study habits

[wikz]

what was or is your effective way of studying (while in college, UPT, aviation career)?

everyone seems to have their own distinct study habits, for example, ive heard of someone who watched breaking bad while studying in UPT which helped him retain information better. idk how that works but to each their own. 

I haven't quite figured out my effective way of studying. as of right now it's just to try and go for as long as I can without breaks (trying to work on that). A lot of people say to take breaks in between, but I seem to contradict that and attempt to read through the lines with my eyes shutting. 

a more specific question: when you guys enter the fire hose of information at UPT, I understand that you focus on what's required aka the gouge, but I am sure that still takes a millennia to study. how did you guys cram all that damn information in your head without falling asleep or having to re read the same line over and over without comprehending what you just read?

[herkbier]

It needs to be interesting to you. I wanted to learn this stuff. 
 

Take notes as you read with one and paper, even if you never reference them, writing something down physically helps me remember. 
 

Also flash cards. And use your classmates, make study guides together. 

[raimius]

Don't rely on the gouge too much.  Go look at the source material the gouge references.  Get good at word searching pubs, since they are electronic.  

Study the basics first (IFG).  Then, think through a flight and what procedures/restrictions apply.

[Danger41]

Try this instructional video.

[BashiChuni]

you should figure out how to study in college

booze and babes is an effective technique

[JeremiahWeed]

UPT was a while back for me, but I think the basics of taming the fire hose still apply.  For me, the most important thing was repetition.  Studying written/classroom material, learning procedures, boldface, instrument approaches, contact flying, etc. need to be ingrained to the point that minimal effort is required to recall and use the information. 

I will say, if you've gotten to the point that you have a college degree and a USAF commission and you don't know how YOU study written material and info delivered in a classroom, I don't think UPT is the place you're suddenly going to figure that out.  For me, reading the source material prior to class was key.  Notes taken in class can then be correlated with what you've already seen at least once during your reading.  If possible, I would then go back and re-copy my notes (cuz I write like shit when I'm trying to follow along in class).  This would allow me to cross-check the gouge and source material with what I wrote down in class and make sure the info in my notes is accurate and also allows me to see it all again.  Now at least my notes are something I created that I'm familiar with and can be used to study from later.

Take advantage of any free time during duty hours to sit down with another student pilot and quiz each other on the rote memorization that is required of everyone.  Repetition.  IFR rules for clearance limits, min enroute altitudes, holding entries/airspeeds, etc. all will come more easily the more you go over them.  Boldface has to become like breathing.  However, there's a secondary part of learning boldface that often gets neglected.  It's one thing to be able to write them and say them without error.  It's another thing altogether to be able to actually complete them in the cockpit.  Once you've got the BF memorized, start making your regular pattern of repetition include sitting in a cockpit trainer or even just a paper cockpit and actually reaching for the switches and performing the steps.  You're not memorizing BF just to fill a square.  That shit is going to save your aircraft and maybe your life.  Wind the clock, slow down to get it right and know exactly what each step of the BF is going to require you to do in the cockpit.

Prepare for EVERY mission by chair flying it from stepping to the jet until you're back in the squadron.  The more you think through every aspect of the mission at zero knots the less you'll have to think about it when you're actually flying.  There aren't enough sorties and simulator periods in the syllabus for the luxury of only trying to master everything you need to while you're actually in those training devices.  Go through the steps required of you on every mission from the walk-around, cockpit set-up, checklists, engine start, taxi, takeoff, radio calls, setting up maneuvers and entry parameters, instrument set up for approaches, etc.  If you have to sit in front of a paper cockpit set-up in your room with some kind of stick and throttle substitute in your hand, then do that.  If you can close your eyes and visualize what you need to, then do that.  Radio calls you make at the same point with the same information in them on every sortie should require zero effort.  Controls actuated and procedures necessary to accomplish a touch and go, closed pattern and another VFR approach off the perch should have no pause to think about what comes next when you're in the moment flying the jet.  The bottom line is that if you wait until you're doing 200-500 knots with air under your ass in the pattern, working area or on an approach to think about these basics that are going to happen on every sortie, you probably won't have enough extra brain cells to deal with the new stuff you're trying to learn or any other curve balls that Murphy might throw at you on any given day.  Repetition is your friend.  Seeing a trend yet?

