I started my distance learning with Bristol in September 2001. I did this whilst still working full time doing shift work. A 50-60 hour week with 5am starts and some midnight finishes was normal for me. About a year into it, I stopped studying for a year as I was getting demoralised with not doing as much as I would like. I use to come home from work at teatime somedays and fall asleep on the sofa. When I woke up, I would be in no mood to study plus I was probably due to be back up at 4am for work the next day.
I decided to go to the bank and borrow some cash so as I could stop doing all the overtime that I had been doing in order to survive and just did basic my hours. I also took all my days off when able to do so. I completed all 14 exams in December 2004. So from beginning to end was 3 years with a 1 year break in the middle of it.
One bit of advice. Have a spare A4 size ring binder and take out of your study pack the chapters that you are currently studying and put them into the separate folder whilst you read them and do the progress test. Once you have passed that particular progress test, put the chapters back into you study pack and move onto the next chapters for studying. This way you will not get demoralised so easy. Take one chapter at a time and don't look to far ahead. You will be surprised how quick you will get through it all.
I left school with poor exam results. This did not stop me eventually passed all 14 exams. Gen Nav on the 3rd attempt. Its your CPL and IR flight test you want to try and pass first time. That's what counts.
Bristol are great and I would not have done any other way. I have a wife, daughter and mortgage to think of so was unable to give work up. Don't give up and keep going forward. You will get there if you keep going. I cant believe I got through all that stuff.
I have never read a novel in my life but read every single word in the Bristol stuff from beginning to end. I remember the day their stuff arrived in the post. Nearly had a heart attack. But I got through it.
Check your PM Captain Melly
Sorry for the poor grammar, just got in off nightshift.