You're lucky you can get in.
The user name and password the ICB gave me doesn't work. ICB have washed their hands of it and said I need to phone Pearson Vue. I phoned up Pearson Vue and while going through their options I get the impression I will be booking my exam over the phone rather than sorting out my log-in problems.

I don't want that. I just want to know what slots are available.

Thanks ICB. You're doing your best to lose another member.

And still no sign of the new style mock exam to be done online.

EDIT : I'm not even a member yet - just a student member.

-- Edited by Peasie on Monday 5th of July 2010 12:35:30 PM

Peasie wrote:

---

You're lucky you can get in.
The user name and password the ICB gave me doesn't work. ICB have washed their hands of it and said I need to phone Pearson Vue. I phoned up Pearson Vue and while going through their options I get the impression I will be booking my exam over the phone rather than sorting out my log-in problems.

---

My username is ICB and then my ICB member number. Is yours the same? If not, it might be worth trying that.

 

Does anyone else feel that ICB have handled the changeover to "On demand" examinations incredibly ineptly.

There has been very little information available on their website up until the last few days, and even now what there is isnt very comprehensive. For example nowhere as far as I can does it tell us the length of the exam, how many questions we need to answer, and what percentage we need to achieve a pass?

I received an email from them on thursday 1/7/10 and I quote

"We are delighted to tell you that the Institute has put you in charge! When you are ready to take your next manual bookkeeping examination you can choose exactly when and where you wish to take it, booking yourself in at one of our 5,200 venues, in any week of the year."

"Deadline dates have now been scrapped, and you tell us when and where your examination is."

Not exactly your experience Eh! Ruth

What they have been at great pains to tell us is the draconian test centre rules which IMO are completely over the top, especially when compared with the computerised home based equivalents which allow you 2 weeks to complete and are completely unsupervised.

It was my intention to have a go at the mock today, and then book an exam maybe for the end of the week. Thats oboiusly not going to happen now particularly since as of less than one hour ago the promised mock has not yet appeared on the website.

Another question, Do we have to buy the mock test? Knowing ICB I presume Yes!

OK Rant over. Im going for a lie down!!!

Steve

Who wants to take a guess at how much it will cost to take a mock test?

For the other mock exams it is £5 - so I'll state my guess as £15 for this new one.

Any other offers?

No I don't know what the pass mark is, I just assumed 85% like the computerised, but I haven't seen it written anywhere. I did see somewhere that it is a mixture of multiple choice and fill in the blanks with numbers. You get your mark at the end, so that must very much limit what you can be tested on.

I've made a point of not bothering to look at the website until today since I wouldn't have expected it to be comprehensive until it was all up and running. I've been a guinea pig for a brand new exam before (in a completely different field, through the Uni of Bedfordshire) and it was an absolute nightmare, constantly moving goalposts, not knowing what was expected and when, so I wasn't expecting it to be straightforward from day 1.

Let's hope that they can get the problems, like Peasie's, sorted out quickly and that they then seek feedback from the students to find out what they need to do to get it working as well as it can.

Hi There

Rant starting up again.

Turned 16.30 now and still nothing regarding the online mock.

What are they playing at. They' ve been running a pilot for months now, and known that 1st July was the deadline, surely it's not beyond their wit, to design a test paper and publish it in time for the launch. (Which ICB- Means 1st July not the 5TH)

With regard to the cost I'm with you Peasie. I think £15 is a fair guess, although it seems perfectly possible that no ones actually made that decision yet!!!

Why couldn't they just design an online examination along the lines of what sage does for their certification After all we are supposed to be Professionals, Cheats will not flourish, its hard enough to get things right when you have put in the study time, those who cut corners will very soon come unstuck,

No instead they have forked out probably tens of thousands of pounds to Pearson Vue to verify my ID make sure I dont chew gum, and take my fingerprints and photos of my Varicose veins if I need to go to the toilet. OTT OR What!!!!!

Steve

Probably got your clock set wrongly in your profile

like texting my wife - she gets the messages an hour before I've sent them and wonders why it took me so long to get home!! lol

P

Duh !!!! NOD

Hi

Good to be back Online

Weds 7th at 12:15 Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Dear.............

so are the exams actually available?? Makes you wonder....

P

Hi everyone,

I see there's a lot of ranting going on over these new ICB exams. I managed to get my Level 2 exam booked in for 27th July after a couple of false starts with the Pearson Vue site not working properly. I have had an email from ICB to say that the mock exam "should be" available from "this weekend" in the online shop. No idea about the cost, but I think a guess of £15 is about right, what with the cost of the exams going up by about 125% !