Most of all - enjoy yourself.  UPT was one of the best experiences of my life.  If it's not, then in my opinion, you're doing it wrong.  There's never going to be another time in your USAF career when all that is expected of you is to live, eat and breath flying, show up on time prepared with a good attitude and get paid to do one of the coolest, most challenging jobs on the planet.  You will make yourself miserable if you constantly stress about your performance.  The more prepared you are, the less pressure you will experience.  Don't worry about class rankings or trying to be #1 and help out your bros.  If you help your classmates get better, you'll probably make yourself better in the process.  The rankings will be what they'll be.  If you're a solo dick out for yourself that's probably going to back-fire.  It's pretty hard to be that way for a year without people who matter noticing.  Use Friday night and some of Saturday to blow off some steam and lower the stress level (whatever that looks like for you).  Depending on what's coming, maybe spend some time Saturday in the books and for sure get back to it on Sunday so you're prepared for the next week.  Know your weaknesses and do what's necessary to minimize them.  I didn't want to deal with distractions.  I didn't have a TV, I lived on base and until my T-37 cross-country I slept in my Q-room every night from the first day I set foot on the base to start UPT.  Maybe that seems a bit extreme, but it goes by fast and the results you produce will stick with you for life.  I hit the club hard on Friday nights, had a girl to hang with after that and maybe Saturday too and kept it simple.  I was very lucky to get an Eagle because no matter how well you do there's always stuff out of your control.  But I brought my A game, did my best and things went my way.  That's about all you can do.  It was a blast.  Have fun.

Edited January 17 by JeremiahWeed

[wikz]

14 minutes ago, JeremiahWeed said:

UPT was a while back for me, but I think the basics of taming the fire hose still apply.  For me, the most important thing was repetition.  Studying written/classroom material, learning procedures, boldface, instrument approaches, contact flying, etc. need to be ingrained to the point that minimal effort is required to recall and use the information. 

I will say, if you've gotten to the point that you have a college degree and a USAF commission and you don't know how YOU study written material and info delivered in a classroom, I don't think UPT is the place you're suddenly going to figure that out.  For me, reading the source material prior to class was key.  Notes taken in class can then be correlated with what you've already seen at least once during your reading.  If possible, I would then go back and re-copy my notes (cuz I write like shit when I'm trying to follow along in class).  This would allow me to cross-check the gouge and source material with what I wrote down in class and make sure the info in my notes is accurate and also allows me to see it all again.  Now at least my notes are something I created that I'm familiar with and can be used to study from later.

Take advantage of any free time during duty hours to sit down with another student pilot and quiz each other on the rote memorization that is required of everyone.  Repetition.  IFR rules for clearance limits, min enroute altitudes, holding entries/airspeeds, etc. all will come more easily to more you go over them.  Boldface has to become like breathing.  However, there's a secondary part of learning boldface that often gets neglected.  It's one thing to be able to write them and say them without error.  It's another thing altogether to be able to actually complete them in the cockpit.  Once you've got the BF memorized, start making your regular pattern of repetition include sitting in a cockpit trainer or even just a paper cockpit and actually reaching for the switches and performing the steps.  You're not memorizing BF just to fill a square.  That shit is going to save your aircraft and maybe your life.  Wind the clock, slow down to get it right and know exactly what each step of the BF is going to require you to do in the cockpit.

