Level 3 Synoptic Exam

AbbyCarr

I sent my complaint to customersupport@aat.org.uk
Bear in mind responses are taking a long time at the moment. But please do give feedback on your experience. I'm not sure if it would be beneficial to call, I don't know how busy the lines are.

piper123

I have emailed but still no response. I have just called AAT about what happened and it seems like they can't do anything. The guy I spoke to said I have to wait the 6 weeks for my results BUT I am still not allowed to resit in July as it's the week I get my results (if they're on time), meaning I would have to resit it bringing us into late August! I expressed how that was too late because I'm supposed to be moving to University in September but nothing can be done. He said that because there was an incident report my exam will be under special consideration, but too little work in part 2 was there for me ever to pass. I also talked about this forum and how there are many others that had issues and he claimed it's the assessment centres fault for the exam freezing not AAT. I've called my university admissions and they've asked me to email all evidence for a special circumstances consideration.

AbbyCarr

@piper123 I'm having the same issue with the Level 4 Synoptic, results take 6 weeks and a few days so it's unlikely I can book the resit for my exam as it would be a few days after! I received a response by email after 10 days, just to say they were looking into it. The people on the phones don't seem to have any information, so we may all just have to wait for a response by email. Hopefully the quantity of issues and complaints will force them to take some form of action. I'm so sorry to hear about your university situation, I've heard of a few people in a similar position. I hope that they'll take the circumstances into consideration! There has been way too many technical issues on the Level 3 synoptic to blame assessment centres, it's likely to have happened at all types of centres! I had a technical error in my Budgeting exam in Level 4, and they said it was my centres fault and they wouldn't give me any consideration or the rest of my class. Fingers crossed for everyone involved.

Hayleybubs

We are due our results around the 9th July and the next sitting for synopsis assessments is 11th -13th ish my tutor has told us we will be re-sitting in that next window as we will not be able to enrol for level 4 in time if we do not??? So did AAT say different?

piper123

The AAT person I spoke to me said I would not be able to resit in July because we aren't even allowed to book the exam until we get the results. You may not actually get your results onto the 13th July because they have the week window, plus others have reported that they received their results longer than 6 weeks.

AbbyCarr

@Hayleybubs It depends on your college's ability to book in the resit. My college already has dates booked for resits. My resit will be the week commencing 3rd July and my result is due 27th June. The resit is booked for 4th July, but this is open to all students, so those who have failed other exams. It's not likely there will be space for us all to resit our synoptic. And those who have failed other exams will have to decide which to resit. I know people have said it can take weeks to book in at Kaplan centres for exams, so they'd struggle to accommodate people for the synoptic resit. If your college has allocated an exam resit for that week, then you shouldn't have any issues sitting it then it just all depends on the flexibility available to you

madformusic

The dates for July synpotic are 10th to 16th July . College may require you to pass to start level 4 but Aat do not require that

piper123

The AAT person I spoke to me said I would not be able to resit in July because we aren't even allowed to book the exam until we get the results. You may not actually get your results onto the 13th July because they have the week window, plus others have reported that they received their results longer than 6 weeks.

AlisonSwanson

> @piper123 said:
> .......I also talked about this forum and how there are many others that had issues and he claimed it's the assessment centres fault for the exam freezing not AAT. I've called my university admissions and they've asked me to email all evidence for a special circumstances consideration.

piper123 you should receive your exam results the week before the ADSY Synoptic July window. Screen freezing is just one of the many problems students and staff are having with this assessment nationally. If you need evidence for your university application then take some screen shots of the comments made on this forum. Is your tutor signed up to the Tutor forum? There are lots of comments/feedback relating to this assessment on there.

AbbyCarr

I'll get my results a week before the next window, well supposed to. But people are saying they come out on a Friday. My exams are always on a Tuesday, so it would be too late to sign on to do the exam. I think it's the same for a lot of people, they have to book weeks in advance

AlisonSwanson

I would speak to your provider. Maybe they can be a bit more flexible given the circumstances and put on an extra exam session at the end of the Synoptic window or prioritise Synoptic re-sits? After all, other assessments can be taken at anytime. I am sure they are as concerned about the situation as the students.

AbbyCarr

Luckily I go to a college so I have that option. I know Kaplan centres you have to book weeks in advance, people having to travel further than their normal centre just to sit exams. Unfortunately they probably don't care, or may not have the facility to do that. The AAT screwed up big time with the sittings, there should be more of them to make up for it. As well as That, I've seen people saying results are taking longer than 6 weeks; they clearly don't have the facilities to make the extra exam for each level!

Miss_T_fied999

I had similar issues during the exam which I took on Saturday 27th. My invigilator froze my assessment but this was after 5 mins of head scratching..., she then rang the AAT, who advised restarting my computer. The issues are with the AAT, hence the phone call to them.

Mike Webster

Here's a statement Mark Farrar has made about the issue - hopefully, AAT will not fail people just because the technical issues caused upload issues. We shall see....

