Bristol GS ATPL Texts
 

I'm currently working through the ATPL distance theory with Bristol and am wondering if anyone else feels like the Bristol Texts are just plain lacking for information and explanation.

For instance I'm reading a section now that described the ITCZ and distribution of the Upper Level Winds and it merely states that the ITCZ causes the upper winds to be easterly without explaining why.

If you read OAA texts it goes through and explains that this is because of how the ITCZ shifts and how the air during the summer months (in the northern hemisphere) is warmer north of the equator meaning that the winds should be generally easterly (due to buys ballot law).

The Bristol Texts always seem to just glance over topics and leave you just trying to memorize facts rather than building an in depth understanding of the material.

What are your opinions?

In my experience I found Bristol's material to be very good and provide the right amount of depth to get through the ATPL theory course. No complaints from me.

For meteorology get the OAA CBT.

No complaints from me either. Probably regarded as the industry-leading G/S provider of material, along with CAPT. OAA provide more in-depth material by the sounds of it, but BGS/CAPT material more than sufficient for passing the exams (all 1st time passes and averaged over 90%) and having a good, all-round level of knowledge for your future profession.

I thought the Met subject , was well presented

The question of "what is the best ATPL training material" has come up several times here on PPRUNE. There is no simple answer to this question, because "One size" will not fit all students.

The fact is that different people have different attitudes to their studies and different intellectual capacities. Some people love learning and find the subjects fascinating. Such people will do better with the OAA material. Others find the whole thing dreadfully boring and simply want to pass the exams and move on to the flying. These students will do better with the BGS material and many will be overwhelmed by the level of detail in the OAA books

Virtually every student makes use of question banks prior to the exams. In many cases this activity consists of eagerly seeking out the latest feedback questions and memorizing the questions and answers. This frequently produces very high scores, so such scores cannot be used as an indication that the student concerned has developed a thorough knowledge of the subjects.

Before signing up for any course, prospective students really should look at the material provided by each school and assess which best fits their attitude and capabilities. Selecting a school on the basis of comments made by strangers is not a good way to proceed.

I agree the BGS notes are highly lacking in depth. But if you've ever read the OAA notes, they go into far too much detail.

I believe the BGS notes are brief because they rely on the student backing up knowledge using the question bank. If you remove the Question bank from the equation, I find it hard to believe how anybody could pass their exams using just the BGS notes. There needs to be a middle ground.

The BGS CBT is also just a verbalised version of the notes, word for word. It needs some work.
You'll notice on certain (most) pages, there are small boxes with key information you need to know. These are basically the areas the questions are on. It's a convienient way of compressing the notes to give you the basics, plus the answers to questions.

Not great, but young students that don't like learning stuff can't get enough of it.:ugh:

In another thread, I was told that an in depth knowledge of PPL theory would make ATPL alot easier to comprehend where the subjects cross over. Am I to presume this is the case, and using BGS would bring the most relevant ATPL theory to the fore. Or, if a thorough job was done at PPL, would the OAA syllabus make more sense.

Is it worth doing the ATPL theory at PPL level, and breeze the PPL questions, or would it be way too complicated to grasp for a beginner?

To be honest I would use whatever you can get. People take in and learn information in different ways so what is good for one person may not be the best for another.

All the manuals are available second hand quite cheaply. I used the BGS books which I thought were very good but then had the Phil Croucher book and bought a set of OAA manuals used too. One of the best resources now is YouTube and if you are struggling in a subject there will be videos explaining it on there. The OAA CBTs are on there with different narration and these are good.

Use whatever you can get to get a good understanding of all the subjects.