This is a long overdue post which I meant to write ages ago.
The APC diary is used to record your APC experience.
You will need to record your day to day activities on what is it and what you did. You should also mention the name of the projects that you were working on. The diary should be as elaborate as you think you could write but not overly detailed.
Try to write it as if someone with no knowledge of your project would pick up and able to understand what you are trying to record. So you don’t want to bore them with too many nitty gritty details. However, if there is an issue that you want to highlight, you might want to write it in detail.
You will need to remember that although the diary is not checked by anyone other than your Supervisor or Counsellor, or that you don’t need to submit it to RICS, the diary should be written clear enough for you to revisit what you have written as well.
If your company does not provide a template for you to record your experience, you can download the RICS templates as mentioned in Section Thirteen of the APC Candidate’s Guide.
For the diary, RICS has even come up with a suggested format.
Don’t forget:
- you should not record a period of less than half a day
- you are not required to record the Mandatory competencies
- you should only record one Technical competency to each day or half day period.
For more info on recording your experience, read page thirteen onwards of the APC Candidate’s Guide.
The following are bad and good examples for comparison.
The recording of your diary is not confined to the above example. Chat with your Supervisor and seek his/her advice to improve.
You should aim to complete your diary once a week, so that you are not overwhelmed by the task and be put off completing your diary altogether. Ideally, if you are super organised, record your diary at the end of each day or the beginning of the next day.
At the end of every month, you will need to total up your hours and record it in your log book.
You will need to provide your log book at every Supervisor / Counsellor meeting to chart your progress for the quarter. At that time, your Supervisor / Counsellor can advice on what activities or competencies require more attention so that you get a balanced experience at the end of your training.
Don’t forget that you will need to submit your log book to RICS during your interim and final assessment.
Additional reading on:
--Property Week's ‘Recording your experience’
--Jon Lever's APC Support & Discussion on Facebook 'Getting Started on your APC'. Scroll along and you can see some advice on recording your diary.
The APC diary is used to record your APC experience.
You will need to record your day to day activities on what is it and what you did. You should also mention the name of the projects that you were working on. The diary should be as elaborate as you think you could write but not overly detailed.
Try to write it as if someone with no knowledge of your project would pick up and able to understand what you are trying to record. So you don’t want to bore them with too many nitty gritty details. However, if there is an issue that you want to highlight, you might want to write it in detail.
You will need to remember that although the diary is not checked by anyone other than your Supervisor or Counsellor, or that you don’t need to submit it to RICS, the diary should be written clear enough for you to revisit what you have written as well.
If your company does not provide a template for you to record your experience, you can download the RICS templates as mentioned in Section Thirteen of the APC Candidate’s Guide.
For the diary, RICS has even come up with a suggested format.
Don’t forget:
- you should not record a period of less than half a day
- you are not required to record the Mandatory competencies
- you should only record one Technical competency to each day or half day period.
For more info on recording your experience, read page thirteen onwards of the APC Candidate’s Guide.
The following are bad and good examples for comparison.
Bad Example
Good Example
Good Example
The recording of your diary is not confined to the above example. Chat with your Supervisor and seek his/her advice to improve.
You should aim to complete your diary once a week, so that you are not overwhelmed by the task and be put off completing your diary altogether. Ideally, if you are super organised, record your diary at the end of each day or the beginning of the next day.
At the end of every month, you will need to total up your hours and record it in your log book.
You will need to provide your log book at every Supervisor / Counsellor meeting to chart your progress for the quarter. At that time, your Supervisor / Counsellor can advice on what activities or competencies require more attention so that you get a balanced experience at the end of your training.
Don’t forget that you will need to submit your log book to RICS during your interim and final assessment.
Additional reading on:
--Property Week's ‘Recording your experience’
--Jon Lever's APC Support & Discussion on Facebook 'Getting Started on your APC'. Scroll along and you can see some advice on recording your diary.
4 comments:
Hi,
I am just starting on my APC working on a placement in my sandwich year. The main thing that is confusing me is this thing about not recording mandatory competancies...i notice you have written this too, dows it mean you leave a day blank in the diary if you worked on something that comes under a mandatory competancy? Any direction would be a great help!
Thanks
Hello!
Unfortunately, according to the APC Candidate's Guide, you only need to record your Technical and Optional Competencies.
Most of the time, some activities are covered by more than one competencies.
What type of activities did you carried out?
When recording your competency, try writing it to reflect the requirements of a Technical or Optional Compentency.
If you are unsure, download the Pathway Guide relevant to your chosen path and look at the examples provided.
Hope the above help.
In any case, also speak to your Supervisor or Counsellor or your local APC Doctor - especially your Supervisor / Counsellor as they are the one who will 'tell' the industry that you are professionally ready to be assessed.
Hello Suzanne,
I hope that you are progressing with your APC Programme, or have hopefully finally finished it!
I saw your post while I was doing some browsing, and I wanted to share that we have developed an online tool to make the lives of every candidate much easier! It's called simply APCDiary.com.
We have developed an online APC Diary platform that allows candidates to fill in their diaries quickly and easily. It also restricts candidates from setting up their diary wrong, and does all of the things you pointed out above in your blog.
What's more is that it will export everything you fill in to the correct RICS templates, and will also warn you if you are missing anything prior to exporting it! It exports to both Excel and to PDF.
If you're interested in giving it a go, we'd be happy to set you up with a completely free account as we are currently trying to find candidates to provide us with feedback. Please email info@ApcDiary.com, and we'd be happy to help.
Thanks
The cost of APCDiary is outrageous.
Be warned DeLever, due to you holding this niche market and attempting to obscenely capitalise on graduates, which generally don't have a pot to p*** in; I will design a competitive site/software and make it affordable to graduates.
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