I must say it does all seem a bit of a shambles for what is supposed to be a professional organisation. My student registration expires at the end of this month, but I am entitled to upgrade to Affiliate member which cost £5 more than re-registering as a student. I phoned them up and asked if there were any benefits to upgrading to Affiliate and they said "not really", so I shall be re-registering as a student member until I've (hopefully) passed all my exams and then upgrade to full member. Anything to save a bit of money!

I agree with you about the draconian test centre rules. Apparently we will be monitored all the time with audio and video as well! Talk about Big Brother! Must say I was quite looking forward to taking the Manual Level 2, (as much as one can look forward to an exam) but I'm rather nervous about this new format even though I am good with computers. Don't want to fail after spending so much money on it. Just hope they get the mock exam out in time for me to practise!

Pauline

Hi Steve,

Communication is everything! (Well almost everything). So yet another £10 to fork out then. I think they really should make past papers free.

Pauline

And close an income stream, never!

Lets face it, thats all they care about. I was actually thinking to myself what I get out of ICB and whether to continue.

Ok they give me my MLR cover, but on the other hand when you take into account that they are now imposing extra exams and curtail your services until you pass other exams (or rather pay them more money). Then they want you to pay extra annually for the privilege of having passed extra exams.

I just wonder where these extra exams will stop. Once they have us all pass this round, where will their next pound come from?

Between my AICB membership and my practice certificate it costs £135, HMRC only want £120 now. The benefit of ICB used to be that it was cheaper than paying HMRC directly, but with that no longer being the case, is there any point?

I have received more assistance on this forum today, than I've ever received from ICB. I dont even use their crest!!

Kris

surely you can decide no longer to be a member of the ICB, then legally you must register directly with HMRC. In all honesty, it's on the cards for me I think.

Kris

I think that you will find that there is no issue with giving HMRC money to cover you directly.

I can't remember Garry's exact line but I'm pretty sure that it was one of those that could be read several ways.

Think of it another way. People who are ACCA but not yet allowed an ACCA practice licence due to the two year post qualification rule join ICB to get cheaper MLR cover. When they become full ACCA do you think for one moment that they remain with the ICB? I think not.

I am leaving at the end of this month when my ICB practice certificate expires. My options are IAB or HMRC for cover. There is no reason at all for me to stay with the ICB and they won't keep me by trying to to pull the wool over my eyes.

They also told me that ACCA qualifications are not recognised by the ICB because ACCA are management accountants... I did point out to them that would be CIMA that they were thinking about.

Anyway, not to be all anti ICB, now that they've got an ICAEW Accountant in a position of power there maybe things will improve. Hope they do as under all of the bull and ego its a pretty good qualification that they have.

Just needs us lot to move in and take the ICB over methinks!... Actually, not too bad an idea as we've got accountants, bankers, management consultants, trainers, bookkeepers from almost every body. What do you think? take over the ICB or start our own?

I'd say start our own but susie just swiped my job :(

Kris

I'll sort out the curriculum to meet standards for accreditation.

Shaun - there are no mature women in Life on Mars

We're already more organised than ICB, thats terrifying.

Evenin all.

lol and very true Kris.

Sue, you're hired.

Another consideration is of course that we also have the entire country covered from the isle of Skye right down to Bill and the Cornwall Posse with everywhere in between.

Sheila, objection duly noted. I was just having a bit of a DCI Gene Hunt moment last night at the mention of not being able to leave the ICB.

Cheers for the update Michelle, a factual posting from someone such as yourself was really what was needed to put that blatant misinformation to bed.

If we get another question in relation to this we now know where to point them for the facts,

It's probably not the case at all but I was getting the impression that Garry's links to the ICB were much closer than he was letting on.

Right, much as I'd rather be in 1973 it's back to 1988 again!

Well, I still don't see a Level II mock online paper in the ICB shop. There's a Level I, but that's not much good to me doing Level II. Going to ring them tomorrow and find out what's going on, as I'm not taking my exam without having done a mock first!

Pauline

P.S. Yes, sorry I'm posting this right in the middle of the World Cup Final !

Me too!!!

-- Edited by steve99.9 on Monday 12th of July 2010 06:14:23 PM

is tomorrow today or do they mean tomorrow tomorrow, as nothing there yet!

P

woohoo, only a week late.

Kris