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Cats ATPL ground school review

Old 17th Aug 2018, 09:44
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Cats ATPL ground school review

Hello All

just wanted to leave a review of Cats school here for future contenders and why i chose CATS over BGS

Firstly -

Cats is cheaper
Cats was closer to me
The cost of the course was more spread out
The weekly training courses are 4 days with cats(5 at bristol) time off work becomes an issue for a lot of us

So firstly - i was a bit frustrated with cats when i started, so i thought it was only fair to give a full review after my exams

My frustrations at first were the material was not matching to the progress tests, but it soon becomes apparent that the books and material only gives you 50% of what you need, no mater where you go, and its not uncommon to need extra reference material where ever you study! its easy to blame the school at first when you are hoping its spoon fed to you, that was my issue, you soon learn ATPL's dont work like that

The material at Cats i would rate as , very good, - i had Cats books, BGS books, Oxford, and a professional pilot studies book, i always found the cats books more condensed, less bloated, lots of pretty pictures, lots of mini tests as you are going through, over all training material - great

Progress tests - any newbies you will have to do progress tests with any school just to prove you are on track and course... the cats one - ok i found these a bit under average - they are good that they cover off every learning objective, but the same questions repeat over and over and over and over again (example..... if speed increases then does X decrease, then...if speed decrease does X increase) - i found the progress tests a bit frustrating in all honesty, but none the less they helped me identify weak areas!

Brush up week - i found the instructors incredible there, in particular Dan - he has an incredible attitude to teaching, and is very very very good at making you realise things your self, he isn't a "read off the board" kinda guy - which makes the learning thing more fun! - its important to note tho, where ever you go the brush up weeks are "just revision" they are not there to teach you, maybe help you on areas you struggle with, but there isn't time to spend on certain aspects in detail,

Quesiton bank - there question bank doesn't have the power of force from a high volume of students giving feedback like Bristol, so i would advise to maybe just pay for the Bristol one, or avExam , you will find most people use them anyway and all references are made to the Bristol bank etc any way. from what i know they are working on it and it may change in the future, but for now.... don't rely on it!

overall - i would recommended cats , they are not big enough that you are just a number there,they are small enough to care, but big enough to be able to give you the tools you need.

Last edited by Fabio1605; 17th Aug 2018 at 10:27.
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Old 17th Aug 2018, 16:57
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Join Date: Jun 2017
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Thank you did that from home? Any idea about classroom?
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