SPSW Spreadsheet CBA

Jo Clark

Hello All

Just wondering if anyone has sat the SPSW CBA yet?

How did it go, have you received your results (I understand they are not instant) and was the actual assessment much like the practice assessment, Muddlestone?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards.

JC

guinea pig

SPSW Spreadsheet CBA

I took this last month, the actual exam was fine, but the instructions and uploading was challenging. I was told a couple of days later that I hadn't uploaded it all (I knew I had) and that I would have to re-take! I was not very impressed, anyway, they managed to find it, and I had passed. I think I may have been one of the first to take it????

Jo Clark

Thanks for the reply. It does sound like you may have been one of the first to sit the 'live' CBP.

I have completed the practice assessment and found it fairly straight forward apart from the way one or two of the questions were worded and also wanting to do things e.g. formatting etc. before being asked!

I have my real CBP this week so fingers crossed and hope that the assessment and the uploading run smoothly.

guinea pig

spreadsheet exam

Good luck!
I found it hard to stick to following the instructions, as I normally do so many things automatically when I set up a spreadsheet!
The practice questions with the spreadsheets in the Osborne book were very good.

Nia

Jo, how did you find the spreadsheets exam? I'm doing it in a couple of weeks and was wondering what the wording was like (ie was it well set out or confusing - I know in the past AAT have got workbooks/worksheets mixed up)

Jo Clark

Hello Nia

Apologies to all for the following post - it's rather long!

The SPSW CBP was fine. I'm not sure how much you know about the process for sitting a CBP rather than a CBA, so forgive me if I tell you information you already know.

You are allowed 2 1/2 hours for the exam. You need to logon to MyAAT and then go to your e-portfolio. The centre where I sat the CBP gave me a hard copy set of instructions telling me how to do this. You can logon before you sit the CBP to check that you can access this area of the website. You may even see that your assessor will have scheduled your CBP (it shows the date due). Don't panic if it isn't there too far in advance of the day you are due to sit it. I think mine appeared a week or so beforehand. You are given a key code to access your CBP.

Once you access the CBP you download two files - the question booklet, which I printed and checked off points as I actioned them. You also need to 'tick' the box declaring that it is your own work, enter your name and some other information like centre number etc. and also answer some 'wordy' questions towards the back of the word document. The other document you download is the spreadsheet data file which you will use the data from!

It is all fairly straight forward if you follow the instructions.

The wording of each question was fine and the paper and each question was well set out. I don't recall there being any confusion between workbooks/worksheets in the CBP paper.

I had a fantastic tutor/assessor for this module. It was all dealt with via online learning and I was lucky to have access to an excellent forum to interact with my tutor and other students. My tutor was also very prompt when replying to forum posts and emails.

My centre advised that the results take approximately 2-4 weeks to come thorugh as they are externally and internally verified (I believe). I was very lucky in that my assessor emailed me the day after I sat the CBP with my result. I can now concentrate on the two exams I have left to complete in March.

Final point - do complete the practice assessment (Muddlestone) on the AAT website. I can't recommend it enough - definitely worth working through.

If you have any other questions about SPSW please feel free to contact me directly by PM or post another message here.

Good luck for your sitting in a few weeks - do let me know how you found the paper.

Best wishes.

JC

Nia

Hi Jo

Thanks very much for your reply. Good to hear that the paper was straight forward and well set out.

I've recently completed a couple of CBP's for Level 2, so know the setup. It's great that you've included this info though, I'm sure others will find it very useful.

Thanks again, Nia x

donnas1977

Good Luck for anyone sitting SPSW, am due to sit this on Wednesday. Working through the aat practice assessment later today

Jo Clark

Good luck Donna, I'm sure you will do just fine.

If you have any problems with Muddlestone - do post a message here as there are at least a few people who have sat this paper and I'm sure plenty of others who use spreadsheets would also be only to happy to help

donnas1977

Thanks Jo, I just did the Muddlestone paper and found it not to bad in all. IF statements are ok but when they get added to the VLOOKUP it just confuses me totally. I came across sort this in the revision kit from Kaplan. Going to go through all of them again before Wednesday.

I will post any questions I have when I start these

Donna

Jo Clark

ok Donna - just remember them brackets in your formula!

Nia

I meant to say congratulations on passing your exam Jo!

Good luck for Wednesday Donna!

guinea pig

Congratulations Jo, and good luck to everyone sitting this exam. As mentioned before, its very helpful to do the online Muddlestone test.
I was the first one at my college to do this exam, and still don't have a proper explanation to what went wrong, my tutor could not access my answers to the last question, and although the instructions said to upload before the last question, I did upload right at the end too. Anyway, the exam officer took it up with the AAT, and they found it, and verified I'd passed. Maybe they had to tweak the system? I would recommend saving regularly.

Does anyone else feel that we are guinea pigs for the new syllabus? we have had problems with the exams crashing, text books with mistakes, and hardly any practice tests to use......

