Overall issues in no particular order:
1. Unfamiliarity with the aircraft. This one was huge for me, for several reasons.
a. EMB upgrade training is shortened compared to a new hire course. Ground school is shorter, FTD is one day shorter, not sure if the sim is shorter.
So, a new hire who flew the EMB at Great Lakes, or Amflight, or anywhere; he gets the expanded course. But a captain class is shorter, 'cuz... "you're a captain now". Heard this a lot.
Nobody seemed to consider that familiarity with the machine might be a serious issue. Of the 3 in my class who flew the EMB as an FO, all passed. I doubt they broke a sweat. The two who failed in my class out of the remaining six were FO's in the jet.
b. No "training" during a sim checkride. For FO training, if during the checkride you screw up, the examiner can have you repeat the failed maneuver. Not in the captain checkride (although, I'll say that I know that this policy is selectively applied... I didn't get any "do-overs").
2. A rushed training program. First day of class to sim checkride in 26 days total. In the jet course, we had days off between ground and sim (I think 6 days).
I literally finished ground school in SLC on Tuesday around noon, flew home to SAN, washed my clothes, got on a plane the next morning and flew to FAT. That evening at 7pm, we had a briefing at the FTD. Then the next two mornings at 6am for FTD.
Next day, travel to LGB (my sim partner and I actually volunteered to go to the FTD at 6am that morning also). Then, 4am at the sim the very next morning in LGB, and at 4am each of the next mornings.
After the 4th sim, I stepped directly out of the sim at 10am into the oral exam. Then, sim checkride the next morning at 6am.
3. Indifference amongst a few in the training dept. This is not a huge issue, but the reality is that your whole deal in on the line, and a few could really care less. Presumably, they've been doing this a long time, and their paycheck will be in the bank no matter what happens to you. But, if you are not the star performer in class, AND end up with one of these guys, your odds of success just got stacked against you.
4. Some crappy training equipment. The FTD is a TOTAL piece of junk. They give you a full page of things not to do in this antique. There are things that is does WRONG, and things that is doesn't do AT ALL. It's hard to imagine that this is FAA approved for training with the many issues.
5. Needless pressure from the up-n-out policy.....
6. Not stopping training at the failed oral. It seems, in hindsight, that the rules support this. And practically, they would not have sent somebody who failed the written test on to FTD until they pass the written.
Since we had a written failure in our class, that is EXACTLY what they did. If we had failed FTD, we would have been held over until we completed that. If we had failed to get signed off for the checkride, like my sim partner, they would have, and did, stop him from the checkride until he completed his extended training.
But, when I failed the oral, I just keep going like nothing happened? The rules seem to imply that I should have been "trained" THEN to complete the oral. Practically too.
7. Not changing examiners from the one who failed me on the oral. This is a huge intimidation and mental game player.
8. Age. My class had one guy barely legal (just turned 23) and everybody else up to age 29. Then two of us in our 40's. I'm here to tell ya that age makes a difference. I'm sure there's whole studies done on this, so I won't expand much here, except to say that the two folks who were the anchor in the class were the 40 somethings. My days of smoking through classes without breathing hard are probably over.