ALL ATP Bad Experience

[prompt]

If your planning on going to an ALL ATP for test prep assistance be careful! I went to Trenton, NJ to prepare for the ATP written exam and the databank of test questions they had me study was not updated! I spent 6 hours studying outdated information and didn't realize it until I compared my test questions with other ATP test prep questions from another PC. All ATP's response to this problem was even more frustrating; they told me there wasn't that many different questions and I should just deal with it! There customer service was horrible!

 

[frank rizzo]

there just another scum bag outfit teaming up with air inc your better off going and supporting your local fbo !

 

[~~~^~~~]

Well I know everybody memorizes the answers, but the point is to learn the material. If you take the time to work the problems out during the review it is easy to plug in different numbers on the test.

After all, if you are going for your ATP, don't you need to know how to figure out fuel burns, weight and balance and runway analysis questions?

Believe me, if you don't know it now you will need to learn it by the time your oral comes around.

I did my Multi, Inst, Comm at ATPS and had a good experience - especially considering the money was a fraction of what Flight Safety of ERAU wanted. Like all schools it depends on which instructor you get - mine at ATP's was very good.

 

[~~~^~~~]

Well I know everybody memorizes the answers, but the point is to learn the material. If you take the time to work the problems out during the review it is easy to plug in different numbers on the test.

After all, if you are going for your ATP, don't you need to know how to figure out fuel burns, weight and balance and runway analysis questions?

Believe me, if you don't know it now you will need to learn it by the time your oral comes around.

I did my Multi, Inst, Comm at ATPS and had a good experience - especially considering the money was a fraction of what Flight Safety of ERAU wanted. Like all schools it depends on which instructor you get - mine at ATP's was very good.

I understand your frustration - particularly if you planned on memorizing the answers - did you pass? I thought all ATP's offered a free re-study and re-test if you did poorly. Once you have your ATP rating I don't think anyone much cares what your score on the written was - if they do, re take it and get 100.

 

[C-135 Backer]

Lone Eagle in Phoenix is the only place to go. High recommend!

 

[1900laker]

If you want the best results, I still recommend the written test preps you can get from ASA, Gleim, etc. They contain ALL the questions and show examples of how to work the problems. Also explain why wrong answers are wrong. Its been a while since I bought em, but I think they were around $20 bucks per book or so. So after you take each test, you are financially set back only about $80 bucks or so (including test cost). I feel like I learned the information much better by this method than a pump and dump course. I also got good comments during interviews when I showed copies of my test report for several of my ratings, including ATP and FEX, both 100%. I think I studied for about a week in the ATP book. And over one weekend for the FEX.

There's more than one way to skin a cat. Just thought some of you should look at this option too.

 

[I.P. Freley]

I did the Gleim thing for each of my certificates, including ATP... But this last time around I got the CD-ROM.

I won't exactly qualify it as a "mistake", because there are some advantages to doing the disk thing, but in the end I used the good ol' red book to greater advantage. I'd forgotten that I five-fingered the ATP test book from my old flight school and it was sitting on my shelf even as I was ponying up the $60 (or so) for the CD-ROM... Same questions and all, and the disk does allow you to make up practice test after practice test, but I ended up doing most of my work with the book.

I ended up with approximately the same grade as some friends who did the two-day course thing, but I spent five times as long studying as they did, didn't have to travel anywhere to take a course, didn't have to spend money on a hotel, etc., and in the end I think I really UNDERSTOOD the material better than the cram-course people... If that matters to you at all. If all you want is to get your 95 on the test and know nothing a week later, go spend your money at ALL-ATP's.

Really, we pilots have plenty of free time to study, why not spend a week with the book and feel like you really accomplished something, as in studying the material, as opposed to studying the test?

Skip the review classes, skip the CD-ROM, and sit down with Mr. Gleim's finest.

 

[bobbysamd]

ATP/FE Writtens

I went to Bill Phelps' weekend ground schools in Phoenix for my ATP and FE writtens. They were taught by this extremely fine gentleman who was a retired British Airways PFE. I had my reservations about going to a weekend school because I went to a Bill Phelps school before and the jet guys left me in their wake. I explained to the gentleman, whose name I cannot for the life of me recall but should be familiar to people in PHX, that I had just a lightplane background. He assured me not to worry and he would slow down if I wasn't getting it. As it turns out, he was such a good instructor that I picked up everything and he didn't need to slow down. Did extremely well on both writtens, over 90. Depending on an airline's point of view, getting over 90 on writtens was an important hiring criterion.

A lot depends on how you learn best. Although I studied for most of my writtens at home by reading the FAA material and memorizing the ASA books, I always did better and found the experience far more enjoyable when I went to class.