My statement regarding 'huge swathes of irrelvant information' was more a question than a comment... based on my (very limited) experience of the learning objectives for the JAR ATPL. What I really meant was to ask if CATC's syllabus like that, i.e. containing large amounts of material that gets learnt for the purpose of passing the exams, and subsequently forgotten?
On the subject of the JAR ATPL learning objectives, it brings a new meaning to the phrase 'read it and weep'.