PPL Exams advice and guidance :)

[Greg737]

Hey,

So I am now 25 Hours into my PPL. I have only Passed Air Law at the moment which enabled me to fly solo the day after my sixteenth birthday, I carried on flying once a week for about a month after and then my instructor suggested that I slowed down because I would have been ready before I turned 17. Up to then I was flying at-least twice a month and everything was going well. So in the last six months I have probably only done about 6 hours (off the top of my head). I attempted Met in the summer and failed with 70% and since then I sort of turned my back on the exams as I had put in hours of work for the Met exam and still failed. I now need to get a move on with the exams as I turn 17 in June and would like to complete my PPL in the summer when I can work full time and afford to fly on a weekly basis. I could do with passing Met and Nav soon because with spring arriving I will be flying regularly again. I still need to do my Solo XC, and build up at-least another 9 hours solo time.

My problem is I don't seem to get on with books. I have to read and re-read many times for the information to sink in as-well as testing myself a couple of times on each topic. I don't mind doing this but it is very time consuming considering I am trying to study AS-Levels as-well as having a social life. I have looked into buying the Oxford PPL CD's but before I spend a couple of hundred pounds are they worth it? For me it seems a no brainer because I feel learning from something a little more interactive may just be the key!

Thanks In advance,

Greg

[Alan_D]

Greg,

I found the Oxford CDs useful, if a bit dull. I made notes as I went through each lesson which became a revision check list I could go over again and again.
Try to get a copy of the 'PPL Confuser' - out of print I think but ebay may help.
The 'exam secrets' guides are useful too, but don't include met unfortunately.

Have a look at http://www.airquiz.com (http://www.airquiz.com/) also, the subscription is pretty cheap and I found it really useful to be able to do on-line exams regularly - once I passed these every time I had a go at the real exam.

I also found the met hard, and probably took longest studying for it before attempting the exam.

You may find that your flight school have the Oxford CDs available that you may be able to borrow.

Alan.

[JOE-FBS]

Does your club / school not offer any ground school? If you cannot stand just reading the books (and as you seem to be in 6th Form, I'm not surprised that you have had enough!) then doing it at the airfield with an instructor and some fellow PPL students might be more amusing.

[Greg737]

Alan, I have a confuser that I use aswell but I think it's just the fact that it's more books! Cheers will have a look at that website. Yeah I spoke to my instructor today and he said he would have a look for me, fingers crossed as it saves spending the money.

Joe, there are Ground school classes available on a thursday and I would attend but I simply can't get there as I have no method of transport and there is no public transport :hmm: So until I can drive ground school isn't an option.

Thanks for responses,

Greg

[Wibblemonster]

I found the Met exam hard, definitely the worst of the lot. The RT practical was no walk in the park either. Like you I find the books pretty dull & got hold of the Oxford CD's from eBay. Best advice is stick with it & try to set yourself goals. Failing an exam is a bummer, it happened to me, just revise again & test yourself atleast 3 times on mock questions from the confuser until you are getting over 80% then have a crack at the exam. I've got my last exam soon, aircraft technical & it's a good feeling to get the ground school done, best of luck!

[IanPZ]

Isn't it about time someone recorded their instruction when they do a ground school, and then made that available at a charge across the web. This is happening more and more for yacht skipper theory lessons, and works really well. They even have the interactive ability to email in questions if you want clarification.

Or is it already out there, and I don't know about it. (quite possible)

Any instructors do that, or interested?

[BobD]

Definitely agree with Alan D about www.airquiz.com (http://www.airquiz.com) Best £20 I spent before my exams. Like you, I found burying myself in the books hard, and responded much better to the online tests. They warn you about relying too much on these, but I found it easier to remember the things I got wrong (usually by swotting the item again in the book text).

Only taken 5 so far, but Met was the hardest (just scraped through with 75%). My instructor reckons the Meteorologists think Pilots don't deserve to score high, as we couldn't possibly know as much about the weather as them !

