Study Hours Per Week

moulds80

Well-Known Member
Once your in the academy how many hours have you been studying on average per week, and how many hours do the instructors reccomend studying? In college for instance they say the ideal situation is to dedicate 2 hours studying for every hour in class, obviously you can not do that when class is 40 hours a week but is studying about 10-15 hours a week sufficient?
 
Once your in the academy how many hours have you been studying on average per week, and how many hours do the instructors reccomend studying? In college for instance they say the ideal situation is to dedicate 2 hours studying for every hour in class, obviously you can not do that when class is 40 hours a week but is studying about 10-15 hours a week sufficient?

I believe hearing something like 1-2 hours per day, take saturdays off to keep sane. But if your having problems study a little more.
study groups really help a lot.
 
I studied maybe 30min before 2 or 3 tests, that’s it! I attended no study groups and paid little if no attention to class instruction during class sometimes. Of course I have some background. However, there was another guy with no experience and made less of an effort and passed with no problems. Neither of us are geniuses. It’s all spoon fed to you. Save the studying for your facility that’s were the real training begins.
 
Technically, since we are employees, they can't force us to do work outside of class. The instructors "highly recommend" that you should look over your stuff "if you happen to find some free time outside of class." When I first got here, I had to learn the en route map, so I was studying prob about half hour to one hour a day studying. I don't study every day, but if there is a test coming up or if I think I need to look something over, I might study an hour here and there. I usually take the weekends off to chill, relax, and go out and have fun :)
 
My husband had "background" (PPL) in aviation and still studies. He just finished basic. He was given a pre-test in the beginning of the course and then took the finishing test for Basic. On the pretest he got 67% (almost passed without even taking the course). On the final he got 94%.

Interesting thing to note: 3 people in my husbands class passed the pre-test. Those 3 were all professional pilots that had flown for airlines. Those 3 were also the ones that got the highest scores finishing Basic. NONE of the CTI grads in the class (I think my husband said there were 8) passed the pre-test. Yet all of them would NOT have had to take basic if they had been hired CTI vs. OTS!! You DO learn stuff in basic!

Now what this has to do with studying?!? Well, the ones that did study in Basic were the ones that got the higher scores on the Final in basic. Everyone in the class passed. Highest was 99% (got 1 question out of a hundred wrong), the lowest was in the 70's.

Although you can pass without a ton or no studying, you do learn. The guy that got the 99% was talking with me the other day and I asked if he regretted having had to take basic where he would have passed out of it the first day (first score was in 70's). He said no. He learned a lot in that 5 weeks.

Right now my husband is just starting Enroute training. He is on the map training part and is studying for about an hour each night (goes over what was taught in class and then also works on the map).

Common logic says, "If you DO choose to study and work in OKC it WILL benefit you when you get to your center/tower". While they do and will teach you there, you will have a stronger base and knowledge of it all to help you understand what they are teaching (cause you won't be spoon fed). If you treat this like it is your career and study a lot to learn the information given you (rather than just allow the spoon feeding) you have a higher chance, in my opinion, to actually have this end up as your career (not washing out).
 
I cannot speak toward the En-route training here, but I can say that in Basics, me as a recent almost CTI grad (I had 1 semester to go) I would have pasted the test with a 78 when I first got to OKC, when I graduated Basics, I had a 97. In the terminal basics (academics), STUDY, STUDY, STUDY, the map is easy, remember the Airways, and know your separation rules, and pay very close attention to the performance of aircraft. When you get into the table tops and simulators, PRACTICE! It will pay off so much, get into groups and do mock table top runs.

BTW, I just passed my Local PV, I just need to pass my Ground PV:D
 
CONGRATS on the passing PV. Good luck tomorrow on ground!

BTW I do NOT want any CTI to feel like I am trying to put you down - I am not saying that CTI doesn't teach, cause it does. I just thought it was interesting that not one of the CTI grads could have passed basic in the beginning, I am sure that isn't all CTI grads. I do think Basic has more to offer than I originally thought. Even Sunburn got a lot better score after the 5 week course. I have heard a lot about Basic being pointless and my husband had thought that a little too until he did the final test and saw the differences in knowledge. You can learn in OKC things that will help you at your location if you so choose and put in the time to really learn the stuff....not just breeze through it.
 
im in basics now, and have no previous Aviation backround...(not cti, or pilot). basics is EASY! ive gotten a 100 on nearly every "End of Lesson Test" (graded only for personal evaluation), and so far ive gotten 1 question wrong on my Block Tests (graded). again, SOOO easy. i know that once i get to Phase 2 of the En Route Training it gets a lot more intense, but basics is a breeze
 
im in basics now, and have no previous Aviation backround...(not cti, or pilot). basics is EASY! ive gotten a 100 on nearly every "End of Lesson Test" (graded only for personal evaluation), and so far ive gotten 1 question wrong on my Block Tests (graded). again, SOOO easy. i know that once i get to Phase 2 of the En Route Training it gets a lot more intense, but basics is a breeze

Never said basics wasn't basic, but if you don't actually study and remember the knowledge, when you that the comprehensive in 5 weeks you will have so much knowledge you won't know were to put it.
 
other than knowing the order (which s pretty much memorized any way as everyone should know it) what else is there to study? and why is everyone so worried about studying all the time?
this question is for tower students.
 
other than knowing the order (which s pretty much memorized any way as everyone should know it) what else is there to study? and why is everyone so worried about studying all the time?
this question is for tower students.
I guess you'll figure that out if/when you get here.
 
other than knowing the order (which s pretty much memorized any way as everyone should know it) what else is there to study? and why is everyone so worried about studying all the time?
this question is for tower students.


