Studying – new tactic

I tried to sit down with “From the Ground Up” over the weekend again. A slight improvement in that this time the book didn’t become airborne, but still not great. I have no idea what’s wrong with me. I just look at certain sections, namely Nav and Met and go “meh! Don’t know, Don't care!”.

I keep making excuses about the Nav, saying “you can’t really read about this , you need to do it as a practical exercise.” Of course this is only partially true, some of the theory you can read about, how much use it is I don’t know. Still I’ve now read about rhumb lines* and transverse Mercator projections** and am still none the wiser as to how to plot a course from here to Niagara without busting Pearson’s airspace.

Met, I have no excuse for. Its bloody important, especially as I’m sitting here listening to predictions of how Hurricane  Sandy is going to wipe us all out.  I may start on the Air Command Weather Manual again, although I’m not sure if it covers how to interpret the maps, diagrams and stuff that looks like hieroglyphics to me.

Now coming up with a study plan ought to be easy for me, but timing is everything. Part of the problem is the nebulous nature of when I need to take this exam. I need to pass it at some point. Time wise that doesn’t give you much of a motivation factor. However I need to be careful, once I pass the exam I only have 24 months to get the flying done and skills test passed. There’s no way I want to be doing this exam twice and everything with flying seems to take twice as long as you expect especially if you hit crappy weather. So I’ve got to time this right.

Anyways my new tactic is to focus on my weak areas by trying sample exam questions. I’ve downloaded one paper from Transport Canada website and just skimmed though it to see how I’d do. Now it’s a pdf and on my computer so I’ve glossed over some of the questions that need you to flick back to the appendices. The idea is to figure out which sections I need to brush up on and then make some notes on them rather than just reading the sections.***

So how did I do? Surprisingly pretty well, nowhere near 100% but good enough to manage a pass in the following sections , air law and aeronautics general knowledge. So what does that leave me with? Nav and Met!!! <bashes head against wall>

Seriously if anyone has any suggestions I’m all ears.

 

*Microsoft denies that this is a word.

** I can’t read anything to do with maps and projections without seeing this clip from “The West Wing” . It took all my self-restraint in Nav class to refrain from asking “so where the hell is France?” when confronted with the various projection types. I suspect that not many people get my Imperialistic Eurocentric humour!

*** The more observant amongst you will notice that I’m not making notes but am in fact blogging L