"My only point was why does it take the best part of a year and £1000 to gain some IR exams? Why not allow self study, exams taken at a local centre and not Gatwick, no residential courses, etc....Why not remove 90% of the extraneous bull from them and make them one "IR" paper? Yes I appreciate this is the way it is now, but that doesn't make it right."
I also totally agree with this statment.
If you can pass the written paper then you meet the required standard - Full Stop.
Why an earth do you have to jump through all the other hoops. My live is too busy to attend residential courses and the misses wouldn't let me take it as annual leave.
However if I could study in my own time at my own pace then it would be so much easier and I would still have to meet the same standard. So what is the point of residential courses?