As someone who chose a degree course which offered the maximum time spent in the field: digging soil pits on Saddleworth Moor, kick-sampling 20m below a sewage outfall, installing tensiometers in Bicknoller Combe, surveying beach transects at Slapton sands, dendro-chronology (count those tree rings till you go blind...) and following Land Rovers through the Northern Pennines, I obviously believe fieldwork to be of vital importance at 'Advanced' level too. The recent changes have meant that it has been squeezed out a little and the most we can expect is one day of human and one day of physical to be able to answer the questions on the AGS paper, but we try our best.
Useful organisations to provide information / advice on equipment:
Of course, there's always the chance of doing some virtual fieldwork.