peirre:
I stand by previous posting many moons ago, that you need to focus soley on the course/exams and have no other distractions in you life while your doing the CPC to succeed in passing it
As true as this is (and it’s very true for classroom study,) it’s ramped up to a whole new and higher level for most people doing an operator CPC course by the homestudy method.
I actually got hold of the home study packs for both, studied each of them in turn for several months, then did the intensive classroom course. Doing the Natl (home study + course) 1st, sitting the exams, waiting for results, re-sitting, passing ................... allowing 6+months for my brain to un-fry itself. Then as a glutten for punishment, repeating the process for the int Natl.
Cutting yourself off from all other forms of civilian life, leaving the the phone, internet, family, the dog etc at home, even booking yourself into a hotel in another town (especially if the course isnt near your home) to isolate yourself is a good idea, and the only way youll attain the level of concentration req`d without distractions. Once you choose to undertake the opperator CPC, you will probably realise that you will need to lock yourself in a locked padded room, & start questioning your sanity, the only time you will leave that room is to attend classes, for food & bodily functions.
Even then you should still be studying the manual while your awake.
Highlighting major bullet points, & certain lines in your notes with a highlighting pen will help trigger the memory of whole passages in the manual/course. these can be used to refresh your memory during the short breaks while your re-reading you notes between exams. luckily the exams tend to run in order of subjects, that the manual does (or did)
between exams you must not:
grab a coffee
eat
pop out for a ■■■
talk bollox to the bloke next you about last nights footie etc
your investing a HUGE amount of time, money, mental effort in doing this course so why screw it up. the only thing you must do is speed read your notes so your ready for the next exam. Which is why I made the point about highlighting notes. Then once the exams are complete, your not off the hook, not until your exam results are in. So until then keep reading your notes. then once your pass certificate is firmly in you hands, then and only then can you relax, & book yourself in for than much need brain transplant (because yours will be fried) 
Harry Monk:
Silver_Surfer:
To be fair it’s probably not as hard as an A level but you just need to be able to study well to do it at home.I don’t know when you did yours Silver, but my trainers said it has got massively more difficult over the years.
Before I even booked it I asked my ex-boss, who took his in the 1980s, how much he thought it would cost, and he said I would almost certainly get change from £200. In fact, it was £1310.
Did mine in the winter of 1995/6 using a home study pack from EP training Leatherhead/Effingham.I only needed to spend a few hours between shifts at home and shut quietly in the cab during trailer unloading/loading and break time and found it all a lot easier than any of the school just CSE grade exams and engineering college work that I’d done previously and it cost just a few hundred as I remember.
It’s all obviously a lot more difficult and expensive now though.
It’s easy to forget most of it all if you don’t keep using the knowledge and get left behind by legislation changes if you’re not actively involved in the industry for any length of time.
Even at that time though I thought that a lot of what is needed for the exams doesn’t apply to anyone who only intends to run their own truck as an owner driver.In which case there needs to be a (relatively) easier to get lower grade type of CPC for owner drivers in which the larger company running a fleet of trucks using employees scenario isn’t ever going to be an issue and which could be upgraded that needed for the bigger company with a fleet transport manager type job which is a totally different thing to just looking after the requirements of working as an owner driver.
Carryfast:
Even at that time though I thought that a lot of what is needed for the exams doesn’t apply to anyone who only intends to run their own truck as an owner driver.In which case there needs to be a (relatively) easier to get lower grade type of CPC for owner drivers in which the larger company running a fleet of trucks using employees scenario isn’t ever going to be an issue and which could be upgraded that needed for the bigger company with a fleet transport manager type job which is a totally different thing to just looking after the requirements of working as an owner driver.
Yes, it’s ridiculous, you have to learn all the rules concerning animal transportation for example, when this is a tiny and very specialised field of the industry, and one for which you would have to take an animal transport course anyway if you wanted to get into it. Same with ADR, I can’t see any real point in the CPC covering it in the depth it does when you would need to do an ADR course to transport dangerous goods anyway.
