Originally Posted by
dom462
Why do I need to quote evidence? If the ground school exams have a significant maths and physics content then obviously further education in these subjects would give you an advantage over people that don't.
If you get bad marks in your atpl exams because you struggled with the maths and physics elements it will be quite costly for you. If you are just finishing school, doing a-levels are free. If they help you pass your atpl exams even by just a fraction, then in my opinion they are a must.
I was always better at arts based subjects at school, so I took the A-Levels I thought I would enjoy and get good grades in. Similar with my degree course. A good friend of mine who I trained with and who now flys for the same airline as me was science through and through - maths and physics at A-Level and an engineering degree. It is fair to say he found some elements of the ATPL groundschool easier to grasp than I did.
However.
When it came to the exams our marks were pretty identical, and I actually beat him in Principles of Flight, which is as physics based as you get in the ATPL course. Point is a decent education is always beneficial to getting the career you want, but maths and physics at A-level simply aren't needed to become a pilot and their effect on your ability to pass the groundschool is minimal. As
Scroggs said, thousands of us managed just fine without!