Oh well, just professional Ethics, Costing and VAT to do now, anyone done Costing? it looks horrendous at this stage as there is so much to cover!

Jo Clark

Hello Nia and Guinea Pig and thanks for the congrats!

Guinea Pig, I have sat Ethics and Costings, just have cash management and indirect tax to do for Level 3 - any tips or words of wisdom for these two?

There is a lot to costings (I think it is the biggest unit at L3) and I am sure you will be fine. Remember not only do you have your college peers and tutor, you have a great network here of people who can help you if needs be.

donnas1977

Hiya

I sat indirect tax on tuesday afternoon and it wasnt too bad. You get quite a lot of information given in the exam in the form of a booklet with some regulations. It was my second time sitting it as my first one our centre had problems with the cbe etc. Ethics is fine, alot of it is common sense, I sat this in November last year. Costing on the other hand, I struggled with lots trying to remember formulas etc. Thankfully I passed first time.

Donna

guinea pig

Hi Jo,
Have you done the online practice for cash management? It helps to see what its actually like doing it online. It was difficult to organise as we could only do it via the college, and only got one go! It was a bit tricky keep scrolling up and down to see all the info and answer the questions, (we have had to do some exams on laptops which makes it tougher). The actual exam was fine, format very similar to the practice, but I found that I needed most of the time allowed.
Our class is doing professional ethics next week, aiming for the costings exam at the end of April, and VAT some time later. As I have quite a bit of vat knowledge, I may see if I can do that earlier, then will be finished until September! although I may look at doing the third year by distance learning, and starting straight away, as last summer I forgot so much! Are you studying via college or distance learning?
Good luck!

Jo Clark

Hiya Guinea Pig

Unfortunately due to time constraints I have not been able to sit the cash management exam online, but did print the paper off and complete manually. I know what it is like scrolling up and down as I had a lot of that in Costs and Revenues - be good if there were some facility so you can highlight figures you have used etc. or a notepad on screen to makes notes - although we do get note paper in the exam. Good luck with ethics - i'm sure you'll be fine. Did you see my post with links to the case study and quizes on the AAT website?

I attend college one day a week and meet up with a few college mates to study in the evenings and weekends as and when we are all free or have an exam - there is a mix in my group... some new to level 3 and some nearing the end - I think it is a great way to study and help each other out - do you have any similar set up?

I think this forum is brilliant too... although I can email my tutors and ask questions, I think I'd be lost if I couldn't come here to also ask questions!

Do you have any idea who you would do your distance learning through?

sharumba

Well just sat Spreadsheets at cambridge this morning!!!

I think the worst part of the exam is reading the wording very carefully! The tasks seemed fairly straightforward but didn't help when my screen suddenly went off and the young lady had to lie on her back underneath the desk to fix it. lol

fingers crossed for the results

shaun

AngeNixon

Is the exam like the practice paper, or is it very different? I'm due to take mine next tuesday and have had 3 weeks practice. Can do the practice one fine, but have trouble with Lookups and validation, do i need to know these?

Any information is much appreciated, as i think this is the one i'm likely to fail

sharumba

Not sure whether these assessments are all different for each person, but it all seemed standard excel with "if", "max" "min" and "average". Pivot table and conditional formatting.

You have to read the wording very carefully and that is what took the time to be honest!!!

Wasn't asked any vlookup questions etc but obviously you may have them!

Shaun

Jo Clark

Hi

I would recommend working through the practice paper several times until you are happy with applying the various excel functions.

When you sit the CBP, and as Shaun has already said above, read the questions very careful and do exactely as they ask. There are the spreadsheets task and there are also some theory questions to answer.

I can't say what functions you will be tested on, however if you are feeling weaker with validation and vlookup/hlookup why not concentrate on these. You could search the internet for extra practice. Microsoft Knowledge has free excel lessons on various topics so it may be worth working through these. If I find the website addy I'll post it here for you.

JC

Jo Clark

Hiya

Try these...

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/overview-and-samples-of-data-validation-HA001034657.aspx Data Validation

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/vlookup-HP005209335.aspx vlookup

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/hlookup-HP005209114.aspx hlookup


Once on the Microsoft website you can use the search box to enter more excel functions that you may need/like extra guidance with.

Hope these help.

JC

BeccaLouJ9

These links are really good Jo, thanks!

x

Jo Clark

You're most welcome Becca - if I can help others I will

Luby

Im currently getting ready to sit the Cost and Revenue Exam and there was a lot in the syllabus but i found once you have an understanding of most of the stuff it becomes basic. I still get confused with the dr's and cr's with regards to overheads but my tutor isn't the best... not only am i doing CBA's the first year there tried out my tutor has only 2years teaching experience due to the previous tutor being on maternity leave grrrr... Ive been doing the past papers and a few of the questions seem to be bound to crop up like filling in a stock card, apportioning overheads and working out the NPV of assets. But like in all exams knowledge is key