Which Ground school ?

[ComeFlyWithB]

Hi All,

So after passing my PPL skills test last week after many delays I can finally look ahead to starting my ATPLs. If possible I'd just like peoples opinions / personal experiences when choosing a school. I've considered and looked into the following options:

FTE Jerez both distance learning and Residential
Bartolini using BGS Distance learning
Bristol Ground School
Oxford both residential and distance learning
L3 Residential full time
FTA Global residential full time
CATS distance learning

I've weighed up the pro's and con's I can think of for each school including rough estimated cost all in and timeframes etc, FTE was in the frame however given its a full time course they're seems to be an awful lot of downtime / self study which I'm not sure I could justify the extra cost for. I didn't like the feel of Oxford and L3 is out of the equation given its over 3x more expensive and I'm fortunate to have friends / colleagues who have been there who have let me borrow notes. FTA seem like a good set up however it would be more cost effective to go to Jerez if a full time course was the option which leaves the distance learning options. CATS is cheaper however BGS seems to be the tried and tested method which leaves me with two solid options. Bristol or Bartolini who use Bristol material. My original plan was to go via Bartolini, cost being one reason and out of the UK another however the only thing I'm a little unsure of with them is the 5 months of self study before attending the two week ground school and then onto the exams, presumably and please correct me if im wrong this would mean learning all of the subjects to most likely forget a good chunk of the subjects you initially study before heading over to Lodz as opposed to Bristol where you have the revision week at the end of each module plus the accelerator days.

It's worth mentioning i'll be working as Cabin Crew again until October / November at least so taking more than 5 concurrent days annual leave from May - early September isn't permitted. Which kind of throws a spanner in the works for Bristol. If Bartolini ends up being the best option to fit my circumstances I plan to study from when my licence comes back and head over for the ground school in September before most likely staying in Poland for a month to finish the rest of the exams into October.

Thanks in advance,
B

[paco]

You forgot CAPT.... :)

[nord121]

I’m thinking about going to Bartolini also. However the 5 month is just a minimum. Why not sort out a good study schedule and study all the subjects for say 12-14 months go to Poland for the brush up then try doing 7 in one sitting for example? This is just my plan. It will work out the same time frame and also lessen travel and costs to and from Poland.

Each to their own and all that.

[nord121]

Yes that could work also, The more you do in the first sitting the better as your 18 month time limit only starts from the first exam taken and doing more in the first sitting will give you some breathing space for the rest of your sittings

Just keep in mind no matter what school you pick as a distance learning student it's almost all on you to study


Thats an excellent point I forgot to add Negan, use the fact the clock won’t start ticking and the limited sittings to your advantage on this one. Don’t rush into it and go at 5 months and try and sit 7!

[ComeFlyWithB]

Thank you for the advice so far.

My original plan was to do it via Bartolini for two reasons 1) Cost, it works out around £1,700 cheaper than doing it directly with Bristol all in.
2) It would mean sitting the exams outside of the U.K.

my only concern using Bartolini as opposed to Bristol is you only have 2 weeks of classroom study as opposed to Bristol’s week at the end of each module plus accelerator weekends. Potentially meaning studying most of the topics, attending the classroom sessions and then sitting x amount of exams to then have the remaining exams but no classroom session help for brush up’s. I’ve emailed Aleksandra to see if additional classroom time it’s possible which if it is will be the deciding factor.

The downsides to Bristol directly for me personally are work (I can’t have more than 5 days annual leave May-September)

[brocken_spectre]

I'm currently studying full-time at Cat3C. Can't recommend them enough.