Prepare for EVERY mission by chair flying it from stepping to the jet until you're back in the squadron.  The more you think through every aspect of the mission at zero knots the less you'll have to think about it when you're actually flying.  There aren't enough sorties and simulator periods in the syllabus for the luxury of only trying to master everything you need to while you're actually in those training devices.  Go through the steps required of you on every mission from the walk-around, cockpit set-up, checklists, engine start, taxi, takeoff, radio calls, setting up maneuvers and entry parameters, instrument set up for approaches, etc.  If you have to sit in front of a paper cockpit set-up in your room with some kind of stick and throttle substitute in your hand, then do that.  If you can close your eyes and visualize what you need to, then do that.  Radio calls you make at the same point with the same information in them on every sortie should require zero effort.  Controls actuated and procedures necessary to accomplish a touch and go, closed pattern and another VFR approach off the perch should have no pause to think about what comes next when you're in the moment flying the jet.  The bottom line is that if you wait until you're doing 200-500 knots with air under your ass in the pattern, working area or on an approach to think about these basics that are going to happen on every sortie, you probably won't have enough extra brain cells to deal with the new stuff you're trying to learn or any other curve balls that Murphy might throw at you on any given day.  Repetition is your friend.  Seeing a trend yet?

Most of all - enjoy yourself.  UPT was one of the best experiences of my life.  If it's not, then in my opinion, you're doing it wrong.  There's never going to be another time in your USAF career when all that is expected of you is to live, eat and breath flying, show up on time prepared with a good attitude and get paid to do one of the coolest, most challenging jobs on the planet.  You will make yourself miserable if you constantly stress about your performance.  The more prepared you are, the less pressure you will experience.  Don't worry about class rankings or trying to be #1 and help out your bros.  If you help your classmates get better, you'll probably make yourself better in the process.  The rankings will be what they'll be.  If you're a solo dick out for yourself that's probably going to back-fire.  It's pretty hard to be that way for a year without people who matter noticing.  Use Friday night and some of Saturday to blow off some steam and lower the stress level (whatever that looks like for you).  Depending on what's coming, maybe spend some time Saturday in the books and for sure get back to it on Sunday so you're prepared for the next week.  Know your weaknesses and do what's necessary to minimize them.  I didn't want to deal with distractions.  I didn't have a TV, I lived on base and until my T-37 cross-country I slept in my Q-room every night from the first day I set foot on the base to start UPT.  Maybe that seems a bit extreme, but it goes by fast and the results you produce will stick with you for life.  I hit the club hard on Friday nights, had a girl to hang with after that and maybe Saturday too and kept it simple.  I was very lucky to get an Eagle because no matter how well you do there's always stuff out of your control.  But I brought my A game, did my best and things went my way.  That's about all you can do.  It was a blast.  Have fun.

if that wasn't some Captain America end of the world battle speech, I don't know what is. 

thanks for taking the time to write that. well said!

[dream big]

13 hours ago, JeremiahWeed said:

UPT was a while back for me, but I think the basics of taming the fire hose still apply.  For me, the most important thing was repetition.  Studying written/classroom material, learning procedures, boldface, instrument approaches, contact flying, etc. need to be ingrained to the point that minimal effort is required to recall and use the information. 

I will say, if you've gotten to the point that you have a college degree and a USAF commission and you don't know how YOU study written material and info delivered in a classroom, I don't think UPT is the place you're suddenly going to figure that out.  For me, reading the source material prior to class was key.  Notes taken in class can then be correlated with what you've already seen at least once during your reading.  If possible, I would then go back and re-copy my notes (cuz I write like shit when I'm trying to follow along in class).  This would allow me to cross-check the gouge and source material with what I wrote down in class and make sure the info in my notes is accurate and also allows me to see it all again.  Now at least my notes are something I created that I'm familiar with and can be used to study from later.

Take advantage of any free time during duty hours to sit down with another student pilot and quiz each other on the rote memorization that is required of everyone.  Repetition.  IFR rules for clearance limits, min enroute altitudes, holding entries/airspeeds, etc. all will come more easily the more you go over them.  Boldface has to become like breathing.  However, there's a secondary part of learning boldface that often gets neglected.  It's one thing to be able to write them and say them without error.  It's another thing altogether to be able to actually complete them in the cockpit.  Once you've got the BF memorized, start making your regular pattern of repetition include sitting in a cockpit trainer or even just a paper cockpit and actually reaching for the switches and performing the steps.  You're not memorizing BF just to fill a square.  That shit is going to save your aircraft and maybe your life.  Wind the clock, slow down to get it right and know exactly what each step of the BF is going to require you to do in the cockpit.