If you were in Med school would you study before you got your residency? Of course. You have to know your information so that you can achieve your residency. This is your schooling before your "residency". Your "residency" is where you will make or break it but the knowledge you gain before is what helps you with passing or failing (and possibly lossing lives when failing). Obviously it is different careers and such but it is the same basic concept.
 
BTW I do NOT want any CTI to feel like I am trying to put you down - I am not saying that CTI doesn't teach, cause it does. I just thought it was interesting that not one of the CTI grads could have passed basic in the beginning, I am sure that isn't all CTI grads.



I think it has to do with the fact CTI grads had basics in their 1st semester. The 2nd is more ATC specific (but still basic) and 3rd and 4th semester have intensive labs, which are pass/fail. By the time they get to OKC it may have been 2 years or more before they even looked at a Private Pilot handbook.

Although, I'm not exactly sure what "basics" mean to the academy.
 
It sounds to me like I should bring plenty of frisbees for Disc Golf (AKA: Frolf - Frisbee Golf). I have extras!

disc_golf_385x261.jpg

Chinnngggg!
 
What is covered in basics (actual block titles):

  1. ATC System & NAS
  2. Teamwork in the ATC environment
  3. Airports
  4. Separation
  5. NOTAMs
  6. Fundamentals of RADAR
  7. FAA Orders & Manuals
  8. LOAs & SOPs
  9. Airspace
  10. FARs
  11. FAR part 91
  12. Principles of Flight
  13. Wake Turbulence
  14. Aircraft Characteristics & Recognition
  15. ? not on the CD
  16. Basic navigation
  17. Radio & Satellite navigation
  18. VFR Charts & Publications
  19. En Route IFR Charts
  20. SIDs & STARs
  21. Approaches
  22. Pilot's Environment
  23. Emergencies
  24. Search & Rescue
  25. Fundamentals of Weather & Aviation Weather Services
  26. Hazardous Weather
  27. Current Weather
  28. PIREPs
  29. Forecasts & Advisories
  30. Basic Communications
  31. Stripmarking
  32. ATC Clearances
And you get to learn all of that in exactly 23 days! (not 25 because day 1 is all FAA indoc & day 25 is the final test) Or 21.5 days if you get a snow day like we did.
 
It sounds to me like I should bring plenty of frisbees for Disc Golf (AKA: Frolf - Frisbee Golf). I have extras!

disc_golf_385x261.jpg

Chinnngggg!


The park across the street from our apartment has the Frisbee Golf Course. On Saturdays and Sundays we can see out our windows the long lines form while people wait for the group in front of them to finish. It took us being here about 2 weeks before we knew what it was they were doing. Never seen it before we moved here.
 
Thanks Nathanw.

Thats about what I expected. Seems a larger portion of what we did in 2nd semester is basics as well. Still, it would be a year after finishing CTI basics when you graduated the program. Anything not specifically used in the labs or the final year is tossed out the window for most. Then you still have to wait to be picked up and given a class date.
 
Right now my husband is just starting Enroute training. He is on the map training part and is studying for about an hour each night (goes over what was taught in class and then also works on the map).

Sounds silly, but if your husband just got his map today... if he knows that thing pretty well by Monday, he will be in really good shape and be able to actually focus on what the instructors are teaching. (instead of wondering WHERE they are talking about). I guarantee they will talk about spots on the map and other things starting Monday that will confuse him if he doesn't know his map. If he waits a week to learn it, he will not take as much from the lessons this upcoming week and have a disadvantage through non-radar lab. Help him out, quiz him, make him learn the damn thing this weekend... Billy Madison style of course :p
 
Help him out, quiz him, make him learn the damn thing this weekend... Billy Madison style of course :p

:laff::yup::laff: That would lead to him NOT learning...not sure Billy Madison style is fit for any knowledge you actually HAVE to know!

He actually does have it down quite well. I am surprised. I stared at that thing for about an hour the other day trying to figure out what I could memorize. Went back a while later to see what I recalled...it went like this: "I think I remember ZFW being on here at the bottom next to the triangle thing, no wait was that ZFW of something else. Hmmm...well I am fairly sure this was 246, or was that 146."

In the end I think I remembered like 2 things. It was crazy. He has this method for learning it in sections and actually has 90% memorized good right now...I have no clue how he does it!
 
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