This will be a more personal post that reflects the things I wish I knew before starting. You may not agree with some or any of the points I make and thats ok, everyone's story is different and everyone has their own perspective looking back.
Ok so now I have addressed this; onto the things I wish someone would have told me before embarking on this chapter of life. My first thing is that comparison will be the death of you. Truly this is something that I still have a hard time with now, but during ground school I think this would have been the reason I would have given up and left. I always felt like the person who knew nothing, after a lesson we would all go into the communal space to grab a drink and people would be talking about what was just covered and I wanted to be anywhere else but that room. I could never add anything to those conversations because everyone seemed like they knew so much more than me. I eventually took myself out of these situations and stopped engaging with it because it made me feel really crappy. Looking back now my best advice for you would be to trust in yourself that you know what is going on. Just because everyone else is testing eachother or discussing certain things it doesn't mean you need to get involved, but it also doesn't mean you don't know anything. I often felt like I didn't belong in those spaces and it was something I had to tell myself that we all went through the same interview process and that I belong in this space just as much as everyone else.
On this point my next piece of advice for you would be to make a solid couple of friends. During my groundschool experience I had about 5 different friends from my class. It turns out for one reason or another this became a toxic environment, which I am no longer involved in. However I would say now, having just a couple of really good friends is so much better than being part of a gossipy big group. During a setting like ground school this is hard because you will see the same people everyday and you are in close quarters with the same people, so you may feel its easier to just go along with what everyone else is doing. I'm not going to say to isolate yourself and not join in but just be aware, that sometimes those groups of people don't have the best intentions and they get through by rumours and gossip. Personally for me if they are talking about others they will be speaking about me in the same way.
I know I can't be the only one who feels like I knew nothing leaving the classroom after a full day of learning. So often I would go back to my accomodation and feel like WTH did I learn today. Again, trust yourself that you did absorb some things. That is a good starting point and you do know bits and pieces. I felt really overwhelmed with feeling like I knew nothing. I'll be the first to tell you that I'm sitting in Spain with all 13 exams passed so I clearly knew something! I felt like I stressed myself out because I was so fixated on 'not knowing anything', honestly that took so much of my brain power for no reason. If you are sitting in this feeling I would say to not worry about this too much (I know this is easier said than done). I would answer practise questions which helped me actually see that I have learnt something and I'm not completely useless x
One thing I wish I had done a bit more of was take a few hours away from revising everyday. I very rarely took time out and its because I am slower to pick up new concepts so I would be going over things a lot more and in more detail to understand it. However I feel like in the long run I burnt myself out. I will say that a major reason for not taking time away was because I felt really guilty for not revising. I knew I had so much work to do that if I wasn't sitting at my desk studying I was wasting time. I feel a lot of people can share in this feeling and it was why I rarely did anything after a day of ground school lessons. Hindsight is a great thing and I think I should have definietly taken a friday night off to chill and relax a bit. I ended up really hating my time in groundschool and I think this is a big reason why.
The last thing I wish someone told me is to just think of the next day. Not the big picture. I understand this will be different for everyone and some people need to see the end goal to feel like what they are doing is worth something. However I honestly didn't think I would make it to Spain because I struggled with ground school and I felt like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop and for something to happen meaning I failed something, and wasn't going to Spain. For this reason I never thought about 'life in Spain' or the flying phase; 1. this stage feels so far away in the midst of ground school and 2. I coudn't see any further ahead than tomorrow or the next day. Anytime someone spoke about Spain I would not pay any attention because it just didn't apply to me, and I didn't want to think about that stage when I was so far from it. I remember when I passed all my exams and I was actually getting my visa for Spain, it fully looked like someone had just sprung this idea of Spain onto me. I couldn't believe it was actually happening until I was on the flight out, because I kept thinking something would happen or they would realise I hadn't passed all my exams. Some delusional thought like that. Jumpscare to me. I made it to Spain, haha.