CATS vs BGS (ATPL)
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CATS vs BGS (ATPL)
Hi all!
PPL done, Hours / night done.... dreaded exams + books + melt my brain time so i was wondering whom of these two i should give my hard earned money to?
I hear good things about CATS and there price is very attractive. The 3 stage exam structure sounds a little nicer also. However since every flight deck i step into seems to say "go to Bristol" i was wondering if anyone on here had any experience with CATS ?
BGS sell themselves on reputation alone, would love a couple of opinions to put the nail in the coffin so to speak. I have the money , medical and im ready to go.
Advanced apologies if this one has been answered previously! Just looking for someone who might have recently been to either of these places. Its best to ask !
PPL done, Hours / night done.... dreaded exams + books + melt my brain time so i was wondering whom of these two i should give my hard earned money to?
I hear good things about CATS and there price is very attractive. The 3 stage exam structure sounds a little nicer also. However since every flight deck i step into seems to say "go to Bristol" i was wondering if anyone on here had any experience with CATS ?
BGS sell themselves on reputation alone, would love a couple of opinions to put the nail in the coffin so to speak. I have the money , medical and im ready to go.
Advanced apologies if this one has been answered previously! Just looking for someone who might have recently been to either of these places. Its best to ask !
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Just done Bristol and they are an awesome group of instructors who really know their stuff and will get you ready for your exams. Several RAF guys do Bristol, also lots of guys who already have ATPLs from other countries. Bristol also provides great support. Can't recommend them enough. I never did CATS. I went with Bristol because of reputation and I liked finishing in only two exam sittings since I was doing an ICAO conversion and wanted to finish as quickly as possible.
I know you're looking for CATS info, however to clear up any potential confusion, it is true BGS does a 2 module ATPL theory course with 8 and then 6 exams, but that doesn't mean you have to sit all 8 and then all 6 in 2 sittings.
I did module 1 (8 subjects) brush up, followed by 6 exams one month, 2 the month after. Module 2 I did 5 then 1 the month after.
Worked for me. Even if you chose CATS, once you've studied all the subjects, you'll probably end up using BSG question bank anyway.
I did module 1 (8 subjects) brush up, followed by 6 exams one month, 2 the month after. Module 2 I did 5 then 1 the month after.
Worked for me. Even if you chose CATS, once you've studied all the subjects, you'll probably end up using BSG question bank anyway.
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don't go for bristol if you can't tolerate sarcastic,sexistic and racist jokes,especially if you re a foreigner and coming from any other country outside the UK.this "sense of humour" s felt only during mod2 and probably 1 or 2 hrs in mod1.those who have studied at bristol can easily understand who's that person im refering to 
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I'm currently with CATS, passed 10 so far, all first time. I'd echo what's been said already, one of the advantages of CATS is their flexibility. You can do their modules in any order or even chop them up to suit you. E.g. I'm doing 4 exam sittings, leaving 2 exams until the end in order to maximise ATPL validity.
CATS online product is not as good as BGS, but to be fair you get what you pay for. Their QB is not as extensive as the BGS 'ATPL Online' one, and yes virtually all CATS students use the BGS QB. I think it's fair to say every student regardless of their GS provider use Bristol QB!
The CATS brushups can be a little variable and compared to a friend's experience at BGS they do not seem as intensive. CATS do get in a range of tutors for different topics which is a plus.
The bottom line is the clue is in the title when it comes to distance learning. You have to have the discipline to do the reading and learn the subjects. No provider is a magic carpet to success. I have seen a couple who clearly did no work prior to the brush up week and were clearly hoping for miracles (which of course didn't happen).
Good luck with way!
CATS online product is not as good as BGS, but to be fair you get what you pay for. Their QB is not as extensive as the BGS 'ATPL Online' one, and yes virtually all CATS students use the BGS QB. I think it's fair to say every student regardless of their GS provider use Bristol QB!
The CATS brushups can be a little variable and compared to a friend's experience at BGS they do not seem as intensive. CATS do get in a range of tutors for different topics which is a plus.
The bottom line is the clue is in the title when it comes to distance learning. You have to have the discipline to do the reading and learn the subjects. No provider is a magic carpet to success. I have seen a couple who clearly did no work prior to the brush up week and were clearly hoping for miracles (which of course didn't happen).
Good luck with way!
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I second explodes advice. It's all what you put into it. If you don't study you won't pass. I saw plenty of guys who didn't take it seriously enough and totally bombed several subjects. But hey, it's your time and money, you do what you want with it.
Also, I thought the BGS jokes were pretty funny, and I'm a foreigner myself. Airbuslover, est-ce que tu es français?
