How did you study for your PPL?

[johnc21]

Hi all

I will be hopefully starting my PPL sometime late this year / early next year.

I have my head in the books but its very hard to concentrate on them when there is not so much as a sniff of fuel or sight of an airplane.
Also I find it hard to pull what details I need from the manuals like Air Law, Met etc.

How did you study for your PPL in terms of techniques and note taking.
I am trying to maintain my motivation to keep studying but sometimes I tend to drift away bacause of a lack of any practical flying.

Hope you get my point.

Thanks
John

[igarratt]

hey John

know exactly what you mean, its def not the fun bit of the PPL !, I got the advice of here and it worked a treat. Read the Trevor Thom/Air pilot manuals to learn the subjects, once through them just to implant the concepts with no notes then again for real.
When it comes to passing the exams (vs learning) then there is nothing better than the PPL Confuser, the skill is not just in the subjects but learning how the caa play with the questions.

Personally I did one exam every two weeks and crammed for each one then moved on to the next, i did the confusers text over and over till i got 100% then in most of my real exams managed the same.

Some are for sure hard, i found met the worst, mainly nav i think you should really be flying and doing some practical to make it mean something.

btw i believe that the new pc based ppl cbt is far quicker and just as effective as the confuser.

good luck, and yes it's def worth it :)

[johnc21]

Hi Igarratt

Thanks for your thoughts.

I have the Oxford PPL CBT's of thats what you mean, they are ok but the almost "AI" voices have me day dreaming after a bit.

I will keep hacking away.

I welcome more thoughts and experience.

Thanks again.
J

[kevmusic]

I feel your pain! My enthusiasm for flying kicked off sometime around the last Ice Age and I did the exams before the PPL. It was hard going! I've recorded it here: http://www.pprune.org/private-flying/216764-most-protracted-ppl-ever-2.html#post3071848
Think of the goal and enjoy an exam-free plying course. Good luck! :ok:

[LH2]

Trev Tom and Confuser, like everyone else. Read the books in the evenings before the next day's flying lessons and did the confuser mock tests parked in the car just before sitting the real ones.

You have got the confuser, right?

[johnc21]

LH2

Actually no I dont have the confuser, I am trying to get my hands on a copy though, second hand would be fine.

Some people post about discrepancies with it, although Im sure its nothing major.

J

[Vems]

Hello :)

I think the theory is the worst part of getting your PPL, although I motivate myself by looking at the cockpit on 747's in my room every morning when I get up! (it really helps :p)

Hm, I do it a bit different. In fact I'm only doing my second exam now but hey..

What I do is read the book chapter by chapter and after each chapter make a summary of the most important things (they seem important to me!) and all the basic stuff. I do a chapter to 3 chapters per day, depends on how long they are. Once I get through the book I read my summary notes and quickly run through the book with the things I can't fully understand. Then it comes the time for the confuser, with Air Law I just read the questions, answered them and marked myself. I did pass the exam first time so that was fine, although I started Meteorology second and it seemed a bit harder although way more interesting. I did the same thing as with Air Law apart from the Confuser bit. I didn't run through the questions first, but through the explanations and make notes of them, explains why the answer is this and it's not different, then I quickly run through the questions and two days ago, I made myself 6 tests :} In the Confuser, for Met there's 119 questions, I made up 6 tests with 20 question numbers on each (Just random number of question). I did first 2 tests yesterday and after I marked myself, I had 100% and 95%. I'm going to the rest of them today, as I have a whole day free and I've been running through the questions and explanations for the past week so I guess, I'll do few practices and MIGHT write the exam tomorrow.

It works for me, I learned all the stuff I need.

As with flying, I decided to do one exam per 3 weeks /month, as I only fly an hour per week ( will get wayy more in the summer.)

So.. anyways. Happy studying! :E

[englishal]

I just read the Trevor Thom books once, worked through the "confuser" and that was it. Didn't bother with any notes or anything..

[LH2]

Actually no I dont have the confuser, I am trying to get my hands on a copy though, second hand would be fine.

Any aviation store carries it, or order online (flightstore.co.uk is the one I use).

Some people post about discrepancies with it, although Im sure its nothing major.

Just work through it and you will be fine. Let the pedants worry the "discrepancies".

[Mike Parsons]

John,

I was in a similar position to you. This year I started with the exams (January) and have now passed my fourth one (comms). I have done:

- Air Law - 90%
- Human Factors - 100%
- Met - 100%
- Comms 96.666666667%

And I have only racked up 2 hours air time. I am trying, now to hit the skies hard now with lessons being booked in once or twice a week in April and May, however I have only had one official startup lesson which was last week due to the weather.

I have found getting into the exams fairly easy without the added pressures of lessons. Maybe it would have sunk in easier if I had started lessons at the same time as my exams, who knows!? It has worked for me. Here's generally what I do:

- Read the AFE PPL Book for subject cover to cover noting important points down in a notepad.
- Read over my notes.
- Go through each question in the confuser answer it, get it right / wrong, find out why - look at the explanation why/how/where said question happens etc.

Once I have done this go back through the question bank and memorise questions and answers...works for me.

