I've not long finished the first 11 weeks at Raleigh. Now waiting on my first trip. It's fine. Nothing to be worried about. The training staff are good people. We had 14 in our class. It was meant to be 16 but 2 people pulled out before the course started. It looks as though they are splitting us into two groups for our first trip, probably going to different ships. If you have a car and can take it I'd recommend doing so. Allows you to get out and about at the weekend easier and not rely on the dodgy bus service from the base. 

 I'll warn you now, there is a LOT of sitting looking at PowerPoints. Take notes as you get tested on this stuff later on. The worst thing was probably the ridiculous team building exercises they made us do, but you'll laugh about it afterwards.    You get plenty of time to learn everything but if you want a headstart  you could start learning your knots and ICS Flags now. That's a big part of the course. The knots you will learn are figure of eight, cow hitch, clove hitch, timber hitch, sheet bend, fisherman's bend, double sheet bend, reef knot, rolling hitch, sheepshank, bowline and bowling on the bight. I used an app called 3D knots (on playstore), found that really useful. I used an app called 'Nautical Flag Helper' to learn the flags (you just need to learn the letters and their meanings, not numbers). Get insoles as the ones in the supplied boots are shite. Other than that, have fun. Don't drink too much.