I’m now looking to do ACCA P6 and have the options in Birmingham of using either FTC (sorry, Kaplan), BPP or FBT as my tuition provider.

I’ve used both FTC and FBT in the past but am looking for some feedback from any forumites who have studied P6 with any of the previously named colleges.

As I only ever take the tuition element of these courses I would like to know what you thought of them regarding the tuition provided by the tutors. Would you recommend them or did you feel that you passed largely down to your own hard work? What were the class sizes like and was the scope for individual explanation of areas of the syllabus that you were having difficulty with? What were the course materials like?

Any advice will be gratefully received.

Yours,

The_Reverend.

I did P6 with FTC in Milton Keynes.  I only did the tuition course and was very impressed with it.  Small class of about 9 students, so lots of desk space and considering all the material you get given you will need it. 

The material consisted of
complete text,
essential text,
exam kit,
pocket notes
as well as 2 course exams. 
You also get access to en-gage (complete text online, various test similar to bpp i-pass)

My en-gage was accessable within a couple hours of paying via the FTC website (recommend paying that way as it gave a 5% discount, I think its still available but check,it will show when you put the course in your basket).

I did put in a lot of effort, went through the whole text, then did bpp’s course notes, did as much question practice as I could and passed 1st time.

Hey starfish - I’m in Milton Keynes too

Hi Reverend,

I hope you don’t mind me asking but I am interested (...as Kaplan Birmingham tutor..P2). Why do you choose the tuition phase only? Its just if I was asked for advice and a student needed to choose I would always say ..get the books and home study ..and then do the mid week revision- because i believe revision is where we add most value.

Tuition only clearly has worked very well for you for...very interesting.

Regards

Clare

Clare

I have also done tuition only on most papers - I only took revision courses in 2.4, 3.2 and P2.  I have found that tuition puts me on the right course and I can do the exam kits at home. It has always worked for me, I couldn’t have done it the other way round!

Ah..that is really good to understand..thanks.

Hope you are enjoying no exams!!!!

Regards

Clare

Hi Clare,

There are a number of reasons for my decision to do tuition only.

1) It’s cheaper. I’m not sponsored by an employer.
2) I think tuition helps provide focus on key areas that, if left alone with a study text book, I’d be unable to identify. I’d get obsessed about covering every area of the syllabus and just get bogged down. This is particularly relevant for the non-technical subjects.
3) For technical subjects the tuition helps to provide clarification/explanation of technical points and hopefully provide proven methodologies for approaching the calculations (I’ve noticed that study texts often give a very detailed method which is often impractical in exam conditions).
4) I can practice questions, review question answers and vaguely judge my performance myself (if they are calculation based). In the case of 2.3 (as it was) past exam papers had very clear marking guides. Why would anyone pay £400 so that someone else can do this for them? Are they mad? It strikes me as money for old rope.
5) I have found that when being told to do questions on your own in tuition classes I learn very little and feel like I get very little in terms of increased knowledge.

The way I see it is this: Tuition should provide all the knowledge I need to pass the exam. If it doesn’t then the tuition is not worthy of the name. The rest (i.e. revision and exam question practice) is a matter of self-discipline. Basically, to use your terminology, I don’t feel like a revision course (based on my preconception of what they’ll involve) would add any significant value to my attempts to pass my exams.

Hope this helps you.

Yours,

The_Reverend.

Definitely helpful...I’ll even quote the self-discipline bit!!!

Regards

Clare

Bluewednesday - August 19 2008 04:35 PM

Hey starfish - I’m in Milton Keynes too

Hi Annette,

I don’t live in Milton Keynes, I live in Cambridgeshire, it’s just no other tuition providers in my area.

I found FTC in MK to be excellent!

Was Cambridge itself not close?  One of the best BPP tutors in the world works out of Cambridge!

FTC only opened up a few years ago and I was already settled at BPP - did okay there, liked the tutors etc and saw no reason to change but I did have a look at their timetables etc.

Seems MK is lucky to have too excellent providers!

Bluewednesday - August 20 2008 06:39 AM

Was Cambridge itself not close?  One of the best BPP tutors in the world works out of Cambridge!

Yes, Cambridge is closer but what with the traffic in the morning actually takes longer to get to. 

I did try Bpp in Cambridge for P2 classes last year, good lecturer but got so hung up on his comments about needing a mark of 75 in F7 to pass P2 that I didn’t sit the exam. 

The class was totally packed and ended up sharing a desk all the time.  I much prefer space in class. 

It was not the type of environment I work well in, so for me FTC was better. This may be unfair as I’m not comparing like with like, obviously there are less people taking P6 than P2.