What's the previous poster just said is pretty spot on. The ground school was poor which caused problems at the oral stage. My sim buddy and I were lucky that we had a bit of warning of what standard was required and did many hours of extra study to pass the oral first time.
My sim instructor had been flying buses for 30 years. He was excellent.
As a side note Pan Am was taken over at the start of the year and many old staff were shown the door. Apparently it made no difference to the very average service!
More side note. DO NOT DO HOME STUDY! Persons doing home study will have to sit a 150 question test on the first day. Fail and you do ground school anyway. Just pay the extra 1000 bucks and sit through the mind numbing slides. For those doing in house ground school the test is much easier and a third of the size.