Levels 3 and 4 Synoptic success rates

level three results seem an absolute car crash
you will be aware the failures have been offered a free retake and fifty quid

AAT seem to have set us all up to fail - which is kinda odd as there is an economic consequence for them

there must be some level 3 successes out there - can anyone hear the loud cries of 'yay!' ?

well I think it is time to publish my open letter of June 5th
an exam shouldhave content validity - I dont think testing on excel is valid for accounting
and intra observer validity - if examiner A passes a set and examiners B does then the set should bear a resemblance to each ( same set of people almost )
and interpersonal validity - if you pass in Jan then a reasonable proportion should pass a similar exam in July. Now read on

No one on this thread will be surprised to hear that I got an anodyne reply

Sticklers will notice I make and admission against interest ( I crashed on q2 but by that time it didnt make much difference )


Hello AAT June 4 2017

Another email on Level 3 Synoptic

Very negative opinions directly after the exam which I took at The Manchester College. (St Johns College Quay Street) It may be worth emailing others for their own opinion.

Part 1 was OK and everyone had a good go at the questions, which were do-able – and had relevance. That is the questions had some bearing to the course material we had studied over the year and we had been pointed to the relevant materials which we could read and assimilate

Part 2. it is hard to describe how pointless the questions were. That is there was in my opinion, no content validity. Marks were to be awarded for pointless activities of no value – colouring cells pink and expressing value in bold green. so what ? Well the answer is that it shows you know where the toggles to do it are – yes but so what ?

Alt- ctl-tab didnt work and so for one question, I lost all that I had done – this was where a re-downloaded excel file a second time will rewrite over the one you had been working on. Actually I understood and carried out so little completed it didnt really matter. I am told my invigilator made a record of this

Another task on overtime hours using a matrix organization I had never seen before and wouldnt think of using ever. The mathematical manipulations were so strange, the instructions were incomprehensible =- the outcomes as described but stupid or pointless in fact and never usable in the real world. Obviously the question re-arose – is this what they want ? Clearly mistaking the meaning of the question and writing an inappropriate answer will score nothing.

so for six marks – I sat there thinking – I have NO idea what they want me to do or why the figures they want are usable in any industry. Another was on an ETB but not in any way I had seen in a text book or on the course.

Uploading the answers was a nightmare – I was careful to divide the exam into thirty minute sections and upload the task whether or not I had finished it. There was no message at all at any time that uploading was successful or had failed. So I attempted to upload at 30 mins 60 mins and 90 m. By the end of Task 2 I actually didnt care if I had uploaded successfully or not – and was getting bored with reading a script I couldnt understand. By this time I was near to writing insulting remarks on the excel script – such as “ why dont you ask questions people can understand ?”

Others followed the instructions and got nowhere. A third tried to use the final fifteen minutes to upload and failed to – I had realised that this was a possibility but insured against it but at the cost of not being able to go back to previous questions.

The whole experience fo taking the level 3 synoptic was demoralising depressing and useless. There were a few “danger” signs from last night
boredom DURING the examination – on being faced with yet another totally incomprehensible question,
and also £4000 is a lot to pay next year for another year of THIS !
So there are lessons we the payers can learn. – don’t do level 3 – “you get an incomprehensible exam at the end which you all fail” after paying up front £1,000.

The overall difficulty is that AAT have tried a big-bang change in examinations and havent piloted it, but just said –”oh they ought to be able to do this” without finding out whether anyone could. So this is not argument that level 3 should not have a synoptic exam – but one that says a synoptic exam should be – synoptic. There is also a reasonable expectation that when one enters into the contract for the course, the exams set for the course will be attemptable.

What has happened is this is a classical drawback of big-bang changes and is a good reason why changes should be incremental. It may be worth emailing other candidates to see what their views are. I am not sure if any would have the energy to reply . £4000 seems a lot of money to pay for a further course structured as this – that is a course like this is NOT value for money. At present I would tell people Level 3 is NOT fit for purposes and they should do something else. ( like pay 75p for a Dickens novel and read it: that WOULD be value for money – the buyer’s English would improve )
so bad I dont think it is worth paying fifty pounds for a retake – more of the same ? No thank you!

So in short I am saying: 1 – the synoptic exam lacked content validity that is it didn’t measure what it was meant to measure. It measured something else which is not part of accounting skills. AAt was clearly told that there was not enough time to complete the tasks in Part 2 – but an exam should not be measuring this sort of thing – we knew over half would not be able to complete it and this exam measure has been more than adequately filled. Every candidate now knows they may be given tasks they cannot possibly answer.

Finally AAT should also pay attention to intrapersonal validity – if there are a large set of exam scores of 4 passes and one final failure ( such as 90 90 85 90 55) then they should look at whether that final exam measures anything valid. This principle is the one that says that any two exams should pass roughly the same set of people.

This email is in no way private and can be used as feedback for a candidates view of the synoptic exam

Oliver Dearlove

The conclusion of this email is that the level 3 symoptic exam was not fit for purpose
And that AAT had been given warning previously about this. This raises questions about whether the candidates were given misrepresentations about fees at the beginning of the course

Secondly that given their experiences that Level 3 is not fit for purpose that anyone thinking about AAT level 4 at Four thousand a throw – should think again ! and having done so go elsewhere


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Mike Webster said:

having looked at the feedback for all of our AVSY learners, I think there is a massive problem (see my post here )

I'm interested to read your take on this, but don't have permission. Would you mind posting it over on this thread @Mike Webster? Thanks!
P.S. Sitting it on Friday

Thanks @Multiplicator- I can use as much luck as I can get!

Hi Sky 10 - sorry you paid for a course that ended badly
You are in a much stronger legal position to give them hell than we did as they have now had notice and repeated their sins. - so do so! It is clear AAT ( like BA or BP or West Ken council) wont learn unless you kick them into the economic grollocks.

The exam isnt fit for purpose which actually they are under a duty to do ( = must do)
and so demand ( not ask) a retake and ask for your money back for the whole course. it is obvious that if you had been told this would happen, you would not have paid the fee for a car crash course

It doesnt look as tho change will occur ( since you have had more of the same that we had) unless you and your cohort act.

I am going for a retake ( no date of course) and have abandoned plans to do Level 4 - I am able to do so as I am 65 and retired - I am aware others are stuck in a career progression path which has stalled and may not have the options to bale that I have.

thanks for the tips Multiplicator.
Nobody doubts excel is useful - I'm a lifelong fan and utter excel nerd - but it is not accountancy and should NOT be part of an accountancy exam. I hope I'm as lucky as you steveaich with my questions and lack of technical hitches.