I prefer to look at it is I am unwilling to commit social and family suicide by upgrading. I enjoy my weekends off, but this is only because my financial situation allows me to do this.

3 1/2 year upgrade here....look at all your options and don't base any decision on a quick upgrade.

Hey. Do you have to memorize all the flows before training? Or just be familier with them. I'm sure it would be better if you did, but that's a lot of stuff to memorize.

Try not to think of it as memorizing, but actually doing... recommend hanging up your posters in some fashion that allows you to actually touch them and run through flows as if you were in the plane. Don't just sit there and try to memorize stuff.

For the memorization list items, the instructors may tell you the typical acronyms used... or you can invent your own, sometimes that works best. You will have more time to study that stuff once you're there, but the problem is that once you're there, they are going to pile up and dump more stuff on you to study and memorize every day, so it just makes life soooooo much easier to have it down pretty well beforehand. Then you essentially just review it every day to keep it up to par. Good luck!