Babel,
I did my exams down at Bournemouth airport with a guy called Ron Heyter, he shares a classroom/cabin with the local heli club, not sure if he is still around as this was 2 years ago.
You were expected to read the books and get a basic understanding of each subject although you did not need to be completely au fait with it. You then went to Bournemouth for 3 days where you got 1-1 ground school with Ron and also the exams and your results straight away - the only exam he was not licenced to do was the RT.
I found that although some things were hard to grasp during the 'reading' phase the gorund school soon cleared that up and I got through all of them first time with good marks. I found Met the hardest to get muy head around until attending the school.
The course was 3 days and cost £300, including exams & resits(if req'd), excluding accomodation. Ron arranged this at a local B&B for £20/night and was very good.
I bumped into a couple more on my course that had used him as well and no-one had a wrong word to say about him, which must be good as we were a cynical lot
I have heard of PPLs swotting up on their own and then just going for the exams but obviously be a bit harder when you dont have anyone to discuss issues with. Basically I would invest a few days now to save yourself a lot of grief on your PPL.
Julian.