Aviation weekend crash course question...

[Stephanie]

Just wondering if anyone here has ever done one of those weekend crash courses for the FAA Airmen knowledge test? Because of the whole, house didn't sell, no money to fly thing, etc... I feel I have gotten a little rusty. I am hoping to finish up in the not too distant future and I am sure the flying will come back easier than some of the book stuff... thought maybe one of these weekend courses might be a good refresher. Any opinions or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Just wondering if they're worth it, or if spending a weekend with my nose crammed in my book would be just as good?!

[retroaviation]

Yup. Did it for my A&P license. Worked well for me.

Gary

[bdk]

After you take the test, you get two years to get the license until the test expires. Maybe if you make sure you have the cash saved to get the license, you can take the refresher course last minute before you start flying again? That would be my recommendation. You'll have to know all this stuff for the oral test so if you pass the written and then don't take the oral for a year and a half, do you think everything will still be fresh in your mind?

This really depends on your study, memory and learning skills I think. Some of the guaranteed courses will let you go again if you want, you just pay once.

[Stephanie]

Yeah, I have pretty crap study skills, but I have heard that if you just like, highlight the right answer, then read the question and then the answer, that they're fairly easy to commit to memory. I don't care as much (as I guess that sounds bad) about doing perfect on the test, I just want a solid score, above 70! I will have to look into them, I know they're fairly costly, but maybe well worth the price.

[RyanShort1]

Personally, if you're not going to be doing the airwork, I'd wait until you're closer to the airwork, and just stick your nose into the book. Also, a lot of the "Crash" courses aren't as easy to complete as you'd think. I tried to do that with the instrument rating, and managed to end up stretching it into about 3 months. It's pretty tough to do it that fast.

Ryan

[warbird1]

I agree with what bdk said, it depends on what you want it for. I took one of those crash courses for my ATP written and it was pretty good. A lot of those very short courses, however, only teach you the test. It is up to you to actually learn the material, which I did later on before the flying portion. If you want to use it for re-learning material, I would say the books are probably better training material. However, some of the DVD courses they have now go more in depth than a short crash course, so that might be a better refresher if you want to actually learn the knowledge as opposed to just passing a test. Either way, you will have to learn the knowledge sooner or later prior to your checkride.

[Stephanie]

Yeah, that's the biggest thing, I don't necessarily just want to commit answers to memory, I'd like to really know what I am talking about!