Let me start with some important tips for managing work and study for ACCA Financial Reporting (FR)..
In my own experience, motivation does not last very long! We start a course fully motivated and then life gets in the way. To stop yourself from falling behind make a plan and stick to it. At PAT Business School I provide a topic-per-topic focused study plan to ensure students don’t think about what they need to do but get stuck in and do it.
All work and no play! That is not very exciting. The key to success in work and study is a good balance. Put the important social dates in your plan too and work them around your lectures and study plan. Make sure you attempt the mocks, what you will learn from the attempt will be so valuable for the real exam. Feedback is so important for you to learn from. This is only provided if you give the mocks a go.
Yes, you will get tired but tiredness sucks less than regret!!
Make the time, you will thank your future self when the exams come around!
Now, let’s look at the exam study strategies.
Practice as many questions on the BBP or Kaplan or any approved acca tuition providers exam kit! Once you have covered the kit, then spend all your time on the test reach platform. Near to the exams time yourself! Sometimes timekeeping can be as much an issue in an exam as knowledge.
Read the examiner’s exam briefs for the past few sittings. These will shed light on the areas the examiner feels that students have not quite mastered so this might be a clue to what they will re-examine. Read the technical articles at the end of each topic. Learn off your templates for section C in the exam. Consolidations and Published accounts. Have your layout prepared for your Interpretation question.
Exam Tips
1.You can’t just learn by rote and hope to pass ACCA – you need time to learn, absorb, and process what you’re learning. This means you’ll be much more likely to pass ACCA on your first attempt if you leave plenty of time for revision. Make a sensible, flexible study calendar well in advance to ensure you cover everything you need to cover and have time to truly understand what you’ve learned.
2. Examiners primarily write the ACCA exams based on the syllabus you’ve covered. Hence, it’s essential to familiarise yourself with this so you know your revision is covering all the right areas.
3. Practice on the ACCA platform.
4. There’s a tendency amongst ACCA students to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information there is to learn, focusing heavily on the content of the exams. Obviously, the actual content is essential, but it’s equally vital that you know how to answer the different questions you’ll encounter on each paper.
5. It’s important to eat well, get enough sleep, exercise, drink enough water, and generally not put yourself under unnecessary pressure.
6. In the exam, timing is essential. STOP! And move on when your time is up on a question.
A final note re the exams..
Ultimately, remember that it’s not the end of the world if you don’t pass ACCA the first time.
We can be our own worst enemies when it comes to exams – the more pressure you put on the outcome, the more difficult it will be to perform on the day.
If you don’t pass, view it as a learning opportunity. You will get there eventually!