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What is today's blog about?
In this week’s blog, we look at our top 10 tips for revising for your RICS APC final assessment interview.
Competence – the first thing to remember is that the APC is the Assessment of Professional Competence. It is not an exam based purely on your knowledge. There is an emphasis in your interview on your experience and competence, so ensure that you know your submission inside out and can demonstrate to your assessment panel that you are competent in your role.
Examples – your assessors will have been trained by RICS to start questioning you at the highest level you have declared for each competency. You can make their life far easier by setting out specific examples of where you have given client advice (level 3) or undertaken a task (level 2). Make sure you can discuss the detail of every example you include as the assessors will expect you to be able to do this.
Knowledge – you need to have a strong knowledge base to succeed in the APC. This underlines all of your reasoned advice and actions. Make sure you revise relevant RICS guidance, legislation, first principles and hot topics relating to all of your competencies.
Application – following on from Knowledge above, the next step of your revision is to ensure that you can apply your knowledge to your examples and your professional experience. For example, ensure that you can justify why you recommended a specific course of action to your client.
Wider reading – as well as having robust knowledge about all of your competencies, we also recommend that you undertake some wider reading. This could be to gain general market awareness or an appreciation of other factors that might influence your role or client advice.
Tools – use technology to support your revision, such as mind mapping, flash cards, testing software, note taking, apps and quizzes (such as our revision quizzes). Tailor your revision to what works best for you, e.g., if you are a visual learner, use visual tools to help you revise.
Practice – practice makes perfect, so don’t neglect the power of question and answer sessions based on your submission with colleagues, friends and family. Being able to verbalise succinct and concise answers will be key to success in your final RICS APC interview.
Presentation – your Case Study presentation will take up the first 10 minutes of your interview and will help to form your assessors’ important first impression of you as a surveyor. Use this to your advantage and deliver an insightful, confident presentation. Practice will again make perfect here. Microsoft PowerPoint has a useful Presenter Coach function you could use, or you could practice in front of others or record your presentation and give yourself your own feedback.
Time management – your revision will take substantial commitment and time in the run up to your interview. However, don’t forget to look after yourself and your wellbeing – it can be challenging to manage the stress of work, the APC and your personal life. Structuring your APC revision into shorter blocks can help, structured around times in the day when you learn best.
Plan ahead – make an action plan leading up from now until your final assessment interview. Write down your competencies and split them up into the number of weeks you have available, with a focus on ethics throughout. This will mean that you have the time allocated to cover the full scope of your submission prior to interview date.
We hope that you found our top tips for your RICS APC revision helpful. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask us via the chat box at the bottom right of this page. Good luck!
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N.b. Nothing in this article constitutes legal, professional or financial advice.