i agree with welshman on getting more dives under weightbelt before rushing into advanced courses.
there was a week when my wife spent to to fine tune her weight (dropped 6lbs from her weight belt over 8 dives). she took AOW a week later and aced the navigation bit - she was diving in a better profile (VS probably a lot more heads-up), was less busy managing her bouyancy (yup, important in navigation lest you lose track of where you are), more familiar with her gear, etc.
i on the other hand, did the express bit - OW to AOW within a month. i'm still learning the 'A' bit - i think i'm okay with natural and compass navigation, finally. deep dive i had to relearn. night dive so so. boatdive - finally got some of it right (keep your reg in your mouth not because that's what your DM or instructor says but because it's safer in case you fall back in the water).
anyways - do more dives before doing the AOW. the dives you do in between help with muscle memory, make some things intuitive, and help develop a routine that makes task balancing a lot easier (e.g. in what sequence do you check depth Vs time Vs air Vs your buddy Vs your serrounding Vs the marine life around you, etc).
you'll actually learn, and appreciate and assimilate what you learn that much more. after all, you're not as busy with the other things mentioned above.
there was a week when my wife spent to to fine tune her weight (dropped 6lbs from her weight belt over 8 dives). she took AOW a week later and aced the navigation bit - she was diving in a better profile (VS probably a lot more heads-up), was less busy managing her bouyancy (yup, important in navigation lest you lose track of where you are), more familiar with her gear, etc.
i on the other hand, did the express bit - OW to AOW within a month. i'm still learning the 'A' bit - i think i'm okay with natural and compass navigation, finally. deep dive i had to relearn. night dive so so. boatdive - finally got some of it right (keep your reg in your mouth not because that's what your DM or instructor says but because it's safer in case you fall back in the water).
anyways - do more dives before doing the AOW. the dives you do in between help with muscle memory, make some things intuitive, and help develop a routine that makes task balancing a lot easier (e.g. in what sequence do you check depth Vs time Vs air Vs your buddy Vs your serrounding Vs the marine life around you, etc).
you'll actually learn, and appreciate and assimilate what you learn that much more. after all, you're not as busy with the other things mentioned above.