Anything anyone takes an interest in is likely to do well.

Visit my blog on my early and ongoing experiences: http://ppllog. blog spot .com (remove all spaces, this forum doesn't like people posting blog links)

[johnc21]

Hi guys and girls

Thanks for all input so far, helps a lot.

Mike your blog looks really cool and nice on the eye.
I will have a read of it later on with a pot o coffee!

Thanks folks, keep the advice flowing

regards

J

[Local Variation]

Get a copy of the Confuser and join a club.

Despite lack of flying hours, that doesn't stop you joining a club. I found that going to the club regularly helped no end, despite undertaking no flying whilst I was their. People their will help you if you ask and it's a good place to get your head into gear.

It will also drive your motivation in being in and around the 'scene'.

They may also have some mock exam papers for you too work through.

Best of luck.

[Captain-Random]

PPL Confuser - New Edition 9 @ Flightstore Pilot Supplies (http://www.flightstore.co.uk/prod/PPLCON/DEPT-BOOKS/BKQAA/)

[TheGorrilla]

study??? What?? Yeast, hops. barley,.... Oh you mean.... Exams??

[madgav]

Trev Thom (APM) + confuser again.

I read each book once, then a second time making notes and working through the exercises in the book, then worked through the confuser exercises, then some final revision of my notes & did the exam. The confuser is critial as it is gives you experience of the type of question actually asked in the exam. I also used the online exams at airquiz.com BTW.
Got some personal tuition for the RT practical but depending on your flying experience you may not need it.
Results here (http://www.gmcc0266.plus.com/ppl.htm)

I did my exams sloooowwwllyyyy, over the full 18 months allowed, but I have been flying at the same time. The advantage being that I now have 2 years to complete my PPL (as of last week!). Should only take a few months to finish it but at least I have plenty of time :).

[matman]

if your struggling with motivation just have a look in the back pilot mag for them intensive training places (great circle at full sutton-etc), book a week off work and blast all of them off in one go (about a grand for all of them).expensive, but reduces alot of the stress and gets them out of the way. But id probably wait until you've started your lessons properly before doing them.

[MightyDucks]

Hi all,

I've just started my ppl training (four hours) and i'm just wondering what i should do as regards the exams. In my FTO they organise a two week study course for the ppl exams. Now this takes place in a couple of weeks i think i'd like to enroll in it but once the course is finished does that mean i'd be able to sit all my exams or would i need to study more for each one.

Thanks for any advice.

[turbulentmonkey]

mike parsons you have the technique down to a tee! :ok:

im at the same stage as you too and that's exactly how i study, minus the confuser. read through the afe books, take structured notes with the obvious important parts, and test yourself no more than a few times after sufficient study to check progress/highlight areas for improvement.

the confuser isn't a necessity - get yourself an airquiz account -

AirQuiz - Online Practice Examinations for Pilots! (http://www.airquiz.com)

the question bank is pretty big and gives a good indication of how progress is coming along. cheaper than a confuser too! all subjects for £20. cant complain at that

monkey

[HighFlyer75]

If you hit the books for the next couple of weeks prior to the course and then do two weeks of classroom learning I don't see why you wouldn't be able to pass the tests.

When I started studying I was told that the CAA recommends two months of study. In reality I did about one month of part time study (a few hours here and there and one day at the weekends) as my job prevented me from doing any more. After that I did a two day revision course that covered all topics briefly immediately followed by the exam - and I passed them all. This was about two weeks ago.

Thing is, while I passed the exams, I still feel like there are areas that I passed because I knew the answer rather than understood the topic fully. As a result I find myself going back to the books again trying to really get to grips with some of the areas.

As far as practice exams are concerned, the general consensus is to use the confuser. If you have an iPhone (doesn't everyone) you can download some apps from The Great Circle containing practice exams which are basically the confuser. I found this very useful to do some practice questions any time I had a few minutes to spare. You have to pay for them but I found it was worth the money personally.

Re the Air Quiz exams suggested by turbulentmonkey, I also signed up for this but found that I didn't use it as the format and nature of the questions really didn't match what the CAA exams are like. Its a nice way to test your overall knowledge but I personally don't believe it is a good way to prepare for the CAA exams.

[flybymike]

Back in the halcyon days when I did my PPL there was no such thing as a confuser, or practice questions of any sort. One had to simply read the books, learn and understand the subjects, and then just hope that one got questions one knew the answers to.

[HighFlyer75]

Much respect flybymike.....and I mean that seriously with no sarcasm.

The last time I did exams was in university and they were all essay style. I personally found some of the wording and nature of the questions in the CAA exams to be...emmm....confusing. I feel that I have a pretty good understanding of the subjects as I didn't just use the practice exams to study but I do believe that being able to get to grips with the way the questions are worded and the tricks they try to play on you really helped. I don't know if I would have failed if I did no practice exams first but I don't think I would have done as well.

So, to all you people who had to walk into the exam not knowing what to expect, well done.

[kevmusic]

The wording of exam questions is deliberately set to confuse. It's partly to test knowledge and partly IQ. There is some 'filtering' going on......:}