You just have to want it, and work like ****
I started distance learning July 2004, Nov 2004, March 2005 you get the picture, its absolute torture! I would have still been distance leaning but realised my 60-80 hour working week was not helping, I made some changes and started full time ground school April 2006 and will be finished by Dec.
Full time has been ok for me there is no magic, 30 hours of lectures a week - range from excellent to complete waste of time and you still have to go back to a very small room every night and attempt to memorise facts and figures (sorry consolidate!) The main advantage for me so far with full time is that someone else tells me the exam dates, we fill out some forms, pay a lot of money for them and I ensure I pass them (so far anyway!).
I think you can do it distance learning and I know a lot of people who have done it that way, I think you need some support and to pick the pace up, you can not learn it all, scan the material, do as many question papers as you can, learn how the questions are asked, this was a shock for me in the first series of exams I sat subjects like Met, POF, M&B etc. I knew the subjects had done "some" questions, passed them all but can not emphasise enough how important it is to learn the style of how the questions are asked and favourite areas of questions from different subjects.
I have also being surprised by the amount of repetition, all subjects go hand in hand with at least one other subject and when you get in the exam you will also find this, I had performance questions in my POF exam and others.
Bottom line is don't try and learn everything (you can't), try and find someone who is interested in your studies a fellow student at a similar stage (preferable sharper than oneself for explaining things) or even an instructor who can run through a few thing to break it up a bit, get as many feedback/example questions as you can - start now!, get your brush-up/ exams booked now!
Best of luck
JL..............