At NTI we are very proud to bring you the latest news, views, updates and opinions on the NTI app ...
... but we also love an exclusive.
On the 20th of January we broke the news that there would be new software for the JIEB exams in 2021, following the death of Adobe FlashPlayer. It was a sad day, but one that we had expected given that Adobe had been telling us every time we opened a PDF in 2020. The JIEB website has been eerily quiet since November 2020 but you can always rely on NTI to bring you bang up to date.
However, it is February 2021 and our students still cannot practice on the JIEB software. We are aware that the ICAEW are showing the Joint Board the new ACA software tomorrow and then in March the tutors will get to see it. At some stage thereafter the students will get to see it in action and to practice on this vital bit of software.
At NTI we know how important this software is and train our students extensively on it throughout the study year.
We simply couldn't wait any longer and found a practice version of the ACA software on their website as it is soon to be used for the ACA exams.
After a few hours practice Richard has been able to produce a tutorial video showing everyone what the software looks like and how it it will work for the exam this year. Our students received it this afternoon and have already been getting their first glimpse of and started to practice. How about that for an exclusive?
The last thing Richard likes to be called is premature, and it is still possible that JIEB will not proceed with this software, but having seen it and used it NTI are giving it a huge thumbs up. It is everything the software was promised to be back in 2018 and functions beautifully between typed answers in word processor and numbers in a spreadsheet. Many of the little irritations that were caused by typing into a cell, or because the software 'wasn't quite as good Excel' have now been removed. It is so good that Richard has promised to stop calling it "Excel's idiot cousin".
Our caps our firmly doffed in the direction of the ICAEW and we feel it is unlikely that the board won't feel the same.
So, here it is in all its glory our ICAEW CBE Software Tutorial Video for JIEB students, prospective and future students, or just those with a morbid interest in exam software.
We have included a summary of the key improvements / changes below:
> You no longer need to type your written answers into cells. There is a separate word processor pane which is pretty much the same as Microsoft Word
> There is now an additional spreadsheet pane to do your numbers answer in which is identical to Microsoft Excel and has all of its functionality eg the sum button is now more useful, you can repeat a formula by dragging the cell and you can format a cell to be a number/date/fraction etc
> The undo function now goes back more than five functions to help you recover errors
> You now have sufficient rows and columns within the spreadsheet and should not run out of room like previous years
> You are required to copy and paste your numbers answer from the spreadsheet box into your word processor answer. That is the only bit that gets marked so this is a fundamental part of the exam
> In essence, your screen is broken into three panes. One with the question, one with the word processor where you type you whole answer and one spreadsheet pane to do your numbers answers
As always, if you have any questions please do get in touch with us at enquiries@nti.co.uk.
