Importance of attending lectures?

d.m.b1990

I was just wondering how important is it to attend lectures for the Cap 2 exams. Is it essential to get to them all or is it possible to get through without them but with plenty of independent study and revision courses.

Any feedback appreciated!!

foraca28

d.m.b1990 wrote: »

I was just wondering how important is it to attend lectures for the Cap 2 exams. Is it essential to get to them all or is it possible to get through without them but with plenty of independent study and revision courses.

Any feedback appreciated!!

Hey,

Regarding the above, if you cant attend lectures, just do the following

for tax get the Chartered Grind School notes they very good.
And for audit, fr & SFMA, the best way to pass them exams is practice pass exam papers.

Deres really real good revision notes for SFMA and they are enough to get you through it.

To be honest, if you do that, you will get through,lectures are handy to keep you ticking during the year so you know what going on but if ur able to do de work urself then you should be fine. CAP2 is all about practicin exam papers that how i passed!

y0ssar1an22

I'll be starting CAP2 in September as well. My plan involves not going to lectures-wouldn't be able to concentrate for that long- and look at the recordings of them on the net. That way I can go through them at my own pace, pause the lectures when there is a question being done and attempt it myself. And also making good notes as I go along to bring into exam.
It worked for CAP1, so hopefully this will work for CAP2 as well.

d.m.b1990

y0ssar1an22 wrote: »

I'll be starting CAP2 in September as well. My plan involves not going to lectures-wouldn't be able to concentrate for that long- and look at the recordings of them on the net. That way I can go through them at my own pace, pause the lectures when there is a question being done and attempt it myself. And also making good notes as I go along to bring into exam.
It worked for CAP1, so hopefully this will work for CAP2 as well.

Are all lectures recorded online??

y0ssar1an22

yep

d.m.b1990

Thats great I never knew that all lectures were available online.

JM_2009

d.m.b1990 wrote: »

I was just wondering how important is it to attend lectures for the Cap 2 exams. Is it essential to get to them all or is it possible to get through without them but with plenty of independent study and revision courses.

Any feedback appreciated!!

My advice ? Before I did Cap 2 I had nearly 100% attendance at all my lectures and in college. Had to repeat 2 and I swear to god the only thing that got me through - was doing past exam papers over and over and over and over again. Know them inside out and bring as many suggested solutions as possible, I'd even recommend bringing solutions split by accounting standard.

At this level you do know way more than you think it's just about clearly showing that to the examiner and being able to apply things to real life scenarios is the trick

RT2010

I would advise against abandoning lectures altogether. It is very handy to watch them online but is very easy to tell yourself that you'll catch up on a lecture and then put it on the long finger. All of a sudden there are 5 or 6 lectures you need to catch up on!

When doing cap2/fae's, I found that it was handy watching the lectures at home but to make sure you are in a quiet environment where you can actually concentrate on them. Watching the lecture the following day saves time as you can fast forward through any breaks etc. I wouldn't leave it anymore than a day or two to catch up on them though. Always good to actually go to some lectures too.

Would agree past papers etc are vital. However at Cap2 you need to be very familiar with the content in the syllabus and the lectures will give you that in a structured way. At FAE its case study practice all the way!

Also, be prepared for a big jump in standard from college exams to the Cap2's. Definitely manageable, but a big jump in difficulty nonetheless.

dbran

Hi

Agree with all the above but one thing that is very important to mention about attending the lectures is if they are being paid by your employer and you fail the exams you may find yourself in a bit of bother. I have also come across instances where contracts have been terminated as a result.

dbran

littlemiss123

dbran wrote: »

Hi

Agree with all the above but one thing that is very important to mention about attending the lectures is if they are being paid by your employer and you fail the exams you may find yourself in a bit of bother. I have also come across instances where contracts have been terminated as a result.

dbran

I have just done CAP 2 this year (waiting results on Friday...:() and I attended roughly 85% of the lectures. I agree with dbran, this was one of my main reasons for attending, that if I fail any, at least I can prove to my firm that I tried and attended most of the lectures. They might be more accomodating then with unpaid study leave for the repeats etc.

Also, the ones that I did miss, I told myself I would watch online but I never did. If you find the motivation to watch them, then credit to you, but I know I found a lot better things to do on a saturday and sunday that sit in front of my laptop in a quiet room for 6 hours....way too many distractions :rolleyes:

As for whether attending makes a difference to my result....we'll find out. But at least I was familiar with the material and the course content from the lectures when I came to start studying. I found the lecturers were great for advice on exam technique too which is invaluable at this level!

Santi101

Is the Auditing subject similar to the subject covered in the Postgrad course?

Can anyone give a rough weekly schedule for lectures? Heard it's midweek + saturday/sunday? Seems heavy enough.

littlemiss123

Santi101 wrote: »

Is the Auditing subject similar to the subject covered in the Postgrad course?

Can anyone give a rough weekly schedule for lectures? Heard it's midweek + saturday/sunday? Seems heavy enough.

Which postgrad course? I did an auditing module as part of my degree and found the content to be similar enough, however the case study style examinations are very different, and the standard of answers expected from you were much higher.

Lectures are tough. It was roughly 2 full weekends and 2 evenings per month, usually more. Check out the old timetables on the chartered website to give you an idea.

Santi101

DIT Postgrad.

On lectures, had a look at one schedule and it seemed to be lectures most sat/sun which is a bit extreme? If its as you say 2 weekends a month, that sounds manageable.

y0ssar1an22

i will be doing mine in dub. as far as i am aware there are 3 groups (open to correction on this). one group is mainly for workers and they can attend every 2nd weekend for an intensive weekend of lectures. another group is for job-seekers and they can attend for a few hours daily during the week. the last group is also for workers where they have very intense lectures every ~6 weeks.
i think you choose whichever group/timetable that suits you the best.

autumnbelle

y0ssar1an22 wrote: »

i will be doing mine in dub. as far as i am aware there are 3 groups (open to correction on this). one group is mainly for workers and they can attend every 2nd weekend for an intensive weekend of lectures. another group is for job-seekers and they can attend for a few hours daily during the week. the last group is also for workers where they have very intense lectures every ~6 weeks.
i think you choose whichever group/timetable that suits you the best.

One group is Eve's and weekends, another mainly just weekends and the last group is block release these are full weeks for a few weeks of the year but your study leave is reduced by them. I did weekends as I'm an hour from Dublin and I sometimes had 3 weekends a month. I only missed two lectures in the year and these were to go to cgs. But I also had a lot of online lectures which I never fully caught up with. I recommend going to the lectures

d.m.b1990

I guess the general consensus so is to make as many of them as possible but if you miss the odd one your not completely screwed.

musicfan1ie

Depends on your study style, I guess. I used to work late a lot during the week, so nighttime study wasn't an option for me Monday to Friday. I went to some lectures, but was choosy about which ones. But, I get very little from listening to someone - my brain switches off after a while.

For me, I got better use out of studying 7 or 8 hours on a Saturday or Sunday. It meant I had done a lot of groundwork with books or manuals, prior to study leave.

Also, I focus on the important areas at the start of a course. Look at exam papers and you'll realise what areas are important. By covering 30% of the course, you may cover 60 or 70% of the exam.

I would want to cover all areas of the course, but don't get caught short on the most important areas - they're critical.