Studying For Success

No pain no gain as they say.  Hard work is the foundation of success and when you are competing against 1000's of others you need to put in the work so here are my top tips of breaking into the wonderful airline industry.

The training school process is full on, there's no way around that so go in expecting some chaos, but after a long day full of classes, new information, continuously meeting people and trying to eat in between, studying can become tedious for even the most eager student… below are a few little tricks that helped me study in style without the stress 😃

Make friends! You can help each other. Simple as that – be approachable, fun, talkative and show an interest in those around you, you're all in this to win so you might as well win together. Study groups are beneficial when practicing drills, door operations, or even quizzing each other for tests. Make it fun! (ex: flight attendant game show. who can hit the buzzer with the correct answer the fastest?!) If you get stressed in new situations there are plenty of short online Ted talks on meeting new people and making friends. HERE is a good one! It’s “7 Ways to Make a Conversation With Anyone” by Malavika Varadan.

Two words: pickle chart. Drawing a pickle chart is a great way to help get familiarized with the aircraft and where equipment is located before you even step foot inside the plane (fun to do with a friend!). Be prepared to draw a lot, like a lot a lot, there are dozens of plane layouts to memorize, and practice is going to be crucial to success here.

Participate and volunteer in class. Believe it or not, this will help to prepare you for performing these tasks in front of the 100+ strangers you'll be interacting with from now on! Yay 😃 I know that can sound easier than it is though… different personalities, cultures and so on all come into play, but you need to go for it – after you've done it once it will be much easier. Take a breath, be confident and give it your best shot… and if you mess it up? Well, that's the whole point of training… to learn.

Don't overwhelm yourself. Take breaks as you feel you need them – there's nothing wrong with taking a nap or watching your favorite show to zone out for a little. Your instructors are setting you up for success, not failure!

Things to buy! - Notebooks, highlighters, and pens oh my! You will definitely need to take lots of notes during class. Highlighting key points in different colors will help you to zone in on what the overall lesson was about and what to focus on while studying on your own time. I found it helpful to dedicate each aircraft to its own notebook. For example, I have one of the many notebooks titled "Boeing 737 Notes".

Things to Download! Quizlet is a great app to store flashcards when studying on the go. I found that the Quizlet app really helped me keep my notes organized and is a great tool for a quick skim over notes right before a test. Download it NOW!