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ATPL theory- how long does it take?

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Old 3rd Mar 2003, 19:31
  #81 (permalink)  
 
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As someone who has lived in Texas for the last three years and has JAR CPL I feel qualified to comment. Weather in Tx is either hot and overcast or hot and very thundery. Four weeks is probably a good estimate. I have also flown in to Tyler and looked at the school and they do have nice aircraft and an excellent set-up. Onll reason I didn't go there was because they hadn't got JAR certification at that time allthough it was imminent.
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Old 4th Mar 2003, 08:33
  #82 (permalink)  

Why do it if it's not fun?
 
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Ham,

Thanks for that. Have to admit I'd imagined the weather to be better than you describe in that part of the world. If that's the reason for the course generally taking 4 weeks, it's entirely valid. And I stand by my original comment that it's a pity, because otherwise they'd be at or near the top of my list.

FFF
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Old 9th Oct 2003, 05:22
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Angel How long to pass your ATPL exams??

Hi guys
I was wondering how long it took you to pass all your ATPL exams?
9 months, 10, ....???
It would be interesting to know and it could become a survey as well (if the moderators would like to set up the poll...).
Thank you very much for your replies.
Cheers
(sorry in advance if this topic has been done before)
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Old 9th Oct 2003, 08:51
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Hi

Took me 10.5 months to do all the study, exams and 1 re-sit!

Was hoping 6 months but best laid plans always go up in flames!!

Cheers

A/C
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Old 9th Oct 2003, 15:23
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It's not that simple. It all depends on your circumstances. Do you work - have family, kids? - play football on Sundays ???

Try to work out how many quality hours study a week you can do then a time scale might be easier to guess.

LF
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Old 9th Oct 2003, 17:36
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13 months
Full time job
Refused to study weekends, like Stella too much.
No family committments
Studied every night (mostly) mid week after work, oh the memories !
Long distance relationship up and down the M1 at weekends, refer to Stella answer, much needed after M1 !
A cat named Gerald.
All first time passes with good average.

Enjoy and good luck.

ps. could've done it a bit quicker but didn't really see the point in going too mad with it, all down to personal choice and circumstances really.
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Old 9th Oct 2003, 18:05
  #87 (permalink)  

Why do it if it's not fun?
 
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12 months. Had a full-time job, studied evenings and weekends.

Agree with others that the numbers without any context are totally meaningless.

FFF
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Old 9th Oct 2003, 18:10
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Fully time study - Distance and brush up for tech, and full time course for Nav (CAA exams pre JAR). Flew when weather was nice, studyed when it was crap.

Did all exams in 4 months. From PPL to BCPL and AFI in 6 months.
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Old 10th Oct 2003, 06:27
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8 months.
Distance learning
Hours building at the same time
Bloody hard work though!
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Old 10th Oct 2003, 06:56
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Took me 18 months in total. Completed distance learning course whilst holding down a full time job. Married with a child. Don't underestimate the study required. Make sure you attend the one day brush up courses for difficult subjects. My feedback questions virtually mirrored the actual exam questions.
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Old 10th Oct 2003, 15:16
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took me 8 months but I was full time student in a modular course at an FTO. Anyway It was really to much for me as full time student I can only image for a distance learning student. WOW!!

Good luck guys!
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Old 10th Oct 2003, 15:31
  #92 (permalink)  

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6 months, full-time.

As an instructor I have known students (ours and others who have come for private tuition) take from 6 months to over 2 years. Most of the longest have problerms other than the course, such as failure of an FTO, to deal with.
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Old 10th Oct 2003, 22:08
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I spent around 2 years completing my ATPLs with Bristol Groundschool whilst working full time as a Software Engineer. I studied for around 5 hours a day Mon - Thursday, then usually an additional hour on Fridays. The basic idea was to use my lunch hour each day as study time, although being in the office this can sometimes turn out to be less productive than study at home (for obvious reasons).
During the week I would come home and put in around 4 hours each evening. My record was just over 7 hours of study in one day (that was a day when I was also at work for 7.5 hours).

Friday evenings were dedicated to beer, Saturday was for the girlfriend, Sunday was for flying.

If you want my advice don’t try to emulate me. With hindsight it is clear to me that I put in significantly more work than necessary, filling a bookcase with notes and additional textbooks. It would appear that 8 months to a year is a more typical timescale, which is somewhat depressing when I look back at the effort that I put into it.

Good luck with it all. It is a big mountain when you look up from the foothills.
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Old 11th Oct 2003, 03:21
  #94 (permalink)  
 
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Hi guys
Thanks for your replies, they are very helpful!
I will probably start in early 2004 and god knows when I finish....
Exciting challenge ahead but undountedly hard work!!!
Cheers
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Old 11th Oct 2003, 05:27
  #95 (permalink)  
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Rote 8,

I believe that undertaking an ATPL course these days is considerably easier than it was a couple of years ago. The quality of feedback and the understanding of the syllabus now seems to be firmly grasped by the schools. Not sure your experiance compares with the relatively pointed and consise nature of the courses on offer now.

Well it was either that or the the beer and loose women


Fancy Nav,

Good luck!
 
Old 11th Oct 2003, 14:52
  #96 (permalink)  
 
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Yes, I've heard this too. Apparently in the early days of JAR, the exams suffered from poor translation into English and the wrong answers were deemed correct. Even now, they're not perfect and remarking of an entire set of papers happens from time to time. I remember during my brush-up weeks the instructors saying things along the lines of "The correct answer is A but the CAA wants B" At 52 quid a time, they must be making a fortune.

If these were GCSEs there would be a public outcry!
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Old 12th Oct 2003, 02:29
  #97 (permalink)  

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6 months go to whoa in 2001. A few of my classmates at ATA did the same thing. Checkboard did them in 6 weeks at Bristol Ground School. (He did a few months home study.)
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Old 14th Oct 2003, 21:30
  #98 (permalink)  
 
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Cool

8.5 months from start to finish, full-time groundschool at ATA in EGBE.

Cheers
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Old 17th Feb 2004, 21:18
  #99 (permalink)  
 
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ATPL studies...how long did it take u?

hiya...
just wondering really..
am doing the distance learning course with Bristol at the mo. just wondering how long it took people to do Module 1 and then module 2?
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Old 17th Feb 2004, 21:53
  #100 (permalink)  
 
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8 mths phase 1
4 mths phase 2 (2 hrs a day / 5 days a week).

Phase 2 was much quicker because I didn't summarise the notes as I studied as in Phase 1.

The reason for this was that after doing the first brushup course I realised that the FTO was much better at distilling the "important" information required for passing each exam.

Another tit bit, try to leave a 3 week gap between finishing the brushup and sitting the exams. 3 weeks was just about ideal to retain all that rubbish.

I can't believe how much time I wasted on IFR & VFR comms whilst studying. The total time to complete both exams was 13 minutes

Best of luck with the exams and your sanity.

FIS.
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