JAA ATPL material = 20% interesting, useful, practical information, 80% pointless, tedious sh*te.
Compared to other countries in the world, where the ground school is much leaner, much shorter and the content is totally applicable to your REAL LIFE flying experience you are about to have, the JAA material is more an exercising in time wasting, and your ability to not want to throw your manuals / laptop out the window! This is certainly the case at times for distance learning.. Its only other purpose is to act as a filtration system for "those who really want to do it" It is also a ticket to print money for the JAA in my opinion - reflected in each member states charges to the end user (£60 per exam - an insult in something like Comms, where each exam takes about 15 mins, and to make the ££ they have deliberately separated IFR / VFR)
Just grit your teeth, take a deep breath, and try to rejoice when your sitting up late one night learning about things like the sun, time and the solar system...(or any other riveting subjects that you will never use again)