Tricks that contributed best to the success of my CPL...
- Active learning on groundschool: learn by writing and doing, not just reading and listening.
- Book lesson flights in the morning wherever possible, I always performed better if I'd not been doing or thinking about anything else earlier in the day.
- ANR headset, worth every penny in terms of improved concentration. (Well, I borrowed one from work, but same applies)
- PLOG - I designed my own on my computer and printed a pad of them out, tweaking it a few times through the course of my course and optimised to the specific way we flew lessons on the CPL.
- Good trifold kneeboard; all of my tools there on my knee, always to hand. Never fly with less than 3 pens and two VOR plotters, so that if one gets dropped under the seat, I could keep going and retrieve later.