Prepare for EVERY mission by chair flying it from stepping to the jet until you're back in the squadron.  The more you think through every aspect of the mission at zero knots the less you'll have to think about it when you're actually flying.  There aren't enough sorties and simulator periods in the syllabus for the luxury of only trying to master everything you need to while you're actually in those training devices.  Go through the steps required of you on every mission from the walk-around, cockpit set-up, checklists, engine start, taxi, takeoff, radio calls, setting up maneuvers and entry parameters, instrument set up for approaches, etc.  If you have to sit in front of a paper cockpit set-up in your room with some kind of stick and throttle substitute in your hand, then do that.  If you can close your eyes and visualize what you need to, then do that.  Radio calls you make at the same point with the same information in them on every sortie should require zero effort.  Controls actuated and procedures necessary to accomplish a touch and go, closed pattern and another VFR approach off the perch should have no pause to think about what comes next when you're in the moment flying the jet.  The bottom line is that if you wait until you're doing 200-500 knots with air under your ass in the pattern, working area or on an approach to think about these basics that are going to happen on every sortie, you probably won't have enough extra brain cells to deal with the new stuff you're trying to learn or any other curve balls that Murphy might throw at you on any given day.  Repetition is your friend.  Seeing a trend yet?

Most of all - enjoy yourself.  UPT was one of the best experiences of my life.  If it's not, then in my opinion, you're doing it wrong.  There's never going to be another time in your USAF career when all that is expected of you is to live, eat and breath flying, show up on time prepared with a good attitude and get paid to do one of the coolest, most challenging jobs on the planet.  You will make yourself miserable if you constantly stress about your performance.  The more prepared you are, the less pressure you will experience.  Don't worry about class rankings or trying to be #1 and help out your bros.  If you help your classmates get better, you'll probably make yourself better in the process.  The rankings will be what they'll be.  If you're a solo dick out for yourself that's probably going to back-fire.  It's pretty hard to be that way for a year without people who matter noticing.  Use Friday night and some of Saturday to blow off some steam and lower the stress level (whatever that looks like for you).  Depending on what's coming, maybe spend some time Saturday in the books and for sure get back to it on Sunday so you're prepared for the next week.  Know your weaknesses and do what's necessary to minimize them.  I didn't want to deal with distractions.  I didn't have a TV, I lived on base and until my T-37 cross-country I slept in my Q-room every night from the first day I set foot on the base to start UPT.  Maybe that seems a bit extreme, but it goes by fast and the results you produce will stick with you for life.  I hit the club hard on Friday nights, had a girl to hang with after that and maybe Saturday too and kept it simple.  I was very lucky to get an Eagle because no matter how well you do there's always stuff out of your control.  But I brought my A game, did my best and things went my way.  That's about all you can do.  It was a blast.  Have fun.

I can’t top this sage advice, but I’ll add try your best to stay in shape and eat right. Mentally enduring pilot training involves your physical health. Even if it’s knocking out some push-ups in the morning or end of the day, you have to stay active. That helped me tremendously. 

Pick one day a week (recommend Saturday) where you unplug and go do something fun with your classmates. I know there aren’t much options in Enid Del Rio and Columbus but we used to just grill out on someone’s patio and drink. That will reset you for the week.

I 100% acknowledge this contradicts my first paragraph but sitting around with some beers and quizzing each other always made it more enjoyable. 
 

God I miss those days, life was simple!!!

 

[wikz]

51 minutes ago, dream big said:

I can’t top this sage advice, but I’ll add try your best to stay in shape and eat right. Mentally enduring pilot training involves your physical health. Even if it’s knocking out some push-ups in the morning or end of the day, you have to stay active. That helped me tremendously. 

Pick one day a week (recommend Saturday) where you unplug and go do something fun with your classmates. I know there aren’t much options in Enid Del Rio and Columbus but we used to just grill out on someone’s patio and drink. That will reset you for the week.

