Can I Book The Exams??

Clayy1990

I was just wondering if i could book my exams myself without having to go through the learning provider (home learning college) ??
It's just taking an age to do so through them.
Anybody with any help on this would be fantastic to hear off you :-)
Cheers
Liam

billdoor

Which exams are you trying to book? Have you paid for them as part of your course or do you usually have to book them seperately?

If you're trying to book a CBT, you should just be able to go ahead and do so. I self-study and book my exams with BPP a couple of weeks in advance. I've looked into booking an exam with Kaplan once, as an external candidate and there's no problem with that.

Clayy1990

The course i pay for has all fees included...
Just trying to book BA1 and 2 .

liveprincess

In that case I think if you wanted to book them yourself you will have to pay to the exam centre. You might have difficulties getting the money back from your training provider.

billdoor

Yeah you might not get money back - what's the process for booking with the HLC? With BPP you just phone them up and book the date, is it similar with HLC?

I tried booking one with Kaplan even though I'd paid for the course with BPP on Level 2 - I could do it but would have had to pay all the fees to Kaplan.

If it helps, BPP don't charge you loads of extra fees so you can book an exam with them for £33 I think for Level 2.

Clayy1990

Well i'm meant to email my available months for the exam i wanna take. Then apparently i have to sit and wait for them... i first put my application in in September for October and then received an email a few days ago saying it would be November time. Which means anything i've learnt in August/September will now have to be put on the back burner until November and beyond. A little disheartening really because i don't wanna move on too far with my course through fear of forgetting previous stuff.

liveprincess

change your training provider as soon as you can

Clayy1990

I'm tied in until i've completed level 2&3 ... :huh:

billdoor

That sounds like a really rubbish set-up for the exams.

If you're tied in then I think I'd try the following:

1) If you can afford it, book exams yourself using other training providers, as an external student. See what's closest to you - as I said above, BPP charge £33 for Level 2 exams and they're usually easy to book, I've just started a module for Level 3 and need to book my exam for it - I've no doubt I'll be able to book it for next Thursday or the Thursday after.

2) If you can't afford to sit your exams elsewhere, then try and plan ahead as to what modules you're going to sit and when, and e-mail the HLC as far in advance as you can to try and get a date sorted.

Hope you can get something sorted.

Spamkebab

Do the AAT still endorse/recommend Home Learning College?

You may be best contacting AAT and voicing your concerns, there are a couple of posts on this forum about students and troubles with HLC. To be honest, i think you have chosen the worst training provider (judging by feedback) did they give you the hard sell? pushy salesman? they are supposed to have "changed their ways" but judging by your story it seems not.

Wish you all the best Liam.

Neil

Sammmy88

I get hounded everyday as i was just enquiring about a course from them!

Spamkebab

Study is hard enough without being messed around by a training provider, i have used Kaplan all the way through but did ask for a quote off HLC right at the beginning, after reading up on the different providers i steered well clear of HLC.

Students posts about training provider troubles sicken me, study is supposed to be enjoyable not a chore.

I hope someone from AAT read this and help Liam resolve his problems QUICK SMART!

Clayy1990

Tbh i think i have been a bit duped, after reading various feedback on here anyway. It's just a little disheartening, i've just got myself into a junior role in an accountants local to myself and really wanted to impress and push on and complete my course quickly and efficiently and it seems i'm not going be able to do this. I have a lot of money to pay out and as you say it looks like i'll be doing 1 exam a month for the next 18months at this rate!!

Other aspects haven't been too bad and i'm not the type of person to complain about everything, i usually just get on with it all, but it's definitely not at the standard i expect. I must admit i've gotten far more out of the AAT Green Light section than anywhere else.