Budgeting CBA - 6 December 2010

The parts of the paper that I managed were pretty straightforward - following the format of the practice paper on here and in the Osborne books very closely.

I'm really angry about it - having experienced many HMRC IT screw ups over the years, this was very similar - poor planning, poor execution, utter denial.

Sandy - I sent a very polite email last week (toned down 1000% from the diatribe I originally intended to send) before posting on here. I have not received the courtesy of a response to that email, which is, frankly, inexcusable, unprofessional and insulting.

Today I have received by email, a "CBA Update" as follows:

"Dear AAT student member

Computer based assessments – 25 November to 14 December 2010

I would like to apologise to all of you who have experienced problems when taking your computer based assessments over the past couple of weeks and to take this opportunity to explain to you why this happened, and what we are doing about it.

Why the problems occured

At the end of November, we encountered an unforeseen problem whereby results held locally at centres were not synchronised with a central server. This meant that when the system attempted to upload results, a blockage occurred. As many students were attempting to take their CBAs, a failure in the system occurred.

As soon as we were informed of this problem, AAT promptly acted to identify the problem and find a solution for both you and your training provider.

Your training provider

On 2 December, and again on 7 December, all training providers were sent a message to apologise for the disruption caused by these technical issues and advise them of some measures they could take to minimise these disruptions to students.

We also advised them that we had requested a comprehensive upgrading and reconfiguring our servers to reduce the risks of any further problems. Because this has to be done by a third party it was not possible to arrange this for any earlier than overnight on Thursday 16 December. We shall be closely monitoring all CBA activity on Friday 17 December to ensure that everything is working as it should be.

I would like to assure you that your training provider is not to blame for any of the technical problems, delays in taking your assessment or re-scheduling of assessments. Like you, they have been frustrated by the added stress caused by these difficulties and have been doing all they can to minimise the disruptions to you.

Level 4 computer based assessments

We know that a number of you taking computer based assessments at Level 4 have experienced major problems with disconnections and ’losing’ text. All of these instances have been reported to us and we will manually check each one of those assessments to see if any work has been lost. We will contact individuals concerned, and your training providers, in January 2011 to confirm your result.

Why were there no paper based assessments?

A number of you have asked us why we did not have a paper based contingency plan in place. The flexibility of the computer based system means that the contingency to rearrange assessments at short notice can be done relatively quickly and at anytime throughout the year.

While a computer based test can be arranged within days, it takes many months to organise a paper-sitting. Nevertheless, in view of the recent experience, we are reviewing our contingency arrangements.

What next?

Despite any disruption, all of you who have taken computer based assessments at levels 2 and 3 will have been advised of your result at the end of your assessment. This result will be uploaded to your MyAAT account. There might be some delay in doing this due to the backlog of results, but please be assured that we are working to do this as quickly as we can.

Whatever level you are at, if we find from the centre reports that your performance was affected by any technical problems during your assessment, we will ensure that you are not penalised because of these difficulties. Either your result will be adjusted or we will issue a credit for your assessment fee.

Contacting AAT

Finally, I would like to apologise to all of you who have not been successful in getting through to us on the telephone or are still waiting to have your email answered. I can assure you that we are doing all we can to respond to everyone as quickly as possible. The unprecedented volume of calls and emails over the past few weeks, coupled with the need to sort out the technical problems themselves, has put a severe strain on our resources.

Please be assured that we are working hard to restore your confidence in AAT and our computer based assessments.

Yours faithfully


Patricia M McDonagh
Head of Education and Training Operations and Partnerships"

There are parts of this update which I know will be disputed by training providers. Personally, I have little faith in the CBA system - I feel that the questions are poorly structured and not a proper test of student's abilities.

The whole episode is shambolic, I believe I am entitled to expect better from "the UK's leading qualification and membership body for accounting staff".