Where to start - what a long story you are in for. I enroled on an online course for timber infestation & treatment and damp investagation and was lead to believe that this would result in a qualification, it cost in excess of £600 for a 12 week course, (1 day per week on video based classroom learning based on zoom) and at the end of the course sat a short exam that I passed and was given a certificate of course completion, HOWEVER, this also stated on it that the certificate was not a qualification, merely a record that I had attended a course. I then had an email informing me that to get the qualification I would need to go to the PCA main office in Cambridge to sit an exam preparation course, (3 days long) to prepare me for the exam, this cost additional money to the tune of almost £1200, plus a 3 day stay in a travel lodge on top. Upon completing the exam preparation course I was then told that the exams were in 8 weeks time and if I wanted to book the exams they would cost an additional £1200 or so and would take 2 more days. The tests were all far too long for the allotted time, both exams were 3 hours long and the health and safety exam was again, 3 hours long and compulsory. These were impossible to complete fully in the given time to a good and detailed standard, I failed my first exam by 2% and on my second exam I ran out of time and was unable to answer the last 8 or so questions at all, and came out with a fail. I did however pass the health and safety exam and had done no revision for this at all. I would suggest that the tests are broken down into shorter tests to allow the people taking them time to relax for 10 minutes or have a drink/comfort break between sections A and B. The questions in the exams were also in my opinion too difficult and placed far too much emphasis on the Latin names for insects and mold rather than actually fixing the issue, (by the way, almost all of the molds and insect infestations have the same treatment so being able to give the Latin name of a fungus seems a moot point if you are about to poison the timber anyway to kill it off, or remove it and replace it entirely - that is the answer for 80% of the exam in one sentence by the way), I am aware that you have a standard to uphold but the actual tests were far too difficult, (look at your re-sit figures, I bet they are a rather high percentage) and this feels like a cash grab - just my opinion. After the written exams there were practical exams where you had to identify all the different woodworms and molds that you may find in UK homes and give the Latin names and the common names of each and correctly identify each type. I was then contacted by the PCA and offered a re-sit for the 2 failed exams for a special price of only £900. If you really need the PCA accreditation then you have to do this, otherwise, I would tell people to steer well clear of this sh*t show of a company. I am a general builder and have been for the last 6 years, I have a CISCO IT and networking degree, a NVQ 2 in plumbing, a part-P electrical certificate and have been in the building industry for over 15 years in various trades so am fairly clued up on all this - I am not an idiot, just a guy who has been strung along by the PCA.