One really good tip I was given is reproduced below:

"Fold a piece of paper in half. Read the questions and mark the paper with your answer. (Can't rember if it's A,B,C,D. or 1,2,3,4.) anyway turn your folded paper over and do the same again. Open the paper and where all the answers agree mark them down any that conflict read again before deciding."

Worked for me !

[BackPacker]

there are Ground school classes available on a thursday and I would attend but I simply can't get there as I have no method of transport and there is no public transport

It is very likely that the other attendees, and the instructor, are all over 18 and will drive to the school. If you're a nice enough guy I'm pretty sure one of them is able to pick you up from either your home or a nearby station/bus stop, and drop you off there again after class. I know I would if it wouldn't be too inconvenient for me.

It does take a little initiative to sort that out but if you're doing a PPL at your age, you either have that initiative-taking skill sorted, or very rich parents (in which case you could also get a taxi...)

[XLC]

Hi Greg,

1. as Alan D mentioned AirQuiz - Online Practice Examinations for Pilots! (http://www.airquiz.com) is worth it.
2. And definitely the Confuser.
3. Furthermore use 'flashcards' (there is a software called Mental Case that works on both computer and iphone/ipad. I made a lot of notes on it while studying and still review those in spare moments. Handy).
4. If the results of the group I was with can be of any help : those who studied with the Met book of Jeremy Pratt had the worst Met results, while those who studied with the Met book of Trevor Thom passed thumbs up. (the opposite was true for the other subjects).

In any case try to get the Confuser.

[Greg737]

Cheers Backpacker I will ask around, never really thought about attending ground school as it's more school! Unfortunently I don't ave rich parents I work to pay for my PPL like the rest of us! Would be nice though ;)

Cheers for all the responses definitely given me some new ideas and things to try, much appreciated.

Greg

[BackPacker]

never really thought about attending ground school as it's more school!

Well, it's simple. You've got a new skill to learn. You can either learn that skill on your own (using books, DVDs, whatever) or get some sort of guided learning where an actual instructor will tell you what you need to know.

It's up to you to decide what works best for you. Despite being a professional teacher (IT though, not aviation), I'm the type that fancies self-study over classroom. But not everyone has the discipline for that. (And frankly, if the subject doesn't interest me all that much I lack the discipline too.) In which case a classroom course is probably easier.

One word of warning though. If you do decide on getting groundschool, don't approach it as if it's "more school". I have taught at highschools, and I'm now teaching commercial IT courses and the major difference is student motivation. Typical adolescents will attend school "because they have to" and the teachers waste a lot of time getting through to an unmotivated class. In contrast, adults are very, very motivated in class. They made the choice themselves and in case of PPL groundschool, they pay for it themselves. You will typically find that they're staying late to ask yet more questions, will not let go of the subject during breaks, and they will certainly not appreciate others showing unmotivated and disruptive behaviour.

I have occasionally had students in my commercial classes that were fresh from highschool and still showed the behaviour that they exhibited there. In most cases peer pressure alone was enough to change that in a few hours, and otherwise they got a nice little lecture from me during the first lunch break.

[late-joiner]

Greg737, I passed my PPL a few months ago and found the exams easy. But you and I are at the opposite ends of our careers. I had an electrical engineering degree to build on which included fluid mechanics and aerodynamics, have spend a great deal of my life racing small boats and am a yachtmaster offshore so knew sea level met and navigation etc. Everything I read slotted into place in a frame of reference I already had.

That would have been impossible for me at your age - there would simply have been too much new information on each page as I would not have had the experience to put it in context.

You will gain a great deal from the interaction with your instructor and other students and like the others here I would recommend you try to do ground school .

[turbulentmonkey]

I'd say get stuck in to the books. I'm at university so have lots of studying etc to do myself. I can't stand looking at books outside of coursework but I found the PPL books a LOT more interesting than anything I've studied for before. If you get stuck on something ask your instructor or somebody on here. You already have the books so it won't cost any more money. I'm still working towards my PPL but done all the ground exams in summer. I spent a week on each exam (while teaching myself some guitar and exercising my elbow on one or two nights out) and that seemed to do the trick. Take some time, grit your teeth, and get stuck in.

