comparing groundschools

[macflea]

hi everybody,

my intention is to return to the uk after christmas and to visit several ftos and have a look at their groundschool courses. however in the meamtime i have spent hours doing the search on various fto groundschools and have read peoples opinions , i have received all their broschures however they tell me nothing new ,my question is how would you go about comparing them one on one, what should you be asking them apart from the basic the manuals and results.i.e how would you grill them about their courses.

cheers macflea

[TheDream]

Bristol Broundschool worked for me :ok:

V.professional can always get hold of someone to help and the feedback is constantly updated.

[Flypuppy]

Visit them.
Talk to the students who are currently at the school, preferably away from any marketing men/women.

Have a look through the opinions on PPRuNe, and send a PM to the most likely to be able to tell you what the score is at the schools they have written about.

[redsnail]

Know thyself.
In other words, what suits you best?
Full time or distance learning?
Smaller classes or big ones?
Smaller establishments or bigger more regimented ones?
I think you get my drift.

For me, I wanted a full time course that had a good reputation and represtented good value for money and wasn't part of a huge establishment. So, I picked ATA at Coventry. Self study wouldn't have worked for me. Too many life distractions :D
On the other had, Checkers wanted just to do some brush up courses that would fine tune his exam technique. He picked Bristol Ground School. He reckoned BGS was one of the best theory providers he's ever seen. (Former Ansett 737 pilot)
We both passed our ATPL exams first time.

[stator vane]

no contest in my opinion. and that is all it is.

but i couldn't get past first base with oxford even on the phone. if you don't fit into the little box perfectly, they think something is wrong with you.

bristol is run by Alex, who has really flown some impressive hardware in the past and will listen and has the added ability of lateral intelligence. i.e. real world knowledge and can understand how a student may not understand after the first two attempts at a question.

if i had to do it again, and i'm glad i don't, i would use them again without a doubt. i will not even waste the cost of a phone call for oxford. though i did buy a few of their books. but you can use pilot warehouse for that.