APC final assessment: fail to prepare, prepare to fail

Ralph Charlwood offers sage advice to those APC candidates approaching final assessment. Completing your submission is, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, “not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning”. While the assessment panel use your submission as a basis of questioning, how you perform in the one-hour interview is what determines the outcome – and that performance is heavily dependent on your preparation. So, how best to prepare? We all have different ways of preparing but there are some universal considerations that apply to all candidates. First, you might not get your preferred Final Assessment date and venue, so prepare for the earliest possible date (check the RICS website for all Final Assessment dates). Too many candidates get caught out by an early date, assuming it just cannot happen. If you do get your preferred date and venue, consider it extra preparation time, because anything else is a gamble. Secondly, you will be asked questions on your submission so it’s essential that you know that document intimately. Most assessors have experienced asking a candidate a question relating to an example cited in the submission, only for the candidate to ask for clarification on which example, etc. Your submission should not be gathering dust on a shelf or languishing in a computer folder – it’s the basis of the interview. Finally, everyone has to present their case study in 10 minutes (maximum). That is a given. There is no excuse for a presentation that is over 10 minutes. Study planning In terms of the remainder, you need a structured plan with timelines. Identify your best time to study alone without distractions, which might not be the same as other people’s. Studying alone is essential, but try to arrange for some interaction with other candidates sitting in your session. Ideally, these will be candidates on the same pathway and with similar competencies, but there is enough overlap – especially for Ethics, Rules of Conduct and the mandatory competencies – that any other candidate is better than none. The interview is an hour, of which your case study presentation and questioning forms one third. This, combined with your declared Level 3 competencies and the mandatory Ethics, Rules of Conduct and Professionalism competency will represent a significant proportion of the interview and your preparation should reflect this reality. Case study presentation If you are providing a handout, have this prepared well in advance – that’s one less thing to worry about nearer the time. While it might sound obvious, give some thought to what you present. Simply reading out the written case study adds no value to the panel. Consider summarising the overall project, but focus on your key issues and explain more about the reasoned advice you provided. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Have prompt cards, even if you think you can do it without them. And don’t forget to rehearse in front of other people. Even if they are not qualified to ask questions, as least they will give you feedback on eye contact, mumbling, excessive hand movement, etc. Level 3 competencies Achieving Level 3 typically requires providing real-life examples of reasoned advice and depth of understanding from experience. Too often, candidates state that they have achieved Level 3, but fall short when asked the Level 1 detail. It’s impossible to provide reasoned advice if you do not know the underlying law, professional guidance or other technical details. For that reason, a thorough knowledge of Level 1 should be considered the foundations on which Level 3 advice is provided. Not achieving Level 3 is often due to a lack of good experience examples and not knowing Level 1 information. For example: a valuation client is concerned that your reported market value (advice you have given) is way below an offer they received from the tenant. Your Level 1 knowledge of the definition of market value means you know that it does not, explicitly, exclude a special interest purchaser, but section 4.2 of VPS 4 in the Red Book does provide explicit guidance that price distortions caused by special value (including special interest and marriage value) are ignored, and you can advise your client accordingly. Ethics, rules of conduct and professionalism Generally, the final 10 minutes of questioning is by the chair and will focus on Ethics, Rules of Conduct and Professionalism. However, such questions can occur throughout the assessment, so keep your wits about you. A lot of the Level 1 questions in this area are quite predictable, so you should go into the room knowing them. However, this is a Level 3 competency so, in addition to being able to discuss the Global Ethical and Professional Standards, Rules for Members, Rules for Firms, etc, you are also required to be able to demonstrate Level 3 achievement of the competency. This should already be in your submission, but you are always able to refer to more recent experience in the interview, especially if it is a better example than earlier ones. Level 1 mandatories APC coaches are often asked about how much time should be spent preparing for the Level 1 mandatory competencies, eg Accounting, Business Planning, etc. Obviously, not as much as your case study, Level 3s and Ethics, but you still need to be able to answer some questions on them. For each of them, ask yourself: what is this competency? Why is it important? And (if applicable) what laws or guidance are relevant? The answers to those should give you a good start.  An additional guiding question is: how do clients benefit from this competency? Communication and teamwork Unless you work in a company that is either used to the APC or has given you study leave, don’t forget to communicate to relevant colleagues that you have your assessment coming up and that they need to factor this into their business planning. The last thing you need at a late stage is a huge, urgent project that takes up all your revision time. Mock interviews The importance of having mock interviews, undertaken by people familiar with the current APC format, cannot be overstated. Whether you use colleagues, acquaintances or APC coaching businesses, make sure you avoid pub quiz-style mocks and that you get experience of appropriate and relevant, competency-based questioning. Mocks are important both for testing your knowledge but also finessing your interview style. Downtime It’s easy to “burn out” during APC preparation. In 2018, Harvard Business School reported the results of a 12-year study (The Leader’s Calendar) which showed that chief executives spend, on average, 2.1 hours per day on individual downtime. Preparing for the APC, together with the demands of a day job, means that it is all too easy to overdo it and effectively burn out, which could set you back disproportionately. Work out your own strategy but do allow yourself some well-earned downtime. If applied proportionally and correctly, your overall preparation should benefit from it. Of the circa 35% of candidates who are referred, sub-optimal preparation is a feature of many interviews. However, the panel is invariably hoping to pass candidates and a well-prepared candidate has steered the odds in the direction of success. Good luck. Resources EG’s APC series RICS Rules of Conduct DeLever Network; instant APC messaging and the facility to ask a question of APC experts:  Masterclass recordings on rules of conduct and ethics (formal CPD):  Mock interviews, final assessment and presentation masterclasses  Commercial Property Quick Start Revision Guide  DeLever myAPCDiary Ralph Charlwood FRICS is a DeLever APC expert coach, mock interview assessor and RICS APC assessor and chair