I'm about to leave for BLC. How difficult a school would you rate it?

This is of course a subjective question and possible answers may prep you for success, as well as failure. Regardless of level of difficulty others may have, or their level of annoyance, or their past, present, and future capabilities; it is recommended to go into any course the Army sends you to and learn as much as possible. One ideally will want to stay motivated and focus on coming out with additional knowledge of how to lead in a complex world. It is not recommended to go in there with any less attitude than coming out doing the best you could. These schools are here to develop us and anything mentality less than doing ones best is unacceptable. With that being said, remember why your there but by all means, have fun and make connections with other leaders.

The most difficult things you will have is APFT and map reading, if you are proficient in both you will have no problems. but keep in mind that there is much more than those two areas you will face.

I can't speak for BLC but when I was in PLDC is was not a "pay attention you will be fine" type of school. Our group graduated with less than half from what we started with. That being said, most people got dropped after land nav and their PT test so if you can pass those like every soldier is supposed to anyway, you'll be fine. Good Luck and Congrats.

CTRL + F is all you need to know

Pay attention in class room and excel in APFT and you will be fine the rest is based upon your leadership abilities

I too am getting ready to head to BLC, what post will you be completing the course at SGT?

It's predominately an academic environment, less so a training environment. I went through WLC 5 years ago (under the watchful eye of the Sergeant Major Academy BTW), but I've been told its changed a bit since then. I have a guy in it now, and he recently informed me it's still Death by PowerPoint, but Land Nav has returned apparently and as the Army has been drifting back to a garrison Army, they are being sticklers for formality.

Make sure you have EVERYTHING on the packing list. I heard just this weekend at BA, they were sending people home who didn't have their dress blues, shoes, etc. Also, from my experience they like to put Infantry in charge of things--whether it's confidence in the proper "dress-right-dress" rigidity of life as a grunt or because they secretly hope to seeing Infantry fail, I don't know--but especially when doing situational training exercises, don't be surprised if you are tasked to lead. Oh, and know your NCO creed!

Unless it has changed so much since I was there, most do just fine in BLC/WLC/PLDC-whatever its called at a given moment in history. We only had one person fail in our entire class, and our class had about a dozen Jordanian students in it (and they all passed!). In fact, with just a modicum of effort, you'll likely make Commandant's List!

Good luck, and have some fun with it.

It should not challenge you half as much as Air Assault. I'm not even sure how much you have to pay attention. Keep in mind though I went through PLDC years ago, and I had 8 years experience with the military prior to attending. It might be different now.

I'm sure it has evolved since my time...at least the name has, twice (PLDC, WLC, BLC), but I found it exceedingly easy. It's a lot of classroom, a little bit of PT, a little bit of D&C, and I'd bet that as an Infantryman, you'll find the field portion to be a joke.

It's as hard as you make it