Having originally booked the Intermediate course and exam back in March events stopped that happening.
Thankfully the RSGB started with the Foundation Level exam in starting on-line exams and rumours of the Intermediate being made available on-line soon started. I had been building my kit for assesement since earlier in the year, and not sure what would happen about the practical assesment carried on with it, albeit at a much slower pace !
In July it was announced that the exams for Intermediate would be on-line so I immediately booked mine. I wanted to give myself enough time to kick-start my learning and give myself the best chance of pasting, but also fit in with everything else I have going on. Post September alot of my time outside of work will be taken up with my MSc and I had already booked a holiday for the bank holiday at the end of August, so went for August 23, first thing in the morning !
All the participants of the exam were given an invite earlier in the week and hooked up. This was a great idea and we was given a nice introduction to our group. Vitally I learned i would need *two* webcams, one on my PC I was using and another to see me from behind. So i set that up via my ipad. I would say if you dont have 2 webcams, use your PC for your main camera and use your phone – you will need WebEx on your phone, but belive that is possible.
In the two weeks upto the exam I made myself a schedule and broke down the notes/exams questions into days. I found this really helped me understand where I need to focus my learning. I had no problem at all on anything related to licencing and safety, most of the challenges come from the maths and equations on theory.
Although the video came out close to my exam and the revision was well underway, the video from Tim G5TM really helped ! I followed his techqnique and it made me much more at ease during the exam. I took my time and went thru the ones i knew for sure and left the ones i didnt until the end, and at worse could take an educated guess – but i was in control (or it seemed!)
In the week leading upto the exam i continsualy tested myself on both the RSGB provided Test Papers and the questions in ‘Exam Secrets’. I cant recall the questions word-for-word but for sure there were many that were very close to what were present, and probably doing the test exams in ‘rote’ method got me over the line to get a pass mark 🙂
The only negative side to the on-line experience was other people making a noise during an exam, as they finished or whilst they worked, there was a level of noise I wouldnt expect during an exam situation. For this i just removed my headphones and concentrated on my exam but listening for anythign that the invigulator might say (rather than just random noises).
I was told immediately of my score and I had passed, so am now just waiting notification from Ofcom so i can apply for my Intermediate licence ! I can wait to setup a working beacon and use 50W on HF, i think it will make a difference on the telephony contacts for sure.