Hayleybubs

See I didn't have problems up loading as such, just system freezing 9 times and one spreadsheet was lost completely I did manage to submit all 3 tasks but task 2.2 was the only one I completed as it's the first one I went straight to saving time! I hope if they upgrade people it won't be only those that struggled to upload, I had so many issues and lost a lot of time too

annvboys

I have not read all of the comments above by any means but a quick scan of the first lot certainly reflect my experience and that of my fellow students.

I have heard lots of accounts of technical errors, crashes etc and running out of time as well as things coming up that were not covered in practice papers. At first I wondered if it was the systems at my college but it has become very apparent that this is a nationwide AAT issue and is causing a great deal of stress and tension during a tricky enough time anyway.

I didn't have a problem with technical hitches as I made the monumental error of hitting FINISH after the first section and was not even able to attempt the spreadsheets. Because the clock had ticked down to nearly 1.5 hours, and I knew I was not going to do any more on that section, I hit finish expecting the second section to appear but no such joy. It was the end and I had to leave and now must wait to resit in 6 weeks. In the practice exams I'd done the clock started from 3hours and not 1 and a half. I know it was my fault but I just feel that the exam could have done more to help prevent me from making this silly mistake which meant I didn't even give myself a chance to pass the ruddy thing! When the pop up appears to make you confirm you want to finish I think it should be possible for it to look different from all the other exams (which up to now have only had 1 set of tasks) and should highlight the fact that you have not even attempted half of the test.

I was massively disappointed and annoyed that I hadn't even given myself the chance to pass. From what I have heard from my classmates, however, nobody has felt good about it and all think they will be with me in July.

Niky

I sat my exam on 26th May. Having passed all other exams quite easily this was a really nightmare.
Most of the tasks were really badly worded so pretty confusing.

Also I had a problem with downloading the spreadsheets - in the end they had to close my test and and open it again to make it work so I lost some time at part 2 ( at that time I was pretty stressed as I wasn't sure if I was doing something wrong or the program is not working).

Overall I think there is not enough time to finish all three spreadsheet task at part two as the level of difficulty was really high.

I am very disappointed as I work really hard for it - went through all materials and mock assessment which were much more easier and straightforward than the live assessment.

Higaara_Nakamura

I have just received an email from AAT customer support saying that the time for completing the Excel spreadsheets was adequate... lol, are they for real?

AATBIKER

They are kidding, it will be interesting to see just how many people completed all three tasks I bet it's not many!

Hayleybubs

I submitted all 3! ......... all of them partially completed

EllaS

I sat L3 Synoptic on 23 May, with 8 other students from the same class. Of the 9 of us, 2 managed to complete & upload the full test. 2 clicked 'Next' to progress to Part B and got logged out of the exam as if they'd clicked 'Finish', the remaining 5 had significant issues with downloading from Excel and ended up aborting the exam, with incident reports & complaints submitted.
I have since had a number of emails from AAT, most recently this week, firstly saying that my assessment was still showing as 'awaiting upload' and that results would not be available until 6 weeks after submission. The day after I received this, AAT emailed the college to say that there were 5 students with 'awaiting uploaded' - guess which five!. I then asked the college to void this exam so that I am able retry in July. The day after college arranged to do this and had received email confirmation from AAT that they'd received what was needed - AAT emailed me again, to say that college hadn't submitted an incident report and were still waiting for my assessment to be uploaded.
Does nobody talk to anyone else? How many departments are actually dealing with the fiasco of the synoptic window in May?
Has anyone else who had to abandon their assessment due to Excel/SecureAssess issues been advised that AAT haven't received any uploaded material?
Very much hoping that AAT get their act together by 10 July when the next assessment window opens....

salma1011

Yes many students had the same issues. Don t worry AAT is looking at it. Heard that in July they will have 50 minutes extra and 10% marks extra. Can not confirm it is true. And still don t know how they are going to mark us (May).

salma1011

> @salma1011 said:
> Yes many students had the same issues. Don t worry AAT is looking to it.

JayKallee

salma1011 said:

Yes many students had the same issues. Don t worry AAT is looking at it. Heard that in July they will have 50 minutes extra and 10% marks extra. Can not confirm it is true. And still don t know how they are going to mark us (May).

Could you confirm the source of the information regarding this extra 50 minutes AAT is considering?

madformusic

Can't imagine that is the case!

Hayleybubs

10% extra marks? And 50minutes! Does that mean the people that have already sat will get 10% added to their grade?

Ellada

Does anyone pass synoptic?? Please share you experience...What helped you to pass the exam? How did you do your preparation?

Ellada

And the most important question about 10% extra mark and 50 minutes!!! Does anyone can confirm this information? Guys, where did you get this info from?

AlisonSwanson

The AAT have not said this. There has been 15 minutes added onto section 2

annvboys

There were 15 minutes added to section 2 before the May sitting. We await news of Friday's meeting to see what, if any, changes are planned for July given the debacle May turned out to be.....