How to Study Effectively

Are you motivated to learn more about a certain subject or prepare for a checkride but feel overwhelmed?  Time spent studying is time well spent and you can maximize your information retention with some tried-and-true strategies we've gathered from those who've been in your seat in the past. Remember that some of these tips may be more useful than others for different individuals as we all learn in our own specific ways, but this post aims to identify ways to ensure your efforts pay off.

Utilize Multiple Sources

Diversifying your studying materials is essential to growing a well-rounded, holistic understanding of the many topics you'll come across in your aviation journey. While one source may explain it in a less helpful way, you could find the subject in question depicted more favorably in another source that is better-suited to your mind-frame and learning style. Making multiple sources part of your study routine will also reinforce the information as repetition is a proven strategy for learning more. Some of our favorite study sources include the PHAK and FAR/AIM and other FAA issued textbooks, ASA's test prep books, and others.

Start Early and Study Often

Successful pilot certificate candidates are those who recognize that studying effectively cannot be accomplished in a day and is better broken down into more digestible portions. If you can, try to allocate a small portion of each day to focusing on a new concept. By breaking the information you want to learn into smaller bits, it will feel more achievable and surmountable, and less daunting. Perhaps on the weekends you could then revisit the points you touched on during the week. Regardless of how you schedule your study time - and we do encourage intentionally scheduling proper studying sessions, don't expect to master it all overnight as successfully tackling new topics comes with time.

Organize Your Information

Keep your notes and materials organized in order to facilitate using them. You'll be encouraged to prioritize studying when the contents are easy to access. Making your data make sense becomes easier when you don't have to expend energy trying to locate what you're wanting to work on, and studying will be more enjoyable and feel less like a chore if the information has a logical structure.

Make Lists

One way to organize a large quantity of information you're wanting to master is to group alike or related subjects into lists. Similar to how an aircraft has a checklist for its numerous parts and different phases of flight, studying can be approached in a comparable way. You can utilize lists to determine what you want to get done, what you want to leave for another time, compartmentalize various tasks, etc. We would advise breaking your studies into steps and listing those steps out, which your instructor will be happy to help you with.

Use Memory Items

Spend any time with the many aspects of piloting and you'll quickly realize there is no shortage of acronyms. This is for a good reason as there is a lot of (often overlapping) information to keep straight, and we can promote retaining it all with the help of memory items like acronyms. When it comes to actionable memory items, it can be argued that certain steps should be instinctive on some level, and while that is the goal, memory items are a consistently large part of most formal flight training programs - they are proven to reduce immediate reliance on checklists in time-sensitive situations.

Practice Visualization

Visualizing is a tactic many studies cite as a memory aid and this especially applies to taking flight. Chair Flying is a common practice in the aviation community - it is the act of sitting down and practicing any flows or motions you want to create a habit or pattern of using, and can assist areas of study you may want to magnify. Another example of visualization could be mapping out a mental picture of how fuel travels inside the aircraft so that you become more comfortable with studying and knowing the fuel system. Along the same lines, practicing drawing a system out can help test yourself for any knowledge gaps, and can be especially useful when becoming versed in aircraft systems.

Choose Paper or Digital, and Commit

Most of us have a preference of accruing physical or digital copies of texts and the library of flying intel should be no different. Maybe you like being able to screenshot a page you want to plan to reread or perhaps you're more inclined to use highlighters and sticky-notes instead. Either way, find a system that works for you and keep it consistent across your studying platforms. While certain stages of study may require a physical copy, most parts can be executed in a digital method. On that note, regardless of your study preference, we do encourage starting an electronic logbook sooner than later if you intend to pilot professionally, which we'll discuss in more detail in a future post.

Focus on One Task at a Time

When sitting down to concentrate, it is best to focus your attention on one area of study at a time. Try to avoid distractions and tangents. It may be tempting to sidetrack into the contents of the aircraft's POH when you are digging into the details of airworthiness, but try to stick with what you set out to master in the first place. This way, you will avoid the snowball-effect leading to feeling overwhelmed, and even worse, defeated. If you've ever heard the popular idiom about how the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, you know that rings true with the many parts of aviation ground knowledge.

Notate Your Questions

Undoubtedly, spending time on your ground knowledge with leave you with a number of questions. If the answers cannot be quickly located to your satisfaction, jot the question down to ask your instructor during your next lesson. Be specific so you can maximize your scheduled lesson, and ask for any further clarification until you feel good about the topic. Another advantage to notating your questions is it will create a sense of accountability and feel more impactful once it is answered.

Take Breaks

Remember to avoid feeling burnt-out (or fatigued) by taking breaks. Aim to be intentional with them, like pausing for a brief snack/meal, so that they are more purposeful and therefore less likely to lead to wayward time-wasting activities. You may also benefit from spreading your studying out; maybe revisiting something you struggled to comprehend the prior day/night leads you to an aha-moment another time of day or week.

Get a Study Buddy

While studying by yourself may be your only option due to goals, schedules, etc., if you are able to link up with a partner who desires delving into the same area(s) as you, this can be an extremely mutually beneficial practice. Having another pair of eyes and an additional perspective could help you think about something in a new light, and you can bounce questions off of one another and brainstorm various ideas.

These are a few ways we have seen aviators succeed in their studies, and we encourage you to adopt some combination of these strategies into your study-flow to enhance your personal regimen. We'd love to hear any feedback on what has or hasn't been helpful to you since beginning your piloting pursuit; feel free to leave us a comment below! In our next post we will discuss final checkride preparations and what you can do to set yourself up for success after the training is complete, but before the ride has begun.