Booking Options Explained
When you book your Skills for Life session, there are two booking options to choose from. Each has its advantages and drawbacks, so please take a moment to read this page and decide which is best for your circumstances.
Should I use Standard Entry or Block Booking?
This information relates ONLY to your Speaking & Listening examination sessions.
There are 2 ways of registering your students for Speaking and Listening:
a) by making individual registrations or
b) by block-booking a session.
Whether you use individual or block booking system, the minimum amount of time you can book is one half-day
= 2 hrs 45 mins actual examiner/candidate contact time. The minimum fee for either booking system is £460 (2006).
This means that if your total number of candidates equals or is less than 2hrs 45 mins, it is better to use block-booking because of the flexibility it offers (see table below). If your total number of candidates is greater than one half-day, you must decide which system you prefer.
Note: Individual bookings USUALLY give you a lower total cost but you do not benefit from the flexibility of block-booking( See table below). You cannot mix individual and block-booking systems.
| Standard Entry | Block Booking | |
| Closing Dates | 4 weeks | 4 weeks |
| Exam fees | you pay per candidate | You buy blocks of time: min block= half day = 2 hrs 45 mins actual candidate/examiner contact time |
| Late Entries | not allowed! | Freedom to add candidates up to total time booked up to the night before exam |
| How to calculate time needed? | Trinity online calculates for you when you enter your candidates. To help you plan you can download a calculator from Resources on the right in EXCEL format - this will compare the individual booking total with the block-booking total. It will also show you how to assign candidates to groups for the discussion | Trinity online calculates for you when you enter your candidates. To help you plan you can download a calculator from Resources on the right in EXCEL format - this will compare the individual booking total with the block-booking total. It will also show you how to assign candidates to groupsfor the discussion |
| How to use the EXCEL calculator | simply type in the number of possible candidates at each level in column 'E' and read the results | simply type in the number of possible candidates at each level in column 'E' and read the results |