Also, I thought the BGS jokes were pretty funny, and I'm a foreigner myself. Airbuslover, est-ce que tu es français?
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I was extremely happy with Bristol groundschool and it was worth every penny. They know the APTL theory exams inside out and the fact that there are so many positive comments about them seems to speak volumes.
I have to say I didn't hear any sexist of racist comments whilst I was there ... only some British humour courtesy of Baz (the only thing offensive about it was how bad it was)!
I have to say I didn't hear any sexist of racist comments whilst I was there ... only some British humour courtesy of Baz (the only thing offensive about it was how bad it was)!
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bravobravoflyer, I thought Baz was so funny that I would keep a log of everything funny that he said and towards the end of class read them back for my classmates. Good times
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Thanks for all the replies on this!
Ill take it all into consideration. Im willing to do the work and i do have the time to do it so like a lot of you say... its up to me. Dont want to be failing when i know i can pass.
As for the sexist etc etc remarks. Its not the first time i have heard that. I had an Irish friend who went to BGS for a brush up course and apparently one of the instructors just constantly laid into a woman sat towards the back. Suggesting she should be at home as opposed to flying / doing something so techinical. Needless to say my friend and other people in the session we not overly impressed. I wouldnt let one guy's sexism discourage me (im male anyway but thats not the point) ill take another look i guess!
Im liking the CATS flexibility and the ATPL online QB site. I think i might actually end up with the best of both so to speak
Once again cheers for the advice !
Ill take it all into consideration. Im willing to do the work and i do have the time to do it so like a lot of you say... its up to me. Dont want to be failing when i know i can pass.
As for the sexist etc etc remarks. Its not the first time i have heard that. I had an Irish friend who went to BGS for a brush up course and apparently one of the instructors just constantly laid into a woman sat towards the back. Suggesting she should be at home as opposed to flying / doing something so techinical. Needless to say my friend and other people in the session we not overly impressed. I wouldnt let one guy's sexism discourage me (im male anyway but thats not the point) ill take another look i guess!
Im liking the CATS flexibility and the ATPL online QB site. I think i might actually end up with the best of both so to speak
Once again cheers for the advice !
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Sorry to drag this one back up but reading above it seems most people who go with cats use the BS question banks. How is this done practically?
I dont want to be in a position where I pay the £999 with cats only to find the requirement to fork out extra money to fill the gaps using another providers materials.
Also they now do an Iphone question bank but probably not an android one, does anyone know if I can simply log in to the question bank on a high end smart phone and utilise it that way?
I dont want to be in a position where I pay the £999 with cats only to find the requirement to fork out extra money to fill the gaps using another providers materials.
Also they now do an Iphone question bank but probably not an android one, does anyone know if I can simply log in to the question bank on a high end smart phone and utilise it that way?
Last edited by liam548; 8th Oct 2012 at 13:20.
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You simply sign-up to the questionbank for as long as you need it. I've just paid £50 for three months access.
Looking at my overal spend, going with CATS online, buying second hand BGS notes on Ebay and subscribing for questionbanks (ATPL online and AVIATIONEXAM.com) I'll have spent around £1500 by the end of the course (not including exam fees of course).
That still compares pretty favourably with BGS which I understand costs over £2000 - and also has a bit less flexibility than CATS in terms of subject order/brush-ups.
Looking at my overal spend, going with CATS online, buying second hand BGS notes on Ebay and subscribing for questionbanks (ATPL online and AVIATIONEXAM.com) I'll have spent around £1500 by the end of the course (not including exam fees of course).
That still compares pretty favourably with BGS which I understand costs over £2000 - and also has a bit less flexibility than CATS in terms of subject order/brush-ups.
Last edited by taxistaxing; 8th Oct 2012 at 13:15.
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You simply sign-up to the questionbank for as long as you need it. I've just paid £50 for three months access.
Looking at my overal spend, going with CATS online, buying second hand BGS notes on Ebay and subscribing for questionbanks (ATPL online and AVIATIONEXAM.com) I'll have spent around £1500 by the end of the course (not including exam fees of course).
That still compares pretty favourably with BGS which I understand costs over £2000 - and also has a bit less flexibility than CATS in terms of subject order/brush-ups.
Looking at my overal spend, going with CATS online, buying second hand BGS notes on Ebay and subscribing for questionbanks (ATPL online and AVIATIONEXAM.com) I'll have spent around £1500 by the end of the course (not including exam fees of course).
That still compares pretty favourably with BGS which I understand costs over £2000 - and also has a bit less flexibility than CATS in terms of subject order/brush-ups.
Thanks for the reply. So are the CATS question banks that useless? Why would you need to subscribe the likes on ATPL online as well as BS question banks?
The flexibility of CATS is attractive however it seems a bit thrown together if you have to start looking on ebay for second hand papers.
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I wouldn't say the CATS banks were useless, just a bit less user-friendly than ATPL on-line. For example there is no proper feedback. When you get an answer wrong it doesn't give you any proper explanation as to why.
For avoidance of doubt ATPL online confusingly enough is what most people refer to as "Bristol". It's actually a separate entity which has been affiliated with BGS in the past, although I gather BGS is developing its own internal questionbank so not sure that relationship will be continuing.
CATS themselves recommended aviationexam.com partly because it is the most user friendly of the questionbanks, and also because it best captures the new EASA questions appearing in the exams. That said in the exams I sat last month, I'd say 80% of the questions were JAA questions which I'd seen on ATPL online, but there were a few new questions which were on aviationexam, and not on ATPL online. This trend will probably continue as the roll-out of new questions continues.
At the end of the day the CATS notes reflect the price you pay for the course and this is why I sourced some BGS notes to use in addition. Ultimately it comes down to just putting the work in to get through the course. It was obvious at the brush-up sessions who had done the work, and who had not by some of the ridiculous questions that were asked!
For avoidance of doubt ATPL online confusingly enough is what most people refer to as "Bristol". It's actually a separate entity which has been affiliated with BGS in the past, although I gather BGS is developing its own internal questionbank so not sure that relationship will be continuing.
CATS themselves recommended aviationexam.com partly because it is the most user friendly of the questionbanks, and also because it best captures the new EASA questions appearing in the exams. That said in the exams I sat last month, I'd say 80% of the questions were JAA questions which I'd seen on ATPL online, but there were a few new questions which were on aviationexam, and not on ATPL online. This trend will probably continue as the roll-out of new questions continues.
At the end of the day the CATS notes reflect the price you pay for the course and this is why I sourced some BGS notes to use in addition. Ultimately it comes down to just putting the work in to get through the course. It was obvious at the brush-up sessions who had done the work, and who had not by some of the ridiculous questions that were asked!
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CATS support, at the end of the day this is an open forum, for people to exchange opinions freely. I have no axe to grind and generally have been happy with CATS, but I have benefited a great deal from reading other peoples' opinions on various issues, and am therefore entitled to express my own opinions in relation to CATS. Espescially where this might help someone who is deciding on a school to use. Obviously those opinions should be taken to be worth precisely what the reader is paying for them!
It was on the feedback form I submitted at the last brushup. Just my opinion obviously, but one that was largely echoed by other students I met. It's not that bad - just less user friendly than that provided by rivals. Doesn't matter as most people use more than one QB anyway.
I stand by this I'm afriad. A lot of the difficult questions have no explanations, and quite a lot of the explanations are poorly written and confusing. If you want to see examples of better explanations I would say look at ATPL online and aviationexam.com. I emphasise again this is just my view as a CATS student using various questionbanks alongside the CATS offering.
There is no reason to subscribe to another unless you are convinced to do so
I'm sure that's the official line but aviationexam was recommended by a member of CATS staff at a brushup. This was meant with good intentions to try and help the class and I'm certainly not going to name and shame the individual concerned.
Again this is a matter of opinion, but in my view the online guides could be improved by proper indexing so you can more easily find where a topic is located to read up more on the subject. In terms of the writing, the clarity of explanation on the whole was better (in my opinion) in the Bristol notes (although certain topics were better in the CATS books). As a general point I think having more than one set of notes helps with understanding as you can read two alternative explanations of tricky points.
Also on the online system, it would be useful if the questionbank could link back to the study guides so you can identify and quickly read up on weak areas.
As you rightly say CATS is very competitive on pricing, and I think people accept that when looking at the materials. The flexibility offered is also excellent.
Right, I'm off to bed!
It has not been reported to us how the Quick Question area is not user friendly!
It is wrong to state that there is no proper feedback.
We do not endorse ANY question bank other than our own which is used as an adjunct to training
There is no reason to subscribe to another unless you are convinced to do so
Our Study Guides ARE the most up to date and edited almost daily.
The changes are uploaded at convenient time points and Printed Study Guides are updated at ecah print run and since we print to order the changes come through quite rapidly within months
The changes are uploaded at convenient time points and Printed Study Guides are updated at ecah print run and since we print to order the changes come through quite rapidly within months
Also on the online system, it would be useful if the questionbank could link back to the study guides so you can identify and quickly read up on weak areas.
As you rightly say CATS is very competitive on pricing, and I think people accept that when looking at the materials. The flexibility offered is also excellent.
Right, I'm off to bed!
Last edited by taxistaxing; 8th Oct 2012 at 23:04.