result.

I promise you that they will not feel let down by you. They will probably feel pleased that their 16yr old has a sense of direction and ambition. They may well feel sceptical about your chances but that is reasonable and sensible.

Good luck, you are younger than you realise and you have the very great luxury of having many years in which to pursue your goal.


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