All the best :ok:

[Morris542]

If you are struggling to understand one particular concept then ask your instructor to go through it with you. I did that for elements of Met and aircraft technical and it helped a lot.

The exams may seem boring, especially if you're at school and the last thing you want to be doing whist away from AS levels is "more school" - I do know that feeling. However you do need to know the material well even after you've passed the exams and obtained the ultimate objective - you're PPL. Since I've got my PPL I've dipped in and out of the Air Law and Met books to brush up on certain elements that had been pushed to the back of my brain (icing for winter flying for example). I'm still re-reading the technical book as that's the exam I had most trouble with and it's stuff that I need to know with confidence.

In short, whatever approach to ground study you choose, be ENTUSIASTIC! Try to get as stuck in as possible, you need to be determined to get that PPL.

[Greg737]

Cheers for the advice Guys, going to get stuck into my book and will ask about ground school next Saturday when I have a Lesson! :) I also signed up to Airquiz. Thanks again,

Greg

[dan_vector]

I too failed MET first time round. I've now finished all my exams except MET! it is definately the most difficult of the bunch. I really enjoyed the NAV exam!

I have both the Trevor Thoms books and the Oxford DVD's. To be honest I much preferred the books. I found the CD's used to send me to sleep so I didn't really learn very well from them. The books however were interesting. I always carried whatever subject I was studying at the time (I study for one exam at a time only!) with me wherever I went and would read a page or two whenever I could. At break times, lunch times, on the bus/train wherever.

I agree with the others that the most important revision aid for me was the Confuser! I got my copy off eBay. I found it was the only aid that's questions were worded close enough to the real exams to really get you thinking like a pilot as the questions are aimed at pilots not meteorologists for example.

Good Luck! You will get there but it requires discipline and determination!

[Greg737]

I have been getting stuck into my Met book the last few nights and making good progress. Had the idea of making important notes to remember on each topic and sort of turning them into posters to stick around my room so whenever i'm in there I will be reading and remembering information without even realising. It has to be worth a go? :confused:

Greg

[FlyingKiwi_73]

I have been getting stuck into my Met book the last few nights and making good progress


Greg, for the sheer volume of things to learn Met is possibly the hardest exam, I left it until last. I think it helped as i had the 'rhythm' of the exams and had 'stretched my brain' so it could take on the extra info.
Met also has some icing questions which are easier to answer if you have already done Air Tech.

I did independant study for the exams, but for Nav i did a few impromptu ground school sessions with a friendly instructor. I'm not sure i would have passed Nav without those sessions, you really need somebody to check your answers and have them throw you some curve balls, you'll find them in the exam!

I used a modular approach, set goals (this week i will do chapters 1-5) do 1 chapter at a time, do the review. Then when you finished the book do each of the reviews without re-reading , sort the ones you missed, then do the exams. lock the door and time yourself. review the questions you missed. try and do the practice exams as close to the real one as you can. worked for me i didn't get 95% everytime (barely scraped through on Nav) but i didn't miss one!

Good Luck mate... i don't envy you doing School and PPL study.

[o7i]

Hi Greg737

Your situation reminded me very much of myself a few years ago. I got my PPL in a Robin at 17 and as I see you're in Dorset i'm guessing you might be flying from Bournemouth too. I don't know if they're still going but they used to run some courses at BCFT in the evenings which are very good if you can get there, and, like others have said the PPL confuser is very good! I know it is 'another book' but it has some very useful past papers in there which contain many of the same questions as are in the actual exams.

I had the Oxford CDs and found them useful for the navigation and some parts but would suggest that ground school is more valuable. Most instructors I've come across are fairly happy to help you out with ground school, especially the odd evening or when the weather isn't good enough to go flying.

Good luck with your exams, it's certainly not easy balancing flying, A levels and everything else!