How long does it take to prepare for the Advanced Synoptic Exam?

thelowendtheory18

Hi All

for those of you that has already taken the Advanced Synoptic Exam how long did it take you to prepare of the exam?? (including the revision phase)

The reason i'm asking is that i'm trying to work out if i'm going to give myself enough time to sit on the September-19 Synoptic window if i'm giving myself 10 Weeks to prepare ( still to sit FAPR/IDRX/MMAC)

If i go for the August Synoptic Window I'll be giving myself 7 weeks to prepare for the exam ( seems a bit of a stretch to me???)

I need to commit to the Synoptic soon as my local exam centre gets booked out so quickly!

BTW i'm a Distance Leaner using 'On Demand' facilities

Cheers

Norvydas

@thelowendtheory18

7 weeks it's plenty. It took me around 4-5 weeks to prepare for Advanced/Professional Synoptic.

Remember, Synoptic tests your knowledge of previous exams you've already taken, therefore you won't be learning anything new, just going through and refreshing your knowledge of the past units you've already done.

As I said 7 weeks it's plenty.

thelowendtheory18

Norvydas said:

@thelowendtheory18

7 weeks it's plenty. It took me around 4-5 weeks to prepare for Advanced/Professional Synoptic.

Remember, Synoptic tests your knowledge of previous exams you've already taken, therefore you won't be learning anything new, just going through and refreshing your knowledge of the past units you've already done.

As I said 7 weeks it's plenty.

Wouldn't there be a learning phase for the spreadsheet accounting? ( I'm not sure how detailed/complex the Excel element of the exam is?)

Norvydas

@thelowendtheory18

If you have basic knowledge of how to use excel and formulas you will be okay. Just practice goal-seek and IF.

I work with Excel everyday, therefore I didn't struggle with any aspect of it and found it quite easy.

The exam is based about formulas, goal-seek function, creating comparative charts and etc. It's not that difficult

thelowendtheory18

OK, I already have at least a basic knowledge of excel so should be OK,

The pass rate is only circa 50% so it seems like a lot of people struggle with it????

Norvydas

@thelowendtheory18

I think a lot of people struggle with Excel spreadsheets, as some of the people have never used/seen excel in their life, therefore it's hard for them to get used to it. Most people lose their marks on this section, also they run out time because they are not familiar with the layout of excel.

Make sure you're familiar with Excel, when I started revising for spreadsheets and when I saw what formulas we required to learn or what charts we needed to produce, I skipped half of the revision as everything was extremely basic.

KLM

Hi @Norvydas

How much time did you spend on the Excel part of the assessment, if you don't mind me asking?

I am quite familiar with the basics of Excel, but having read some of the comments on here, I am a little bit worried about it! I'm a distance learner with Premier Training as you were, so I'm interested to know how you found it.

Norvydas

@KLM

I can't exactly remember now because I've done it nearly a year ago so I don't want to misguide you. I think it took me around 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Trust me it's nothing complicated, just know the main formulas i.e. SUM,IF,VLOOKUP etc, if you know how they work in your head already then it will be a lot easier for you. Also be confident with Goal-Seek and making charts. Again, for me this wasn't a problem as I already knew most of the stuff from my workplace, I think the only thing that I wasn't familiar with was Goal seek.

KLM

@Norvydas

Thanks for the advice.

I haven't got much experience with charts or goal-seek, so I'll make sure I pay attention to these in particular.

It just worried me with people saying they've run out of time and hadn't finished the Excel part of the assessment. I've found I've had plenty of time in the assessments I've completed so far, so didn't want to be unprepared with this one.

Thanks again!