Help choosing study text - Osborne or BPP books? Or even Kaplan?

Louise273

Has anyone had experience of using Osborne and BPP books? Which ones seem easier to follow/would you recommend?

At first glance they all seem pretty straight forward but I've read a lot of reviews that Kaplan over-complicate things, that Osborne are good but people have then had to switch to BPP at higher levels and that tutors seem to extract examples from Kaplan.

I'm studying AAT level 2 in the evenings and my tutor doesn't work from textbook so said we don't need to buy any, although I would prefer to have a text I can study from at home and in work. Due to the syllabus changing this year I was thinking of just buying new books but want to avoid being in the situation of having bought all new books, finding out their rubbish and then having to go and spend more on other books!

So basically, any thoughts on what books to invest in?

topcat

Hi Louise,

i have no experience of BPP.

Kaplan books in my opinion are terrible you can spend a good hour trying to figure out why your answer is different to theirs on questions and realize they are wrong, this inst just one or two questions either the books are saturated with mistakes. They do tend to waffle and waffle and waffle some more before finally getting to the point. You do get a "free" online section with Kaplan with extra practice tests etc

Osbourne are the best for me clear concise, they do have a few mistakes but no where near as many as Kaplan. They are very quick to address any mistakes with a PDF document of corrections you can download on their website. Also for me personally i can follow them a lot easier.

My college is using Kaplan for level 4 on a few units but have decided to buy Osbourne out of my own pocket for those modules to use outside of college.

If you do go with Osbourne i have found buying direct from them to be the cheapest, they have quite a bit of discount on :thumbup1:

Worth having a look at this thread to

http://forums.aat.org.uk/showthread.php?37989-Kaplan-v-Osbourne-Books
For level 2 i used Osbourne for every unit and passed every exam first time

Jo Clark

Hello Louise

BPP for me every time and I, like topcat also passed all exams for all levels first time. BPP also give online access to the text and practice questions. It really is all down to personal preference and budget.. you may like to purchase both for extra question practice etc.

It may be worth seeing if you can borrow a copy from your local library or obtain a copy from eBay/Amazon to see which you prefer. I believe Foyles offer a 20% discount on BPP text books - if you search the forum for posts by NPS there is a discount code hidden in there somewhere!


JC