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SPSW Spreadsheet CBA
Jo Clark
Font Of All KnowledgeRegistered Posts: 2,525
Hello All
Just wondering if anyone has sat the SPSW CBA yet?
How did it go, have you received your results (I understand they are not instant) and was the actual assessment much like the practice assessment, Muddlestone?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards.
JC
Just wondering if anyone has sat the SPSW CBA yet?
How did it go, have you received your results (I understand they are not instant) and was the actual assessment much like the practice assessment, Muddlestone?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards.
JC
~ An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest ~
Benjamin Franklin
0
Comments
I took this last month, the actual exam was fine, but the instructions and uploading was challenging. I was told a couple of days later that I hadn't uploaded it all (I knew I had) and that I would have to re-take! I was not very impressed, anyway, they managed to find it, and I had passed. I think I may have been one of the first to take it????
I have completed the practice assessment and found it fairly straight forward apart from the way one or two of the questions were worded and also wanting to do things e.g. formatting etc. before being asked!
I have my real CBP this week so fingers crossed and hope that the assessment and the uploading run smoothly.
Good luck!
I found it hard to stick to following the instructions, as I normally do so many things automatically when I set up a spreadsheet!
The practice questions with the spreadsheets in the Osborne book were very good.
Apologies to all for the following post - it's rather long!
The SPSW CBP was fine. I'm not sure how much you know about the process for sitting a CBP rather than a CBA, so forgive me if I tell you information you already know.
You are allowed 2 1/2 hours for the exam. You need to logon to MyAAT and then go to your e-portfolio. The centre where I sat the CBP gave me a hard copy set of instructions telling me how to do this. You can logon before you sit the CBP to check that you can access this area of the website. You may even see that your assessor will have scheduled your CBP (it shows the date due). Don't panic if it isn't there too far in advance of the day you are due to sit it. I think mine appeared a week or so beforehand. You are given a key code to access your CBP.
Once you access the CBP you download two files - the question booklet, which I printed and checked off points as I actioned them. You also need to 'tick' the box declaring that it is your own work, enter your name and some other information like centre number etc. and also answer some 'wordy' questions towards the back of the word document. The other document you download is the spreadsheet data file which you will use the data from!
It is all fairly straight forward if you follow the instructions.
The wording of each question was fine and the paper and each question was well set out. I don't recall there being any confusion between workbooks/worksheets in the CBP paper.
I had a fantastic tutor/assessor for this module. It was all dealt with via online learning and I was lucky to have access to an excellent forum to interact with my tutor and other students. My tutor was also very prompt when replying to forum posts and emails.
My centre advised that the results take approximately 2-4 weeks to come thorugh as they are externally and internally verified (I believe). I was very lucky in that my assessor emailed me the day after I sat the CBP with my result. I can now concentrate on the two exams I have left to complete in March.
Final point - do complete the practice assessment (Muddlestone) on the AAT website. I can't recommend it enough - definitely worth working through.
If you have any other questions about SPSW please feel free to contact me directly by PM or post another message here.
Good luck for your sitting in a few weeks - do let me know how you found the paper.
Best wishes.
JC
Thanks very much for your reply. Good to hear that the paper was straight forward and well set out.
I've recently completed a couple of CBP's for Level 2, so know the setup. It's great that you've included this info though, I'm sure others will find it very useful.
Thanks again, Nia x
If you have any problems with Muddlestone - do post a message here as there are at least a few people who have sat this paper and I'm sure plenty of others who use spreadsheets would also be only to happy to help
I will post any questions I have when I start these
Donna
Good luck for Wednesday Donna!
I was the first one at my college to do this exam, and still don't have a proper explanation to what went wrong, my tutor could not access my answers to the last question, and although the instructions said to upload before the last question, I did upload right at the end too. Anyway, the exam officer took it up with the AAT, and they found it, and verified I'd passed. Maybe they had to tweak the system? I would recommend saving regularly.
Does anyone else feel that we are guinea pigs for the new syllabus? we have had problems with the exams crashing, text books with mistakes, and hardly any practice tests to use......
Oh well, just professional Ethics, Costing and VAT to do now, anyone done Costing? it looks horrendous at this stage as there is so much to cover!
Guinea Pig, I have sat Ethics and Costings, just have cash management and indirect tax to do for Level 3 - any tips or words of wisdom for these two?
There is a lot to costings (I think it is the biggest unit at L3) and I am sure you will be fine. Remember not only do you have your college peers and tutor, you have a great network here of people who can help you if needs be.
I sat indirect tax on tuesday afternoon and it wasnt too bad. You get quite a lot of information given in the exam in the form of a booklet with some regulations. It was my second time sitting it as my first one our centre had problems with the cbe etc. Ethics is fine, alot of it is common sense, I sat this in November last year. Costing on the other hand, I struggled with lots trying to remember formulas etc. Thankfully I passed first time.
Donna
Have you done the online practice for cash management? It helps to see what its actually like doing it online. It was difficult to organise as we could only do it via the college, and only got one go! It was a bit tricky keep scrolling up and down to see all the info and answer the questions, (we have had to do some exams on laptops which makes it tougher). The actual exam was fine, format very similar to the practice, but I found that I needed most of the time allowed.
Our class is doing professional ethics next week, aiming for the costings exam at the end of April, and VAT some time later. As I have quite a bit of vat knowledge, I may see if I can do that earlier, then will be finished until September! although I may look at doing the third year by distance learning, and starting straight away, as last summer I forgot so much! Are you studying via college or distance learning?
Good luck!
Unfortunately due to time constraints I have not been able to sit the cash management exam online, but did print the paper off and complete manually. I know what it is like scrolling up and down as I had a lot of that in Costs and Revenues - be good if there were some facility so you can highlight figures you have used etc. or a notepad on screen to makes notes - although we do get note paper in the exam. Good luck with ethics - i'm sure you'll be fine. Did you see my post with links to the case study and quizes on the AAT website?
I attend college one day a week and meet up with a few college mates to study in the evenings and weekends as and when we are all free or have an exam - there is a mix in my group... some new to level 3 and some nearing the end - I think it is a great way to study and help each other out - do you have any similar set up?
I think this forum is brilliant too... although I can email my tutors and ask questions, I think I'd be lost if I couldn't come here to also ask questions!
Do you have any idea who you would do your distance learning through?
I think the worst part of the exam is reading the wording very carefully! The tasks seemed fairly straightforward but didn't help when my screen suddenly went off and the young lady had to lie on her back underneath the desk to fix it. lol
fingers crossed for the results
shaun
Any information is much appreciated, as i think this is the one i'm likely to fail
You have to read the wording very carefully and that is what took the time to be honest!!!
Wasn't asked any vlookup questions etc but obviously you may have them!
Shaun
I would recommend working through the practice paper several times until you are happy with applying the various excel functions.
When you sit the CBP, and as Shaun has already said above, read the questions very careful and do exactely as they ask. There are the spreadsheets task and there are also some theory questions to answer.
I can't say what functions you will be tested on, however if you are feeling weaker with validation and vlookup/hlookup why not concentrate on these. You could search the internet for extra practice. Microsoft Knowledge has free excel lessons on various topics so it may be worth working through these. If I find the website addy I'll post it here for you.
JC
Try these...
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/overview-and-samples-of-data-validation-HA001034657.aspx Data Validation
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/vlookup-HP005209335.aspx vlookup
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/hlookup-HP005209114.aspx hlookup
Once on the Microsoft website you can use the search box to enter more excel functions that you may need/like extra guidance with.
Hope these help.
JC
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