I am just about the start my aat study.I have two available options fist one is normal course it takes a year to do and the other one is fast track course.(Both is classroom studies as I dont prefer online or home study method)
Fast Track duration is 18 weeks.My question is Fast track course is it recommendable or normal courses are better?
Ok the Fast Track option is very do-able but completing a course depends on the amount of study time you have for yourself. Also as it is college based, will you be given a study book or will you be working from handouts? If there will be no study book i would recommend buying one. The other thing is, how much do you know already? have you decent knowledge of credits and debits? Frank Woods & Sheila Robinson's Bookkeeping and Accounts is a good buy as it will take you from beginner level to the more advanced stuff. I finished AAT level 3 as a Kaplan distance learner within 5 months, so just a tad over 18 weeks so level 2 is achievable in that kind of time frame. I'm sure others on here can recommend study material for you. I have taken some quals with my local college and to be honest the handouts got me through the exam but now i want to recap i just wouldn't be able to find the flippin pages i'm after, i find a good book is always better and have collected a small library in the last 12 months.
Hi I did city and guild bookkeeping level 1 just recently completed last month so i have a bit of idea.I have done that adult learning centre. I am not to sure about hand out or study books I need ask that to the college but from previous course I had book for bookkeeping level 1.To be honest with you I was going to go Hammesmith west london college hammersmith campus for aat level 2 fast track courses but they decided to run in southall campus which is really far away from me thats why i dont really wish to go up there.I found alternative college to study to do fast track course can be complete within 18 weeks.After level 2 I am planing to do level 3 as well.Probably after that i would not go further.Thank you very much for the books recommendation.
I initially set out determined to spend 30+ hours a week to complete the course in a 6 month period. But i found that 2 hours of an evening and a sunday afternoon was sufficient plus some mantra's through the day lol. The indirect tax module was easiest, i read the text 3 days before the exam, if you can fill out a vat return the rest of the exam can be completed solely through reading the answers on the HMRC website which can be accessed during the exam (or snippets of it can) so that cut my study time right down. For me the spreadsheet module was the hardest because i have no use for Excel outside of study and so it was hard to get motivated and harder to find some relevant data to play with. Also any week that i sat an exam, i took the rest of the week off from study. When i first started studying i asked a similar question to yours Sally and i think Shaun replied with somthing like:- it all depends on whether you study to understand the subject matter or study solely for the purpose of passing exams. Theres no way out of understanding the subject at this level really, otherwise the exams don't make much sense. I do know what Shaun was talking about because even though i have come this far i know i haven't scratched the surface. My problem is, i'm not employed in an accounting role or environment so basically i am just studying to pass exams. The reason i mentioned study books is because when the time comes, i am going to have to go through everything i've learned again. People seem feared of the costs and revenues module but this to me was about proper accounting and a welcome break from credits and debits. All in all i'd say if you set out determined to enjoy the course, you will simply fly through it, if it takes 12 to 18 months so be it.
Hi Neil, The course i am gonna do it will be 6 hours a week in the college do you think is that will be enough time to be in college during the course?Also as you mentioned I need to do a lot of work out of college which as I am not working I can pay my fully attention. Thanks
Sounds like you have ample time John. I actually chose distance learning after completing City & Guilds Bookkeeping and Accounts lvl 1 and computerised Accounts lvl 1 & 2 at my local college. The reason for doing distance learning was mainly because most other students were not studying outside of college and this slowed the course right down. if you do 6 hours in college then i recommend at least 6 at home too, even if you get to the point where study becomes boringly repetative, this is when it starts sinking in and being locked there and there is no harm in using google and taking yourself a tiny bit further if you find this happening. There is a wealth of stuff on the internet you can use, when you get so far into your studies try completing the city & Guilds lvl 2 paper, free to download off the site.
Thank you very much neill.The reason I dont prefer distance learning I like classroom studies that what i get used to it thats how i completed my degree in completely different subject.