Harry Monk:
Carryfast:
Even at that time though I thought that a lot of what is needed for the exams doesn’t apply to anyone who only intends to run their own truck as an owner driver.In which case there needs to be a (relatively) easier to get lower grade type of CPC for owner drivers in which the larger company running a fleet of trucks using employees scenario isn’t ever going to be an issue and which could be upgraded that needed for the bigger company with a fleet transport manager type job which is a totally different thing to just looking after the requirements of working as an owner driver.Yes, it’s ridiculous, you have to learn all the rules concerning animal transportation for example, when this is a tiny and very specialised field of the industry, and one for which you would have to take an animal transport course anyway if you wanted to get into it. Same with ADR, I can’t see any real point in the CPC covering it in the depth it does when you would need to do an ADR course to transport dangerous goods anyway.
It would also be helpful if the course and subsequent pass were to contribute towards your Driver CPC.
mike68:
Harry Monk:
Carryfast:
Even at that time though I thought that a lot of what is needed for the exams doesn’t apply to anyone who only intends to run their own truck as an owner driver.In which case there needs to be a (relatively) easier to get lower grade type of CPC for owner drivers in which the larger company running a fleet of trucks using employees scenario isn’t ever going to be an issue and which could be upgraded that needed for the bigger company with a fleet transport manager type job which is a totally different thing to just looking after the requirements of working as an owner driver.Yes, it’s ridiculous, you have to learn all the rules concerning animal transportation for example, when this is a tiny and very specialised field of the industry, and one for which you would have to take an animal transport course anyway if you wanted to get into it. Same with ADR, I can’t see any real point in the CPC covering it in the depth it does when you would need to do an ADR course to transport dangerous goods anyway.
It would also be helpful if the course and subsequent pass were to contribute towards your Driver CPC.
Hi mike68,
Some operator CPC training providers have done exactly that, because the operator CPC course can count for approval under the JAUPT heading of “legal compliance.”
Although RSA Level 3 is A Level Standard, it helps us that we actually know something about the subjects before entering the classroom.
IF I went to College to study Modern Greek I would be at a loss as to what they speaking about for the first week, probably longer. I know it must be easy because I know two blokes, Christomanou and Stavros who sailed through it 
I also have to agree with Harry’s trainer, this latest exam is certainly more difficult than ever I remember mine, the case study was a very small part of it and the rest were almost idiot proof options
dieseldave:
Some operator CPC training providers have done exactly that, because the operator CPC course can count for approval under the JAUPT heading of “legal compliance.”
Yes, I thought about doing the course with a provider who did have JAUPT approval, then it would have counted as my DCPC whether I had passed or failed but the problem was that none locally had this approval and the cost of staying in a hotel somewhere where it did have approval would have negated the cost of paying for a DCPC at some point in the future.
It will be interesting to see what happens as we approach the closing date for the DCPC, my CPC trainers said it has been known for at least a year now that the take-up for the DCPC is nowhere near the level that would be required for sufficient drivers to be DCPC compliant which means that either they are going to have to extend the deadline or we are going to have empty supermarket shelves and consequent rioting.
I agree with wheel nut,a degree of prior knowledge is very helpfull when doing this.My cpc exam’s were the first to introduce the case study,back in 2000-and i don’t think I would have passed if I hadn’t studied at college.The college course was 2 nights a week for 13 weeks,using the friendberry books as course material.
I see people 's costs quoted at over a grand,this is a bit of a shock when mine was only 250 quid 11 years ago-same exams,a college course and the books.Incidently,a perk of going to college was the matriculation card—discounts on lots of things-one of my mates says i paid for my course on discounted mcdonalds visits. 
Harry Monk:
… Same with ADR, I can’t see any real point in the CPC covering it in the depth it does when you would need to do an ADR course to transport dangerous goods anyway.
Hi Harry,
From my experience, I can offer you a theory…
The thing that I think catches most TMs out is that they assume that a driver’s ADR course covers the subjects bulleted below and that they’re the driver’s responsibility. Such TMs couldn’t be more wrong.
Once a TM is qualified, he/she might end up as TM for a company who transports chemicals, then that person could be the one making the decision as to whether a load is/isn’t subject to full ADR requirements.