I 100% acknowledge this contradicts my first paragraph but sitting around with some beers and quizzing each other always made it more enjoyable. 
 

God I miss those days, life was simple!!!

 

It seems like a lot of it is repetition and working with the bros.

This can go for anybody, but when you weren't assigned to fly for the day and instead studied in the flight room for 12 hours, how did you guys go about that? did you just jam out those 12 hours incessantly or take breaks here and there to cool down?

[HubZemke]

Listen to other briefs/debriefs. Walk around the fake pattern and practice radio calls(walking/talking/chewing gum) and thinking through pitch/power helps more than you’d think. Speak to your sister flight and see what they’ve learned. Go to the auditorium and study without distractions. Have fvcking fun!

[ryleypav]

Everyone already hit the nail on the head. Biggest thing for me, and what I usually preach to everyone, all nighters dont work, and when you're tired, stop studying. You dont retain information when you're tired, theres no point in going on. Especially the night before a test/checkride. If you dont know something by 10pm the night before, you arent going to learn it. Give your brain a rest, and you'll retain what you know that much better. I always made it a point to just relax for a few hours before bed, the night before a checkride. Theres so much information to absorb there, and you can only learn so much. Knowing where to find things is sometimes more important than the information itself. 

Do what works for you. We had guys who just read stuff once and it stuck, others made thousands of quizlet cards (this dude was the real bro of the flight), others who hand wrote flash cards. Everyone is different man. We'd quiz each other on road trips to Austin or wherever we were going. 

[disgruntledemployee]

I studied stuff ahead of arriving to UPT.  Our Det had a Tweet - 1 and I got a copy.  The internet was really becoming a thing and AF pubs were posted on the line.  Lastly, I called the local copy shop in Del Rio and asked them to make me a copy of everything they had on file for UPT and mail it.  So I read a lot before showing up, plus I arrived to UPT a few weeks early.  All this meant I could spend more time on chair flying, understanding the pattern, etc. and a little less on the GK/book stuff.  Mind you having not gone thru UPT, some of the stuff didn't make sense, but I knew what to memorize.

2 hours ago, wikz said:

It seems like a lot of it is repetition and working with the bros.

This can go for anybody, but when you weren't assigned to fly for the day and instead studied in the flight room for 12 hours, how did you guys go about that? did you just jam out those 12 hours incessantly or take breaks here and there to cool down?

Someone else is flying, so listen in on the brief/debrief.  Do stuff with other studs.  It's not like a school dance where you're shy to ask someone on the dance floor.

[Bigred]

I’m a weird one, but the more distracting the environment, the better I study. TV on, radio playing, etc, and I can focus and retain. 

 

When it’s dead quiet I find my mind wanders and I get bored. Its probably also why I wasn’t ever really good at group studying because most folks didn’t like Metallics blasting at max while reciting EPs
 

 

[Pooter]

I'm a visual learner so I would draw the entire airspace and then I would draw my sortie profile with radio calls, frequency changes, climbs, descents, pitch and power settings all on the map exactly where I needed to make them. This was my version of chair-flying. Example attached. After you debrief, draw a better more detailed picture for next time. Repeat. 

[FourFans]

Buy it, read it, do it.  (The physical book, not the audio book) The metacog works.

[wikz]

16 hours ago, FourFans said:

Buy it, read it, do it.  (The physical book, not the audio book) The metacog works.

ordered it.

[wikz]

Thank you. these are some marvelous examples! exactly what I was looking for. 

[JBueno]

Chairfly, but not the whole sortie. Break it down into individual movements or procedures. Think of it like drills in sports, or reps in the gym:

3 x cloverleaf

2 x HILO entry to an ILS

4 x vis pattern

2 x ground ops

Breaks are key. No way we’d spend 12 solid hours studying. 
 

At check ride time, chairfly those beginning to end. Double check on actual check ride day, but having a good idea what the frequencies, altitudes, or headings are will help.

Unrelated to studying but I had a set of pilot wings above my door that I’d see for motivation.