I found that chair flying was the key to success for me in primary. Budget out an hour or an hour and a half before you go to sleep, sit someplace quiet, and go through the upcoming flight in as much detail as you can. Just like Navysoccer18 said, give yourself different scenarios. DON'T FORGET THE TRIM! While you are chair flying, anytime you make a pretend power change, re-trim. Think about what trim is needed. If the airplane is flying itself, it will be much easier for you to fly the manuevers. Practice your scan by thinking about what you are going to see on each instrument. Practice talking on the ICS/radio by moving your thumb in the proper direction and saying the FTI/FWOP scirpt verbatem (more important during contacts in the landing pattern). Getting detailed also helps you identify areas of the procedures that you may be weak on. Finally, i drew out all of the manuevers and wrote a step by step on the back to put in my blue brains because it 1.) helped me study and 2.) can save your bacon if you have a brain fart. I spend about a third of my life with a brain fart, so I make up for it by practicing before hand. As for the bad sim, it's not a big deal, think about what you did poorly on, try to improve it, but most importantly shake it off. You can't let the next flight be ruined by the flight you were just on. That is important because, and this I can say with great certainty, you will have another bad sim or flight sometime during the next six months! Hope that helps...
), quite worked well for me because I tried to add real world distractions in my head and I need to concentrate to come up with as many scenarios as possible. I definently see the benefit of adding distractions for some people, though.
