Look And Learn

I was the only person in my intake when I started my training and ground school wasn’t due for several months. In an effort to get my CPL as fast as possible, I self-studied and sat my first exam on week two of the course. I had a lot of one-on-one time with the instructors and together we came up with the following basic method which has been shown to work with subsequent students.

Every person has a different learning style and will naturally vary in technique, but here are a few principles that can be carried across all styles, making learning theory faster and less laboured.

Order of subjects

If you’re training privately, or have control over the order of the subjects you can sit, I suggest doing exams in the following order as each will build on the next, making things as easy as possible.

1. Study PPL, but don’t sit the exam first.

2. Aircraft General Knowledge: This is by far the easiest for most people and is a good place to develop study habits.

3. Human Factors is a very light read and you’ll be through it in a day or two. The key thing for the exams is to remember the specific terminology for each concept.

4. Aerodynamics: Starting to get a bit more complex, students should be well in the swing of sitting exams and should be at the conclusion of their general handling training, where aerodynamic concepts are still front of mind and in practical use.

5. Navigation: This is one of the easier subjects, though it’s also likely to align with the beginning of your first navigation flights if sat in this order. Using the knowledge practically and alongside briefings with your instructor leads to better knowledge retention.

6. Re-read PPL and sit the exam. Many CPL students in an integrated course, may be skipping PPL to go straight to CPL and this stage can be missed.

7. Meteorology: It is a complex subject for many students and the CPL books build on the knowledge learned in PPL study. This is good practice before sitting the Air Law exam which requires 80 per cent to pass, compared with 70 per cent for the other subjects.

8. Air Law is a different kettle of fish as you can take the regulations in with you. My advice specific to the Air Law exam is not to spend time memorising much as you will want to double check the answers against the regulations during the exam. The most important part is to become familiar with where subjects will be in the appropriate regulations for fast referencing. I strongly suggest using the extracts rather than taking in the whole CASR, CAR etc.

9. Op, Performance and Flight Planning should be the last exam. This is the one students struggle with most, and it uses a lot of concepts introduced in aerodynamics, navigation and air law.

Pre-reading

I like to get the best value possible out of ground school and not repeat it.

Ground school is best for clarifying and expanding on existing knowledge and identifying gaps. Many instructors will tell students to read the book prior, though this advice often goes unnoticed and is very underrated. Ground school should be one of the very last components in learning a topic.

Each school will have a different choice of books such as Bob Tait, ATC or other. If you are given a choice, I would suggest using Bob Tait as they start off at a little more than entry level when introducing subjects. If, after following the appropriate steps as listed in the remainder of this guide, you find yourself struggling with the practice exams or failing an exam, the books by ATC cover subjects in greater detail and are a good next step. With the cost of books comparable to sitting an extra exam and given the limit on the number of times an exam can be taken, it’s worthwhile buying the extra book early on and saving yourself the time, cost and frustration.

Chapter by chapter

All the popular books have a basic written test at the end of each chapter.

Read through the chapter without taking notes and then use a blank sheet of paper for the test that comes at the end as it’s likely you’ll want to sell those books at the end of your training.

Without a doubt, the most important and underrated piece of advice I can offer is to simply skip notes in the first reading and sit the test. Mark your answers and you’ll instantly know which bits of knowledge didn’t stick. You can then re-read that paragraph or section, and then write out a sentence that corrects your previous misunderstanding of the topic. You don’t even need to keep the notes. Just the act of writing them down prioritises that piece of information. The fewer notes you take while reading the book, the better. This is by far the fastest and most effective way of learning the concepts.

Follow this method for each chapter, one at a time, until you finish the book. Then simply follow the exact same process with the practice tests at the end of the book, reviewing your answers and making the revisory notes, before moving on to the next test. Hold off on the online tests until after ground school.

Any subject can be learned in under two days using this method, allowing plenty of free time if there’s any subject that takes extra time. Maths and physics are naturally my best subjects, but for some reason I struggled with Performance compared with the other subjects, and it was good to be ahead of schedule with all my other theory.

Ground school

Having followed the above steps, you should now be in a position where you could already pass the exam. Ground school now becomes a formality for sitting the integrated/diploma course (if this applies to you) and a chance to clarify existing knowledge.

By far the most redundant form of teaching is to tell students when to take notes and what to write. Assuming that everyone listens, sees and learns the same way is ignorant at best and damaging at worst. Taking notes is a chance to clarify and prioritise selective pieces of information. The less you take, the more the notes that you do write down will be remembered. Aim for no more than a page per day (on average, as some days you may need more). I aim for one page for an entire subject.

Notes should also be handwritten and not typed as this engages different neural pathways. Remember the purpose is the writing of notes, not particularly reviewing them later.

Those with organised pencil cases and highlighters in every colour may scoff at all this, but I urge you to try it for at least one subject. Certain concepts and pieces of information will stick very easily. This method identifies and then prioritises the concepts that didn’t come naturally. There’s no need to take notes on the areas that you already know.

Online practice tests

Now’s the time for sitting the online tests that come with the textbook purchase and using the same answer/review method that we’ve been doing with the books.

Sitting the real exam

If you find yourself failing an exam, go through your Knowledge Deficiency Report and compare it to the Manual of Standards to reference the areas you need to work on. This is also a good chance to buy the ATC book if you’ve been using Bob Tait’s.

It’s also important not to be discouraged if you fail an exam, as it could just mean you rushed yourself in anticipation to get all the exams done. It is not necessarily a reflection on you as a student.
Good luck.