Level 3 - do you need to take a year?

Georgie T

Hello to all,

I am just about to start Level 3 with Kaplan Financial in London.

There seems to be an option to complete level 3 in 6 or 12 months. Is it a bit ambitious to do it in 6 months, doing Level 2 was very do-able in 6 months, is Level 3 also do-able? I know its 7 exams and not 5, but I could easilyhave managed a further 2 exams in that period.

I have the time to dedicate (thats to say I am not working).

Has anyone done it successfully? whilst they were working / not working? Did anyone do it over 12 months and find it a bit drawn out?

I did Level 2 over 6 months and found there were periods where nothing much seemed to be happening, ie weeks where there were no classes ( I was doing day classes which typically was NOT a day a week, infact there were 12 teaching days over that period).

I have been job hunting, it was my intention to dovetail Level 3 with working in an accounting environment but that has been spectacularly unsuccessful, nobody much wants to employ you in accounts when you have no experience and not even completed AAT, and financial recruitment agencies are not even prepared to put you forward for any role no matter how junior.

any comments appreciated!!


GT

Jo Clark

Hello Georgie

I'm currently studying level 3 and work full time - except for the day that I have as day release to college. I started level 3 in September last year and hope to have it finished by the end of this month which will make it 7 months.

I think that you can easily complete level 3 in 6 months.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.

JC

Rinske

Hi Georgie,

I work full time and did level 3 on the old NVQ standards, but it took me around 4,5 - 5 months to finish. I started at the start of February and finished it in June.

If you are not working and have the time and motivation, I'm sure it is doable to do it in 6 months, and I think even if you would find a job, you would still be able to finish the level 3 within the six months.

sdv

Georgie T wrote: »

Hello to all,


I have the time to dedicate (thats to say I am not working).

I did Level 2 over 6 months and found there were periods where nothing much seemed to be happening, ie weeks where there were no classes ( I was doing day classes which typically was NOT a day a week, infact there were 12 teaching days over that period).

I have been job hunting, it was my intention to dovetail Level 3 with working in an accounting environment but that has been spectacularly unsuccessful, nobody much wants to employ you in accounts when you have no experience and not even completed AAT, and financial recruitment agencies are not even prepared to put you forward for any role no matter how junior.

any comments appreciated!!


GT

As per AAT guideline you can do the units in the following hours

AP1 90 hours
AP2 60 hours
Cash Management 50 Hours
costs and revenues 80 hours
indirect tax 40 hours
Ethics 30 hours
Spreadsheets 60 hours

total 410 hours

Theoratically It's doable in 3 months

Georgie T

sdv wrote: »

As per AAT guideline you can do the units in the following hours

AP1 90 hours
AP2 60 hours
Cash Management 50 Hours
costs and revenues 80 hours
indirect tax 40 hours
Ethics 30 hours
Spreadsheets 60 hours

total 410 hours

Theoratically It's doable in 3 months

Where did you get those figures from on the AAT site? AP1 - 90 hours? that sounds like a lot of hours, with Kaplan, they schedule 3 teaching days and 2 exam prep days for that unit, thats 5 1/2 hours per teaching day, so 27 1/2 hours total.

Which means another 60 hours of revision at home? thats a very long working week!!

thanks for your input.

Georgie T

thanks to you two others for making those comments, its food for thought.

sdv

Georgie T wrote: »

Where did you get those figures from on the AAT site? AP1 - 90 hours? that sounds like a lot of hours, with Kaplan, they schedule 3 teaching days and 2 exam prep days for that unit, thats 5 1/2 hours per teaching day, so 27 1/2 hours total.

Which means another 60 hours of revision at home? thats a very long working week!!

thanks for your input.

go to the AAT website and

type "ROC" in the search box and open a document called ROC UK. this document lists AAT level 3 has 41 credits. Each credit is works at 10hours of learning. (both at College and independent learning)

You can also search for "Guided learning hours" and this document advises colleges and AAT centres on how many hours tuition should be given to the students and that lists 335 hours. (that leaves 75 hours for independent learning)

Any tuition provider need not follow the AAT guide lines. They can deliver their programmes in lesser or more hours then recommended by AAT.

Certainly the Level 2 Guided learning hours of 140 is a very challenging for any colleges who are delivering the AAT programmes to students who have not worked in an accounting environment before.