Thank you all for the kind words. All ready for the summer weather now, should it ever arrive - certainly glad to have the licence out of the way. I really enjoyed my time at ANT, and hope to return soon for more sitting about even if not flying until the next payday. I fear they may be somewhat overshadowed by flashier companies, but if you do the research they clearly stand out, and the reception on arrival only confirms this.
I did read not to pay up front, but went ahead anyway as the school has been there 66 years, I was doing the entire course in very short order and there was a considerable saving to be had by doing so. Still, I accept that this sort of thing may be viewed as an unacceptable risk by some.
For each of the exams, I read the relevant book during my free time (i.e. all the time not in the air - at ANT during the day and at home at night) in the order noted, then went through all of the exercises at the back as I finished it. Any questions I got wrong I noted, then re-read the relevant sections and re-tried the missed questions. Once I had got all questions right at least once I sat the exams. Practical experience also helped in many cases - particularly for the Nav and R/T exams. I have heard various things about the Confuser but did not use this.
As you can see, my Met score was the absolute minimum to pass - with only 20 questions there is little allowance for mistakes or knowledge gaps. Getting the exam out of the way early also helped in that it was one of the tougher ones, but the learning curve was very steep at that point (I was very uncomfortable in the aircraft for the first two days, and not really happy until day 11). All I can advise is to learn the material and test yourself until you are happy you know it - it is there to keep you safe as well as to pass the exam and I am very mindful of that myself.
Best of luck to all aspiring pilots - just keep at it, I never thought I'd get it done even ten days in, yet another ten later I was both ready for the exam and loving every minute of it 
Last edited by JDA2012; 3rd Apr 2013 at 08:36.