BPP Homestudy courses - expiry date

phunkyphantom22

Hands up if you are aware that BPP AAT home study courses expire after 18 months?

I'm interested to know how many of their students realised this.

sebastianforbes

what are you going to do if it does expire ?

pay a defferrral fee ?!!

just sit the exam when you feel ready. ok, so the tutor support might not be there anymore, but i never used it anyway. that is why i decided to just buy the study/revision texts and then you only have to pay for aat membership and your exams. you can even get all your study texts off ebay (just check the publishing dates).

save yourself so much money !!!

remember, you're the customer, and you make all the choices. that is why there was a huge drop in aat education-provider prices last year.

phunkyphantom22

So who marked your skills tests, portfolio and project then?

What I want to know is how many AAT home study students are aware of this?

sebastianforbes

when it comes to central examinations... i work alone with text-books.

unfortunately, you have no choice with the simulations. do one module at a time... they shouldn't take more than 3 months each.

in my 2nd year, i managed 5, 6, 15, 17 and 32.

no offence intended... but if you're close to the 18 month deadline, then you haven't planned very well.

also, you may be charged a marking fee for repeated (2nd/3rd) simulation sittings if you keep on receiving 'not competent'.

i've asked around... and no-one will accept a fee just for marking your simulation so you'll have to pay the full whack of £130ish per module.

phunkyphantom22

Yes central exam only units you can get away with just buying the books - that's what I did too.

I'm on track with my own skills tests - I just wanted to make other home study students aware of this incase they didn't know, that was all.

Marg22

Which course books are you using?

Sebastian

Are you doing the technician level without a tutor? Which books are you using? I'm on the NVQ route and need to do unit 10 which is a project and I am not sure if I can do that without a tutor.

Thanks

blacksheep

I'm in the same position - i did intermediate at college, but to be honest, dozed through a lot of it, and picked up stuff from the book mostly.
I'm considering trying to do tech without a tutor, since i don't think i'd really use them and the extra £400/500 just for that privilege is a bit steep for me. Using past papers and the sims in the book, i think i might just manage it.
How did you do it? How did you manage come the exams? I reckon i might go for a revision course to make sure i'm on track, but otherwise...


Marg22 - if you're going to work the same way, could we be 'study buddies'..??

King of the Mountains

Sorry, not quite got it, if your not with a college or home study course, where do you sit the simulations and how much does it cost then or there about?

blacksheep

that's sort of my worry.

The exams are no problem, you just book them, but the sims...? I can't remember how that worked at college, and don't know if you have to do any for Tech/Diploma anyway. If you do, I reckon you could probably just send them off the AAT for marking..??

I sent an e-mail to the AAT to ask, but they haven't bothered to reply yet.

phunkyphantom22

AAT do not mark simulations - you need to pay a learning provider to do this. To my knowledge, no learning provider will just be paid to mark a sim - you have to buy the whole unit.

The only units you can get away with just buying the texts and paying the exam fees are the units which only require a central exam to pass.

These units are:

NVQ: Units PEV 8, PCR 9, BTC 18, PTC 19 and DFS 11.
Diploma: Units 30, 5, 6, 11, 33, 18 and 19.

I imagine you can only do this as a homestudy student, as with a college you will pay for the whole level including all the units for that level, not per unit as you do with homestudy courses.

blacksheep

aha! Thats ok then - since the units i was going to give it a go with - diploma 11, 33, 18 and 19 - are all exam only. Unit 10 i'll work on getting a tutor course for later, since i would prefer to have more support for the project anyways.
Thanks for that!

(...bit mean that you have to pay for a provider for the whole course, just to get a sim marked. Some of us can't afford that, after all... :001_rolleyes:)

taskey

i have just had an email stating that i now have to pay 60 quid for a simulation to be sent to me and then marked. i unfortunately was not aware of this when i started. my company paid for the lost ages ago and i have moved around in my personal and work life that studying was not at the front of my queue.

this year i have been cracking on with stuff and have been sitting a simulation per month. only to be told my last one has now expired and all future ones will cost 60 quid.

so needless to say i am going to crack on with it all now, seeing as i have to pay for it each time.

Tracy