The long awaited day to start at Leading Edge Aviation. The first day of ground school was exciting, it was the first time I met my class mates and we got a tour of the academy. When we got to our classroom we were met with a pilot flying bag, the Jeppesen binder, a CRP-5, calculator, name badges, the clip-on tie, epaulettes and an Ipad (provided by the school, but ours to keep). Looking back on it now this was probably one of the most exciting days for the whole 6 months of ground school. We had an induction for the first couple of days with different members of the management team and going through documentation. 

The proper first day of learning was the start of relentless work and constant feelings of not being good enough or not being clever enough. The first day of teaching was very overwhelming and fast paced. I had to figure out really quickly the best revision methods and the best note taking that was effective and quick, because I really didn't have the luxury of taking my time over my notes making them look nice or even really comprehending what I was writing down in the moment. It was a big change from the school environment I was used to and the first couple of weeks were a massive learning experience for me. I was sitting around some really intelligent people and I found it really hard to figure out how I was in the same room as them. I did not feel half as intelligent and I was wondering how I ended up here! 

The days during Module 1 started at 6am with the lessons starting at 7am and finishing around 3pm. The days were long and once I had got back to my accommodation the work just continued. If I hadn't come back and started working I would have been so far behind. I remember someone telling me that during ground school its a constant battle to try and keep your head above water and keep on top of the work load. During the first few days I really saw how this was the case. Especially on a 6 month intense ATPL programme. It took me a while to figure out my revision technique as this was unlike anything I had done before and very different to A levels (at least for me - everyone's experience is different and individual). Even taking notes in the lessons became difficult because the pace was too quick to really take good notes so I ended up with a lot of bullet point information and then I would go back at the end of a day and consolidate this into proper understanding. 

A way to think about ground school lessons is they are an introduction to the topics and content, most of the work and understanding is done by you, in your own time. Once I had come to this understanding it changed my perspective of the lessons and my whole attitude. 

I am typically a slow learner and it takes me multiple times of going over something to understand it and for it to really go in. This made it even harder in ground school because I found that there weren't enough hours in the day for me to understand the content. Luckily after weeks of struggling I had discovered this amazing website ATPLq and oh my god was it a life saver. Its full of practise exam questions and this helped me focus my revision on questions I could potentially get in my exams. The other thing that was difficult was not knowing what to expect in the exams, because we were in Mod 1 we hadn't sat any exams yet and so not knowing where to focus the revision was tricky. 

Overall my first few weeks were challenging and tough. I felt very out of place and its tiring learning to find your feet in a new environment. Ultimately if you are reading this before starting ground school or you are just interested in the process, it will be a big learning curve but trust me when I tell you, I really didn't think I could do. I wanted to give up so many times but your friends, family and class mates will be the reason you keep going. I'm still not sure how I got through it honestly but you can absolutely do it! 🙂