P2C beginner’s guide

So you want to get started on the Pathway but don’t know how. Let’s go through the steps that you need to take to set it up, in this P2C Beginner’s Guide!

Find a Mentor

It is best if you start off by securing that you already have a Mentor to guide you in this journey. He/she will play an essential role in the process, as it’s their valuation of your progress, their marks and comments that will allow you to eventually participate in the exam. Their name is also required during the registration process.

Having them on board from an early stage will help you map the areas that you need to work on and possibly organise your long term study plan. You can also use ExamChum’s Syllabus Progress Planner to help you specify your quarterly targets by downloading it from this section.

Your Mentor will explain what the next steps will be but it all starts with an initial review, so that he/she can assess the level of knowledge and experience that you have across the various sections and elements of the syllabus. Don’t be disheartened if at this point you have a big collection of ‘0’s, it’s quite normal not to have achieved a higher level across the board without any amount of targeted studying.

These two links might help you get an idea of what the initial review will look like:

The LI’s Pathway Toolkit is also a good resource to help you in making the right decision when you’re about to choose your Mentor.

Register for the Pathway

Before you register for the Pathway, you first need to check about your Eligibility. If you satisfy all of the selection criteria, you may continue onto the the registration phase.

You will then need to prepare a CV, in template that the LI has already prepared for you, which you need to have ready to upload during the registration process. You can download the CV template from here.

Registering for the Pathway involves paying for the relevant fees upfront. You don’t need to worry too much about the cost of this, as most practices (if not all) will happily cover this expense for you. They even pay for the cost of your first try on the exam but not necessarily any subsequent ones if you fail to pass the first time, so that’s another good reason for you to try and pass the first time!

The table below indicates the relevant fees for registering on the Pathway, annual retention and then registering for the exam:

Fee type Cost and payment point *
Registration £225 – paid upon joining the Pathway
Annual retention £105 – on anniversary of joining the Pathway
Exam registration £391 – once the exam notification is approved
Exam deferral £75

(*As of 1 April 2023)

More details on these payments can be found in this page.

Now it’s time to start the registration process and you need to do this from the below page link:

The LI has also put together this Candidate online User Guide, that gives you step-by-step guidance on the registration process.

Access the Pathway system

Once you’ve finished with setting up your Pathway Membership, you should log in to the online Pathway system and start getting familiar with the interface, as this is going to be your friend for potentially the next couple of years on average.

This is where you’ll need to be filling in your development packs with the most important learning elements during the past 3 months.

You can access your online P2C account from this link.

Examples of how you need to fill in your development packs can be found here: EXAMPLE #1, EXAMPLE #2.

You can see an example of a fully completed development log from here.

Resources

There is also more information on the above on the LI’s relevant webpage: