Many of you who have been on here for awhile know that I frequently recommend the King Schools video series to help students prepare for their written exams. I have been a huge fan of John and Martha King for years and think that they have a fantastic product.
Well, somebody at ATP must agree with me because as of this past Monday, ATP is now including the King Schools online Private Ground School and Private Practical Test courseware for students.
The courseware includes the full King Schools video series, updated for the new Airman Certification Standards. It’s chunked into bite-sized videos with quiz/review modules. The practical test course is a great resource for a Private Pilot student who has never taken a flight check.
This will be a great addition for students and is really a good way to start building a foundation of aviation knowledge.
That’s great news Chris. I’ve been asking and hoping for this as it just makes sense. By including th practical test prep., it allows a student to get the prospective of what a checkride may be like. I would actually like to see ATP follow this lead by providing the entire series of KingSchools written test prep. courses and practical test prep. for each certificate/rating that will be worked toward at ATP. KingSchools sells a professional/career pilot series at a discount if all of those courses are purchased at once as a package deal in comparison to the price if they were purchased separately. However, it would be nice to see it included as standard when enrolling in ATP’s program.
I am a big fan of the Kings, but I feel your suggestion would all unnecessary coursework and would certainly add to the cost of the program by several hundred dollars. Sure, ATP could bundle the coursework, but the Kings will not be providing it for free and that cost would have to be passed onto ATP’s students. Furthermore, it just isn’t necessary. ATP has trained many thousands of pilots without the Kings help, they have a system of their own and it works, really well. While the Kings are great, adding their info to ATP’s course would slow the program down, be repetitive and simply unnecessary.
Keep in mind that you can always purchase their program on your own.
I agree that it’s not needed, and ATP has a great program on its own. It may be beneficial to see the KingSchools content replace or added to (unless it’s redundant) some of the other video content within the curriculum. KingSchools has some great content (others do too of course). Their addition to the program on a larger scale could raise (unless something else gives way that doesn’t sacrifice positive aspects) the price of the program ATP offers as you already stated, but I can’t imagine it being by much. It will be excellent to see how their already great program continues to be modified and improve.
I understand your points, but there is a much larger picture here that I don’t think you are seeing. The program is very carefully constructed to fit in the existing time frame, adding a whole bunch of information would really slow the program down and turn it into something that it is not meant to be. ATP has been doing this for a very long time, they know what they are doing.
Just saw this. Great news as I was getting ready to purchase online. I’ve also seen Sheperds videos mentioned. Definitive purchase? Does King only cover PPL and Sheperds from there? Thanks!
I’m not as familiar with the Kings test prep. The Sheppard test prep are not videos. They are question banks that come with Sheppard’s study strategy.
Based off your previous posts on another thread, I thought you made a statement about your son taking an intro flight at ATP with intentions of enrolling afterwards. If that’s what ends up happening, both Kings and Sheppard test prep are included in the tuition.
Final note, it has been suggested by another mentor once before, it really is best that your son come forward and make his own inquiries. Doing all of this leg work is part of the process of becoming a pilot.