No, no, I am not at ALL saying you shouldn't study. I'm the one who has to do all the extra paperwork when one of you dumbasses fails to excel, after all.
I'm saying that there's no point in spending all your time in the books in the weeks/months you're in A-Pool. There's a lot of stuff in there you need to know for the exams, and somewhat less stuff you'll need to know for the duration of your flying career, and quite a bit of stuff you don't need to learn for the test and will never, ever see again. Since you as a pre-API stud/stash don't know what information is what, you're going to waste a lot of your time learning useless info. And I do mean useless.
If you're one of those guys who thinks it's "unprofessional" not to know every single little nugget of info, you're also going to be that guy everyone hates getting for a Stan Check. You'll probably also be an E-2 FO. *sigh*
I always tell my classes - in the great marathon that is flight school, one of the purposes of API is to find your pace. Neither slacking off and trying to catch up at the last minute nor melting your eyeballs by being a type-A motard bookworm. You might squeak through API with the former, but I guarantee you it'll catch up to you in the VTs, and you'll be the, "But Sir! I'm not up for that event yet!" guy. The latter is also no recipe for success. I've remediated plenty of guys who were twitchy from lack of sleep and too much Red Bull. "SirIguessIstudiedaboutfifteenhoursadayeverydaysinceDayZeroandmaybegetthreehoursofsleepanightbutitsokayIdidthisincollegeandgota3.8Idon'tunderstandhowIfailedWeatherIdidfineonAero."
Balance in all things, even strain, don't sweat the small stuff, and sweat the big stuff, but not before it's time.
I'm saying that there's no point in spending all your time in the books in the weeks/months you're in A-Pool. There's a lot of stuff in there you need to know for the exams, and somewhat less stuff you'll need to know for the duration of your flying career, and quite a bit of stuff you don't need to learn for the test and will never, ever see again. Since you as a pre-API stud/stash don't know what information is what, you're going to waste a lot of your time learning useless info. And I do mean useless.
If you're one of those guys who thinks it's "unprofessional" not to know every single little nugget of info, you're also going to be that guy everyone hates getting for a Stan Check. You'll probably also be an E-2 FO. *sigh*
I always tell my classes - in the great marathon that is flight school, one of the purposes of API is to find your pace. Neither slacking off and trying to catch up at the last minute nor melting your eyeballs by being a type-A motard bookworm. You might squeak through API with the former, but I guarantee you it'll catch up to you in the VTs, and you'll be the, "But Sir! I'm not up for that event yet!" guy. The latter is also no recipe for success. I've remediated plenty of guys who were twitchy from lack of sleep and too much Red Bull. "SirIguessIstudiedaboutfifteenhoursadayeverydaysinceDayZeroandmaybegetthreehoursofsleepanightbutitsokayIdidthisincollegeandgota3.8Idon'tunderstandhowIfailedWeatherIdidfineonAero."
Balance in all things, even strain, don't sweat the small stuff, and sweat the big stuff, but not before it's time.