Feeling nervous and unsure about all this . . .
I'm on the "other" side of the learning environment, as some of you know, I do the ground school at a certain north central Florida JAA FTO which has been mentioned once or twice in these hallowed pages of Pprune (but I digress slightly).
Over the past ten years, I've worked with probably close to 2,000 PPL candidates. The most important thing for *ME* to remember is that everyone learns at a different rate. Some people learn some things quickly, others pick them up a bit more slowly. Tomorrow, the same two people will swap, and they person who breezed through yesterday will be stumped today, and the person who struggled yesterday gets it in a moment.
Fortunately, the classes are usually small, perhaps half a dozen at a time, and that lets me pay attention to EACH student and watch the non-verbal cues from EACH student to see if they are puzzled, confused, bored, (asleep) or - and this is the payoff - experiencing the "AHA!" moment when suddenly everything becomes clear in a flash.
This is most evident when I teach the ARC-1 (or CRP-1 or E-6B). This is not a lecture where I can just drone on like some sort of robotic bulldozer, for this one I have to pay close attention to each and every step for each and every student. I engage in personal, individual conversations during this class because I need to make sure everyone has GOT IT before I move to the next step. This is because everything builds on what came before, and if someone doesn't have the basics, the rest isn't going to happen.
The problem arises when I have one who gets it quickly and one who is rather slower. I have to keep the fast ones from falling asleep while I bring the slower ones along gently so as not to terrify them and put them off completely. It can sometimes be a lot of work and a delicate balancing act, but in the end, everyone gets it and the much-feared ARC-1 is no longer a terror, but a new best friend.
Temporary discouragement is a common problem. When faced with something that just doesn't make sense, the usual and quite human response is avoidance. This immediately creates frustration because it isn't possible to just quit and go home - most people have far too much invested in learning to fly (financially and emotionally) to do that.
Fortunately, we persevere.
There is also a "learning curve". Ideally, it would be a smooth, gentle progression from the first moment ("the pointy end is the front, right?") to the conclusion, when the graduate proudly (and rightfully so) accepts the ATPL and walks around on the swimming pool for an hour or so.
Real world, the learning curve is more like a motocross course. Bumpy. Rocks. Messy. Not straight. Portions seem impassible, have to go around instead. No matter how low your opinion of yourself might be at the moment, I will guarantee that someone out there is struggling more than you are. People are different - that's why Mozart did music and I do airplanes (although I am surely not as good at airplanes as Mozart was at music).
Relax, sleep on it, do something else for an hour or a day, take a break, don't hammer your head against a wall.
But don't give up - anything worth achieving is worth struggling for.
Best Regards,
Echo Mike