Ever since 2004 in the UK, the carrier (possibly you as a TM) is/are responsible for the applicable parts of the following non-exhaustive list:
I can think of other ADR issues that many TMs possibly aren’t aware of, but many of them are simply keeping their heads down and hoping that their vehicles’ cloaking devices are working correctly. 
I think you might be surprised at the number of TMs that I’ve taught on ADR courses who initially assumed they were there to learn the ADR Regs.
I can’t think of a reason, or even a theory for the way that the carriage of livestock is covered on a CPC course in the way that it is, because I’ve no experience in that specialism.
Skippy70:
I agree with wheel nut,a degree of prior knowledge is very helpfull when doing this.My cpc exam’s were the first to introduce the case study,back in 2000-and i don’t think I would have passed if I hadn’t studied at college.The college course was 2 nights a week for 13 weeks,using the friendberry books as course material.
I see people 's costs quoted at over a grand,this is a bit of a shock when mine was only 250 quid 11 years ago-same exams,a college course and the books.Incidently,a perk of going to college was the matriculation card—discounts on lots of things-one of my mates says i paid for my course on discounted mcdonalds visits.
Hi Skippy70,
Is it possible that you were part-funded for your college course?
dieseldave:
mike68:
Harry Monk:
Carryfast:
Even at that time though I thought that a lot of what is needed for the exams doesn’t apply to anyone who only intends to run their own truck as an owner driver.In which case there needs to be a (relatively) easier to get lower grade type of CPC for owner drivers in which the larger company running a fleet of trucks using employees scenario isn’t ever going to be an issue and which could be upgraded that needed for the bigger company with a fleet transport manager type job which is a totally different thing to just looking after the requirements of working as an owner driver.Yes, it’s ridiculous, you have to learn all the rules concerning animal transportation for example, when this is a tiny and very specialised field of the industry, and one for which you would have to take an animal transport course anyway if you wanted to get into it. Same with ADR, I can’t see any real point in the CPC covering it in the depth it does when you would need to do an ADR course to transport dangerous goods anyway.
It would also be helpful if the course and subsequent pass were to contribute towards your Driver CPC.
Hi mike68,
Some operator CPC training providers have done exactly that, because the operator CPC course can count for approval under the JAUPT heading of “legal compliance.”
Thanks, the company I used for my CPC weren’t JAUPT approved but worth knowing for others who are considering taking the course.
Diesel Dave,no my course was completely self funded.My memory of the cost is a little bit hazy,but i am sure it was nowhere near the cost it seems to be now.
Skippy70:
Diesel Dave,no my course was completely self funded.My memory of the cost is a little bit hazy,but i am sure it was nowhere near the cost it seems to be now.
My exam cost me the cost of David Lowes book for about a fiver I think and two exam places in Hull. since then it has cost me another £70 because I lost my certificates, bloody OCR wanted £35 each for duplicates.
I doubt it could be done so cheaply now.
Malet Lambert school was good to me, an operator CPC and a motorcycle CBT
Well today I took the plunge and bought some home study for doing ocpc got 2 weeks off now so will try get stuck in. I’m gonna do some home study then book on a course just trying to give my self a head start hopefully all goes well. 
Bear in mind the CPC is being completely reformed at the moment into a Pan-European qualification with no distinction between National and International.
Any book or study pack you buy now probably won’t be a great deal of help for taking the new exams.
You cannot teach any one how to drive livestock they have to be born to it. Loading 4 decks of lambs 2 oclock in the morning in Scotland with the rain running out the back of your trousers. After that strick for Taunton full of the pipe and keeping it up right. O happy days
The real Basher:
You cannot teach any one how to drive livestock they have to be born to it. Loading 4 decks of lambs 2 oclock in the morning in Scotland with the rain running out the back of your trousers. After that strick for Taunton full of the pipe and keeping it up right. O happy days
Have you got the two types of CPC confused?
The operator CPC doesn’t attempt to teach anybody how to do that job, instead it teaches the rules that apply to it.
The whole idea of the operator CPC is that it qualifies the holder as a TM.
my c.p.c course back in 1994 was either 7 and thrupence or 250 quid , i cant remember which though … 