Jim Beam and flash cards! Strip club breaks in PDX

Know what every annunciator means, what triggers it, and what it triggers you to do. Why does it light up?

But most importantly, take breaks! You have to let your brain rest and absorb it.

I've been through four initials now, and the first is by far the hardest. Once you figure out what studying method works best for you, the successive ones are a walk in the park in my opinion.

After initial systems academics I try to keep recurrent on them by reviewing emergency procedures. I go through the EP and make sure I can explain why each button or valve is pushed or opened. When I can't explain it, I go into the system diagram or explanation.

Good call by someone above on keeping your original notes for recurrent training.

Hope you're not serious! Short breaks are good for learning, short ones for tea and protein bars. Group study is good as long as the focus stays intact. Strip clubs and Jack are for when you pass systems, if that's your taste.

+1 on the study groups. Best way to study just like the old college days.

Get sleep. The science says that learning isn't fully absorbed until you get a full night of restful sleep, so make sure you do that every night to absorb everything you learned that day.

Mechanical equipment either pushes, pulls, or spins. Transducers sense temperature, pressure, current, and rate. If you understand that, you can usually figure out the mechanical portions of any system. This information is typically converted from raw information to a pictorial representation via an instrument or avionics processor to a glass display. From my experience, almost all airplanes use similar technology.

This.

Nothing is better in my personal experience, and it doesn't matter what the subject is (aviation or otherwise). I've found the preparation is altogether different and far more comprehensive (such as anticipating questions and having ready answers for them). In other words, preparation like this requires a deeper commitment, but the benefits are well worth the effort required. You will learn more, and more quickly/thoroughly, than any other methodology. Truly, the real student in the classroom is the teacher.

Re: Rama's advice, practice on non-aviation family/friends. It's amazing how interested people become when you tell them you need their help by practicing in front of them. It also forces you to condense the material into short, easier-to-understand examples/analogies.

Just my .02

As someone who is about to go through my first airline ground school/systems training this will probably be how I mostly go about it leading up to class. This method helped a lot when I was working on CFI back in the day. Also group study can be hit or miss with me. Sometimes having one know-it-all in the group answering all the questions doesn't help anyone.