My thoughts.
1. Get hold of the ACTUAL manuals that you will be using ASAP, preferably before the course starts. Tech is tech usually for the aircraft, so tech manuals/CBT are pretty much the same for the groundschool. Airline Ops Manuals are significantly different so you need THE manuals for your operator.
2. Study the tech first and don't be daunted by the volume, just work through it methodically in a fashion that suits you. This is important. How do you learn info best? Just reading it and it stays in? Writing it down (like me), even though it is written on the page in front of you? Do what works best for you.
3. Do not be tempted to get ahead of yourself. Take each stage as it comes and only prepare for each stage when the previous one has been successfully completed. I know a friend who was trying to learn the SOPs and asking me shed loads of questions about the operation before he had even done the tech course. Needless to say he was wasting his time as by the time he was going to need this info the SOPs had changed! Extreme I know, but no point being able to recite the recall items before your tech course and then failing the ARB exam......
4. If you are not a 'photographic memory' type person (one on my last type rating course was), then expect to work long and hard at each stage. Don't plan on anything else during your course - I know one guy who was moving house, another who had a holiday booked and was trying to still go etc etc. Plan to devote your all to the mission of passing this course, and not just scraping through, I mean getting the highest possible marks/ results you can. Remember the instructor scores/ comments and your results are going to be the first entry in your training file with said airline and will follow you throughout your career with them. In a few years time when looking for captains the first thing the selection board will do is pull your file and look at how you did on your initial type rating course and how you have progressed since then in LPC/OPC and Line Checks.
5. If you have a partner, sit down and talk to them. If you have friends who have done a similar type rating try getting them to talk to your partner as well. I have done 757/767 and 737/300-900 type rating courses with Command Training on the last one and I am someone who has to work hard to achieve my personal goals. My other half knows that I will not be on the phone everyday at a regular time able to chat for an hour or so due to the pressures of the course. Remember it can take a toll on them keeping home life together without your support etc. Hopefully by explaining all this beforehand you can avoid distractions of relationship problems at a critical time during your training. Here in the UK from day one to signed off to line on the types I have mentioned can take up to 6 months. Obviously there will be breaks in there and you can spend time with your better half, but I know for me a lot of that time I was (obviously) pre-occupied with what was coming next and trying to get ahead of the game again!
6. Plan a little down time. Don't go down the pub every night on your groundschool or you will probably screw up, but on the courses I have been on we usually had a night in the pub for dinner and a few beers once each week. You will all be extremely anal in the pub, accept that and don't try and impress the local girls as that may become a distraction!
7. If you struggle with something SPEAK UP early. Do not be embarrassed to ask for help. Amongst a group of half a dozen, someone will have the correct answer and someone else will be just as baffled as you! Obviously if you are struggling with everything then you may have bitten off more than you can chew, but we all have moments on a course when we just don't get it......
8. Adjust your attitude. Keep your end goal in sight, but concentrate on each stage as it comes. The right attitude will see success when otherwise you would have failed. You will get more from your instructors if you are keen to learn, show a desire to succeed, can recognise and openly admit to your own mistakes and are willing to LISTEN and apply the lessons from their training input.
9. When it comes to the sim course, learn the profiles and SOPs off by heart well in advance and keep practising them. Learn scan flows and set up using the cockpit pictures/ cardboard bomber and if you can get hold of your training partner work together as soon as you can. Remember it is a two crew operation and you will be assessed on how you operate as a crew. Don't try and point score, support and prompt the other guy if you are better than him as this will be looked at favourably by an instructor. Don't worry, they will ask you to stop assisting if they need to see the other guy do something specific, or they need to let the guy hang himself......!
10. Collate all your references for each sim session and ensure you are fully read up on what is to come. Usually your instructor will tell you what you will cover in the next session in his 'look forward' at the end of the previous session debrief. Remember that there will be material in several different sections of the Operations Manual and you need to get ALL of it to hand to ensure you fully understand and turn up well prepared for the next sim. As an example, there may be material in Part B Normal Operations, or Supplementary Procedures as well as the Flight Crew Training Manual (the manufacturers 'ops' manual), Part A may have more general info and of course the Quick Reference Handbook may have something you need, especially for non-normals. Any of these may require you to check other documents such as the Performance Inflight Manual etc, so getting to grips with WHERE all this info is, HOW to find it quickly and HOW one leads to the other is important and can take hours of research and collation. If you do this you look well prepared to the instructor at the start of your briefing before the next sim, when you are asking INTELLIGENT, RELATED questions which have arisen from your research as opposed to not asking anything and then showing your shortfalls during the sim session.....
11. I always kept a note of all the debriefing sessions for the sim. I would then type them up, a bit like this, into learning points. This can really help as you can review the notes and hopefully not make the same mistakes again in future sessions. Remember that on a major type the sim can be strung out over a month or so, pretty hard to remember EVERY mistake you made a month on.......
12. Do NOT bitch about things that don't go your way. There will be moments where you think you are lacking support, when the admin is not done, when delays occur to your training, where you get dicked about by Crewing/ Crew Training, when you have to be flexible beyond belief, when it seems they are doing everything to help you fail, when NOTHING seems to be going your way. Remember, on the day they recruited you they had made a judgement about you and your suitability. I guarantee they had the impression that you are the sort of person that can overcome adversity and keep focussed to stick to a task. This may well be the first test of that, get on with it and live up to the potential you have shown.
13. Stick with it. It can be a long hard slog and it would be a shame to take a dip in performance towards the end.
What would I do differently next time? I can't actually think of anything, I would approach the next course as I have listed above as it has worked for me thus far!
Hope this helps.
PP