Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

KPMG/University

(edited 6 years ago)

Hi guys, Im full of doubts and I thought that the best place to get place would be here.

I was born in Barcelona and I moved to England 2 years ago, I had to adapt myself quickly if I wanted to carry on with Education as when I landed they put me on year 11 straight away. I got A*ACCCCC, which are not perfect but thinking of the fact that when I was at the airport I didnt understand anything its pretty good haha.

So now im doing A2 after getting ABCCD in Spanish, Politics, History, GenStudies and Economics but I dont know what to do at university.

My main aim is to get into the kpmg program and wanted to know if any of you has done it if you could help me with the application process. It says that the Situational Judgement test has to be done within 7 days of receiving it, so will they give us the practice links website or do we have to find them for ourselves? Same for verbal and numerical tests. Also, if I apply for it I will apply for Birmingham and Manchester office as I need to come back home and help my family. Would that be a problem because Durham is known to be a better university, but if I apply for Durham and a Manchester office it will be really difficult to travel between these 2 locations.

Likewise, if I apply to university I will apply only for Manchester as I need to save up money but the main reason is that I got to stay to help family. My subject choices are between Finance, Accounting, Economics or Politics but I don't know which one to go for. At the end of the day I wouldnt mind doing any of these but which would give the higher job prospects.

Much appreciated :smile:

Hey

I'm on the 2014 entry.

IIRC you get some practice links, not many- but some. The SJT really doesn't require practise anyway tbh, its common sense/there are no right or wrong answers.

You do get some practice links for the verbal/numerical.

as for travelling, you don't need to. You're at uni for a block of time (at durham its a month from august>september) and then you're at work for a block (september>june i think at durham). Rinse and repeat. You don't need to travel between work and uni, just at the start of uni and the end.
If that's what you meant, anyway.

can I ask why you would ONLY apply to manchester? seems a bit odd!

(edited 6 years ago)

Original post by Sabs96

Stirkee, thanks for your reply. The STJ looks quite easy as its common sense as youve said. But the numerical test looks quite hard. I got an A in GCSE maths are the questions in the numerical test only to test you or are they also being used in your daily work at KPMG/uni lectures? Would you recommend me to apply for Durham because its a better university or Birmingham as Durham might be hard to get? By the way can you apply for both? When you work do they still pay your accomodation?

My dad is not here so im combining studies with dad role at home haha thats why

The numerical tests are just that and nothing more. Its testing your ability to analyse data and do (semi-basic) sums but under fairly tight time constraints. At uni you only ever do pretty basic maths and so far at work all i've done is addition and subtraction :P

The hardest part with the numerical/verbal tests is the time; but then, you're not necessarily supposed to finish. It tests your accuracy AND speed. Its better to only answer half the questions and get all of them right than answer them all and only get 51% of them right.

I'd say Durham. Its by far the best uni; by far. Also you get the whole year at uni in the 4th year where you can be a regular uni student (albeit for free and indeed on a salary!)

You can only apply for one office and one uni. Durham is the hardest to get into as it is by far the most popular.

You have to sort your own accommodation while you work.

(edited 6 years ago)

Original post by Sabs96

Thats what I thought, if I had to use this kind of calculations on my everyday I would give up haha. I am gonna ask the current maths teacher to help me a day before applying with the numerical test so I can be sure of what I am doing. Would you recommend me applying for Durham and then Manchester Office? so I can be close to home and at the same time work.

Can I add you in any social media or if you have whatsapp so if I have any doubts I can ask you and if you wanna share your moments with KPMG :P, send it over private if you want.

Thanks for your reply again.

just try to get used to reading graphs/information and doing quick calculations under timed conditions. I didn't finish the numerical test, indeed I think I only did maybe 80% of the questions, but I got in the 92nd percentile! I did finish the verbal test though I KNOW I made some mistakes as I stupidly rushed to finish it, but I still got in the 98th percentile. Don't worry, I know last year some people got in the 30-40th percentile and still passed.

Just feel free to PM me if you have any issues :redface: