Originally Posted by
flensr
It felt to me like we had "enough" time to prepare for the oral especially if you were able to gonk through the systems lessons and videos ahead of the class schedule so you could spend the class time picking up anything that wasn't clear in the electronic courseware or fine-tuning your understanding in prep for the oral. If you don't stay ahead of the classes by going through the courseware ahead of time, it can be a bit more stressful and you'll waste time trying to chase down answers after class for things that weren't gone over in enough detail.
Yup I agree, advance preparation was utterly essential. The systems CBTs were a *lot* of information, and class was really about clarifying questions, as you say. I just think that the sheer level of detail we were expected to know was fairly challenging. (The UAL systems exam is a joke compared to what SWA expected.)
I think one thing that was also challenging for some was the idea of getting up in front of an examiner and "teaching" the panel and systems. For those of us unaccustomed to public speaking, it didn't make the process any easier. Personally I had no problem with it, as in a previous career I spent countless hours presenting to groups of demanding and skeptical people, but we had one guy in my class who knew the information cold, but had to have his exam postponed because he couldn't get up in front of people and present the information verbally. That said, I came out of systems training feeling very confident about my aircraft knowledge.
Too bad I've forgotten about 90 percent of what I've learned 😅