Brian is 18 years old and started his flight training at Wayman Aviation. He is currently finishing off his Private Pilot license and is enjoying his time here at the school. He is one of the few’who got a 100% on his PPL written exam. This author got an 88% for my PPL and really studied a lot for it. So how did Brian succeed in getting a 100%? Does he have tips & tricks? Or is he the son of an aviation god and he was born like this? I took the time to interview him to find out for you.
Where are you from Brian, and tell us a bit about yourself.
“I lived in the Cayman Islands (Okay, so it’s already clear that he is not the son of an aviation God and he is a mere mortal like the rest of us) and our education system is a bit different. I graduated from high school at 16 years old. And then got an associate degree. But I always wanted to be a pilot.”
What’s your goal to fly, eventually?
A 737Max, 787 or a 777.
So you got a 100% on your written. How did you do that?
I don’t know (laughs)!
But seriously though, how did you do this?
Well, flight simulators help a lot! I already had some basic knowledge about procedures and the theory about flying through flight sims. During the groundschool here at Wayman I read the whole Jeppesen book and really prepared for each ground school lesson. Next to that I highly recommend using the GLEIM book. I barely used the prepware.
How many hours of studying did you get in?
With the groundschool we get here at Wayman, which is 40 hours and home studying 20 hours a total of about 60 hours.
Any tips for students that are about to take the written test?
Read ALL the material first then practice the questions with prepware. I also highly recommend the Gleim Private Pilot book for practicing questions.
Anything else you want to add?
I don’t try to remember the material, but I try to think about it logically so that it makes sense. Also, on youtube there’s a video of the whole Jeppesen book. If I wanted to see things visually I used that.
There are 4 primary ways of learning: Reading, Visual, Auditory (listening), and Kinesthetic (practical/doing). Most students have 1 or 2 preferred ways of learning. Many pilots are primarily visual learners. Brian managed to hit all four ways very thoroughly. He read the ENTIRE Jeppesen textbook, which is very well written and illustrated. Then he visually watched the videos on Youtube. Third, he attended a classroom ground school and listened to the instructor. Lastly he used the simulator and started flying, tying the theory in with the practical kinesthetic learning. In this way Brian’s brain absorbed the information in the best possible way.
There you have it my readers, if you want to get a high-score on your written hit all four learning methods; use the flightsim & get some knowledge on procedures, read the Jeppesen book and use the GLEIM book to prepare, watch the videos and if you can attend a classroom ground school.
