I have always wanted to gain my International CPC or what I believe is now called the Transport Managers CPC (correct me if I’m wrong please) and I have since found that a selection of companies are offering Home Study courses at the fraction of the cost compared with regular classroom courses which I cannot afford.
Does anybody have experience of the home study course that lead to the exams and do you have any suggestions where to study e.g FTA or RHA etc?
Your thoughts and suggestions are most welcome.
Unless you’ve got plenty of time to read the material undisturbed, you will never be able to focus fully and absorb the info. This is why attending the course is probably your best bet, with you fully focused
peirre:
Unless you’ve got plenty of time to read the material undisturbed, you will never be able to focus fully and absorb the info. This is why attending the course is probably your best bet, with you fully focused
I’d agree 100%. I tried over 2 years - couldn’t do it. Went on a 2 week course and passed exams
I tried doing home study but I wasn’t self-disciplined enough to get on with it, partly because I was tramping and at the end of a long day the last thing I wanted to do was a couple of hours of school. Having said that, plenty on here have done it successfully.
My suggestion would be steer clear
It was mentioned on our course the pass rate was about 2 out of 10.
Book a course and clear the decks in the evening.
I did the 10 day course with the exam at the end.
Then I tried to do about 2 hours homework each night
There’s a lot of maths involved so unless you’re a whizz at maths I’d not even attempt the home study course
You can download and print off past exams from the OCRS website.
Practice on them the answers are there also
Some people do manage to pass it doing a self study course, got to say I admire them, If you’re one of those highly disciplined people or have recently been in education so used to studying then it might be worth considering a self study course.
but I know from I’m best at doing classroom study, so went down that route, but even then you should still spend plenty of time at home going through the notes and doing extra study.
Unless you’ve seen the course what might surprise you is how much isn’t purely about Transport Rules and Regs, there is a lot Business studies stuff, including things like employment and company law, finances etc.
For recommendations of where to go it might be helpful if you gave us a location?
I did mine with NTS in Norwich and passed first-time, as did the rest of those on the course, whether that is normal for them I don’t know.
I did it and managed to pass - was not easy,
I did home study, then went on a revision day in a classroom,
I did national and international CPC on an intensive two week course with the exam at the end. I passed it, zb knows how as the amount you cover is immense. If you use a good company their instructors will highlight areas that regularly come up on exams so you know to get that into your head. At home your tying to remember it all! Anyone that has asked me about it, I’ve always said to do the two week course. I’d never have passed doing the home study method, just too much to cover.
Up to you how you do it. I did a home study course, took a day off to sit the exam in a Tech College and all went OK. Only problem was finding somewhere that allowed external students to sit exams. Had to go 20 miles for exam, but it worked for me.
Franglais:
Up to you how you do it. I did a home study course, took a day off to sit the exam in a Tech College and all went OK. Only problem was finding somewhere that allowed external students to sit exams. Had to go 20 miles for exam, but it worked for me.
I had same problem - 30 miles for me
I had my UK transport managers licence (cant remember what the called it then but it wasnt CPC ) under Grandfathers rights, I then did my International on a home study course with Friendbury , did the exam in 10 minutes , the invigilator asked if there was anything wrong ,I said I have finished and was able to leave but was 30 years ago!.
I did mine through the FTA on a 2 week intensive course, must say it was a very professional set up & they were always there to help if you had a query.
Did mine at Beverley many moons ago, cant remember much about it now but only used it for my sons outfit for about three months but I do remember my then wife framed the certificate and hung it in our spare bedroom, aka the ‘office’ but at the time was only running 3 1/2 ton vans with the thought of going bigger but she run off with the bank account before I had the chance … 
Home study is do-able if your are extremely disciplined and structured with your study routine. Most training companies use the EOS study manual and you can go directly to them and buy it. You’ll save a fortune doing it this way. Buy yourself a good basic calculator- you will need it. Do all the sample exams in the manual and look at the previous exam papers on the OCR website (the people you sit the exams with). Don’t book yourself in for the exams at the nearest training centre until you feel confident that you fully understand how to get the correct answers. There are specific ways of wording answers to some of the questions in the R2 case study exam, so book yourself into the workshop day at the local training provider, it will be worth every penny. Good luck whatever you decide.
When you’ve completed your CPC ask the crowman to carve you a new head, because I suspect your own head will have go into melt down studying for it