Having just completed the ATPL writtens, here are a few thoughts..
I did D/L...
- there will be many a day when you yearn for some peer group inspiration - the stuff you would get in a class room. When I was on the Bristol residential brush ups, I really enjoyed the idea of having fellow studes around me who I could bounce ideas off and commiserate with when we crashed and burned at something collectively (i.e. gen nav!)
- that said, the end result for me was that D/L, although pyschologically a rather lonely experience, did the trick. With D/L I would contend that you really have to be good at motivating yourself, as part of this motivation in the classroom environment comes from the people around you. You just have to try to remain focussed, which isn't easy at times! Undoubtedly full time class room will get you through the course quicker.
- Bristol Ground School are masters at their art. They will get you through. I have a friend who was using Oxford, and he had a few issues with their waypoint scheme, especially the time required to send in a progress test and get the required result back before continuing on to the next subject. Arguably, there is a fair amount of discrimination between full time OAT students and distance learners.