You have got it in one.
Do a proper degree (although I am willing to accept that Genghis ones are OK anything with the ATPL subjects in the syllabus arn't deemed proper)
The IR is unlike anything you will have done before. You have highs and lows, through it and it is very demanding. Its very hard to describe what it was like for myself and I would suspect its different for each individual. The stress level is a combination of the skill you are learning, the price that it costs (400 quid an hour) and the some might say anal attention to detail which you have to have.
A 2.5 hour skills test can be failed by missing 1 incorrect RT call and 1 failure to trigger a stopwatch. Cost of said test over £1000. And there is alot riding on it as well. A couple of failures and you have basically lost all the time and money you have invested so far into your training. Because you get one failure or partial and if you don't pass the next one it is very unlikely any employer will employ you.
So if you have done one of these woolly degrees which yes do get you your ATPL's but the other content is worthless you have just lost 3 years of your life and don't have a single thing thats worth anything to show for it.
Last edited by mad_jock; 3rd Oct 2010 at 17:10.