It is quite simple and not the drama that many (who have never done one) make it out to be. All the comments about how hard it is if you are working in a full time job or are not a 24 year old airline wannabee are rubbish. I did the theory for both CPL and IR with CATS at Cranfield. They provided a good standard of materials and were completely flexible around ground school etc. I was the Group IT Director of a FTSE 100 company while doing the study commuting into London on the train. I used the hour in the morning and night on the commute to study and did a day of ground school on a Saturday with CATS before the exams. I passed all of the exams first time an average of mid 90% on the scores.
Bose, and how long from when you started "studying" to completing the instrument rating and flying off on your first IR solo?
For the FAA IR, I read the Jeppesen Instrument Commercial manual over about a week in the evenings, turned up at the flight school, had ground school and flew daily - about 2-4 hrs per day as I only had 120 hrs and was short of cross country time. I sat the ground exam about 2 weeks in and passed - I also did the Instrument Instructor exam the same day and passed, 2 weeks later I had my IR. This was with a full 50 or so hours of actual flying, no sim due to the X/C. Cost was about $6500 if I remember correctly. Had I done it part time them I would have pushed for 6 hrs flying per week, so it would have taken nearer 10 weeks.
Most people I meet took nearly a year to get a JAR IR.