Trevor wrote:

Yes the last of the 'old' system Because of that our tutors think they will
just 'lift' the questions from the past 5 years papers.
We had a mock exam a week ago and were given the 2004 paper. At the time
(and still the case) I haven't done anything other than attend 60% of the
classes. I hadn't even looked at the past exam papers.

And how did you do?

I mainly joined the class for the day out. I have a background of reading
gardening books and magazines for 30 years, though only finally got a proper
garden and the time to do some gardening 7 years ago.

Do you have A Handbook for Horticultural Students by Peter Dawson. It
is *exactly* what you need. He based it on the RHS course for RHS
students and it's simply the best book to have. We have, today,
classified all our notes according to the book - made list of 5 summer
bedding flowers, spring ones, foliage plant, hardy annuals, hedges
(formal/informal), herbaceous, climbing and shrubs. Then we looked at
the maintenance of the ones we have chosen. Tomorrow we will look at
roots inside out, vegetative reproduction, leaf, flower structure and
cells. Monday we will make questions to each others - then revise
glasshouses, machinery, tools and soil.

Do you want past papers? I have last years (they cost £2.50 and takes
ages to come). I have also perhaps 20 pages of selected questions from
1998 till now. Just email me, I'll scan them for you or just bang them
in the post )

I'm doing the course at Bishop Burton College near Beverley in East
Yorkshire. Unfortunately the RHS Advanced which they have been doing
recently ends this year, so I don't have the option to carry on.
At the beginning of the course our tutor told us that there was a job for
anyone who was interested in writing the definitive text book. In other
words there is a dearth of material available specifically for the course.

How strange. Do you mean you haven't been told about the above book I
mentioned?