bristol ground school?
 

Searching for a distance learning school for atpls. Bristol appear to offer a comprehensive package. Any opinions or advice? Could i rely on computer based learning totally, or are the books still going to need devoured? If aimed for first 8 exams after 6 months how much study can i expect to need per week? Vague last question i know!

After researching for a good length of time, I decided to go for Bristol, (a) because I was planning on doing Distance Learning and (b) because their material seemed to be well presented, being recommended by other pilots and students obtaining high passes!

It's not easy doing the study along side a job, I need to push myself a bit maybe. The whole course comes on CD and also in many books. I tend to read the books first, then use both after I re-read through bits.
You do tests on the PC and the results are then submitted to the college.

Are you looking at doing full time study on a distance learning course?

Having just done BGS it really is an excellent place to go. Even the surroundings (i.e village etc)are superb. The OLQB is second to none and the instruction is fantastic. Yes you may pay more than other schools but bear in mind that other schols students use our questionbank. Would I go to BGS again YES, if only to listen to Toms stories which incidentally are worth a novel. Top and bottom get yourself there

cirrus clouds.
distance learning. all arrows point to bristol for me on this. there web site even makes it all look exciting to do!

currymonster.
trawled threads on pprune and struggle to find many bad words for bristol. atpls are one and only target right now so....

Same as above really.

Never heard a bad word about Bristol.GS, they always seem to get mentioned as the place to go.

BGS are fantastic. Good material to learn from, instructors are all great guys who really know the subjects inside out.

thanks for comments. opinion seems unanimous!

will be distance learning for me. would give myself a realistic target of next spring to be hopefully through the exams. i work a lot of hours and need to continue to do so.

OHH the legendary Tom his stories worth a best seller novel.....Bristol excelent instructio.

After a lot of deliberation I went to Bristol Ground School and found them to be superb. The course material, CD rom, question bank, and quality of instruction is second to none. I work full time, married, new baby etc but just received my mod 2 results yesterday and averaged 95%(!)
If you put in the work - they will get you through it - especially bringing everything together with the intense two week 'brush-up' course in Cheddar just before the exams. There's also a high level of support from other students through BGS's own forum.
That's my opinion mate - I wouldn't hesitate - good luck with whatever you decide.

I compared all the groundschool courses that are about from the many colleges. A few of the colleges use quite basic material and the presenation wasn't great. If your doing a full time residential course, then possibly it doesn't matter.
I personally was after colour rather than black and white, txt easy to read, rather than the style of reading a newspaper.
Atlantic Flight Training did have some good material, I believe with Jeppesen, but their course CD and books were rather new, so I decided to go somewhere that seems to have proved itself with other pilots (not saying anything is wrong with their material, just felt Bristol's had gained a reputation).
My final decision came down to either OAT or Bristol material.

Good luck with your decision making, I'm sure you'll make the right one for suits you best. :ok:

Cirrus.

It has to be bristol for me now. have spoke to them on phone and they came across instantly as informative and interested. i know ultimately they are running a business and its there job to be but first impressions do count. thanks again everybody for taking the time to comment

@ Continental Drifter.

Happy to see you've passed Module 2 with such a great rate!!! :D:D
How many months did each module take and how many hours did you study each day?

Thx for the info!! ;)

continental drifter.
congratulations from me too on your success. sorry for my ignorance!

PS & McB, thanks very much.
I took quite a while to finish essentially due to my other commitments.
I started in Mod' 1 in Jan '06, finished Dec '06, started Mod 2 in Jan '07 and just finished, but of course it can be done much quicker. The amount of hours spent studying each day varied a lot with me.
It really depends on what works for you - I actually didn't take all my Mod 1 & Mod 2 exams together - you have 6 sittings allowed, so I preferred to concentrate on getting first time passes and decent marks by spreading the exams out a bit more. Other lads I met had stopped working so time was a major factor in getting them done as quick as possible - despite having to resit a few.
What is certain though - if you are committed and put the hours in - you will pass. Again, I do really recommend BGS ( and that is not to detract from other schools) it's just that I found the whole experience with them professional and even (almost) enjoyable.
Good luck again lads and start as soon as possible.

Tanx CD, wish you all the best with the training! :ok:

Thanks CD.
In my circumstances i realise im being too ambitious hoping for next spring. As you say best to take time and effort and go in confident. Good too to here exams dont have to be sat in a block of say 8 and 6 as course modules suggest. The thought of being up to speed on 8 subjects at the same time is daunting! Good luck on your next phase!

ANY! I stand corrected PM. There is no excuse for bad English.

Excellent place. As far as the question bank goes its the closest your going to get giving the CAA a taste of thier own medicine. ie making up for the extortionate charges, and them producing complete crap and nonsesne questions that dont actaully make sense! It reveals evry trick in the book they have!
At some points I was chuckling to myself in the exams. ( Having seen most of the questions before!)
There is no excuse really not to pass them all first pop.