Hi p.savage
I'm with Bristol and am almost at the end of the first module. The 4-6 months is PART TIME. I work full time during the day and study 2hrs each night and another 5-6hrs or so at the weekend. I'll perhaps take a night off once or twice per week to avoid burn out. Even so I have managed to read and sit the progress tests of the first module since the start of November. I plan spend 2-3 months going through the tests again and making notes before booking my brush up around april/may.
To be quite honest I thought there wasnt as much to the first module as I though there would be, which is reassuring because Bristol say this is the longest of the two. The folders contain loads of reading but it's very well spaced out so you will cover it quite quickly.
My advice is to stick to the Bristol notes at first. Get a good foundation from one source and then as APU FIRE says, source all the mock questions you can.
I plan to study over 12-14 months, at the moment I am hour building and saving towards my CPL/IR, so there isnt any rush for me to get the study out of the way. Having gone freelance, you will probably be covering the topics at a much greater rate than I.
Others may disagree, but the content isnt that hard at all. Some things like gyroscopes can be tricky, but they provide mpeg videos to help you.
Bodie