Weekend IFR ground school with Aviation Seminars

Good write up. Although I've always studied for my written tests the old
fashion way, I've always been curious of how the weekend "cram" sessions
work out for folks. By the way, was that 8:00 PM that you took the test, or
the 8:00am the next morning? Either way, it sounds like some really long
days.

Brad Z

"Jeff B" wrote in message
om...
Hey all, I looked here for leads / reviews of weekend ground school,
but didn't find much. Decided to try the Aviation Seminars weekend
IFR ground school. It was $300 and I scheduled it about a week ahead
of time. My summary:
1) Read what they send you before class, it makes it much easier.
Each subject has a summary that is pretty concise. They highlight the
answers. They claim covering the entire book should take 2 hours.
Give yourself 3-4 hours, but it goes pretty quick if you are just
reading to get familar.
2) My instructor was great. He defined "crusty old instructor with a
million and a half hours". Between subjects, we got plenty of good
stories. Also did a great job explaining the material and balancing
the needs of the various levels in the class (only 4 of us).
3) The Aviation Seminars presentation material is really weak -
borders on pathetic. Most, if not all, graphics were unreadable and
it looked like my 4th grade son scanned in the pictures. Content was
there and the manuals had decent charts/figures (but not great). This
weakness was more than addressed between the manual and the
instructor, but seems they could put together something a bit more
professional.
4) You really can do this in a REALLY LONG weekend. I did very little
prep work (read maybe a dozen pages of the 150 pg manual). I hadn't
had any formal ground school. Class was 8:00 to 6:30 on Saturday and
7:30 to 6:45 on Sunday. Drove an hour to the airport for the test,
started at 8:00 and finished by 9:45 with an 85.
5) Depending on who you are and what you want, this may fall anywhere
from not acceptable to perfect. It is very intense, somewhat
stressful, but actually was surprisingly enjoyable to me. My goal was
to pass the test, so I had no problems with learning to the test.
That is what you do, but you also learn a good bit of the basics.
This will never be a comprehensive course, but that wasn't my goal. I
wanted to finish the written to get it out of the way. I am very
conservative and will focus on learning the basics and the details
with my instructor. If you want all of your questions answered, want
to know the intimate details behind each question and want to delve
deep, this isn't for you.

Final note and thanks to Aviation Seminars. Our Laser Test facility
decided Sunday afternoon that they didn't want to stay open late and
accomodate us (even though I had a deposit down and the reservation
made). We called them several times and they wouldn't budge ... "we
close at 6:00", "we don't give tests after 6:00", etc. I ended up
calling Aviation Seminars on accident and they put me through to
someone's cell from Aviation Seminar at 4:00 in the afternoon Sunday.
He made several calls for us and managed to get the test set back up.

Jeff B

Most, if not all, graphics were unreadable and
it looked like my 4th grade son scanned in the pictures.

Not unlike the graphics on the test itself.