ACCA P3 or F8 (repeat) revision course, which one?

EamoS

Hi all,

I'm trying to decide which of the two exams above I should take a revision course for. Unfortunately I don't have the time/money to do both. My situation is as follows:

I failed F8 in June by 1 mark. I was completely shocked to be honest, I had felt disappointed coming out of my other exams but this one I really felt I had in the bag (actually passed the other two). Anyway, it left me thinking that if that script didnt pass then I dont know what would. In retrospect, I realise that although I had a good knowledge base, Id say my exam technique was poor. The second thing is that I was working off old study texts (2010, from what I could see the syllabus hadnt changed much).

As regards P3, I'm comfortable with the comprehension of the syllabus. But I could be setting myself up in the same way I did for F8.

Ultimately I suppose what I'm asking is in which exam can tuition help pick up more marks?

Many thanks in advance.

myshirt

EamoS wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm trying to decide which of the two exams above I should take a revision course for. Unfortunately I don't have the time/money to do both. My situation is as follows:

I failed F8 in June by 1 mark. I was completely shocked to be honest, I had felt disappointed coming out of my other exams but this one I really felt I had in the bag (actually passed the other two). Anyway, it left me thinking that if that script didnt pass then I dont know what would. In retrospect, I realise that although I had a good knowledge base, Id say my exam technique was poor. The second thing is that I was working off old study texts (2010, from what I could see the syllabus hadnt changed much).

As regards P3, I'm comfortable with the comprehension of the syllabus. But I could be setting myself up in the same way I did for F8.

Ultimately I suppose what I'm asking is in which exam can tuition help pick up more marks?

Many thanks in advance.

My suggestion would be that you revise for these by yourself.

The difficulty with these revision courses at this point is that you tend to get caught up in meaningless note taking; or just writing down as much of the course as is possible, without actually spending your time thinking and engaging with the material.

These tests examine comprehension and application; that's something you can only gain yourself. They design the exams in a way that will give you no marks for knowing the material; but marks for understanding it and relating it to the scenario.

You have the course complete, so now it's time to practice producing that content in the format the examiner wants. This will only come through engaging with the material; sitting down, giving your answer, comparing it to their answer and bridging the gap / explaining to yourself the logic of their answer.

If you were teaching the topic to someone, how would you explain to them why your answer was not sufficient, and theirs was.

This is the process you need to go through; not a revision course.

It's psychology I suppose. You learn much better at this point if you direct your efforts into reading the material and literally forcing yourself to make the information meaningful.

If you force yourself to make information meaningful, you actually learn whether you intend to learn or not.

What I would say to you is:

Do not panic

Try to understand what went wrong the last time

Set out a plan / checklist of areas to cover

Do nothing but exam questions exam questions exam questions.

EamoS

Thanks for your respnse. So you think I should revise for both? Bearing in mind that this will be my first attempt at P3?

Are these revision courses not just doing question after question though?

And you said "If you were teaching the topic to someone, how would you explain to them why your answer was not sufficient, and theirs was" and also "its time to start producing that content in the format the examiner wants." Well you see thats the thing, I need someone to help me with those, but Im not sure which exam I need this help more for.

I guess what Im asking is, for which exam is does a knowledge base (as opposed to exam technique) go further with?

Robin132

I'll be honest I found wiht F8 it is all about the "buzz" words, making sure you state "recalculate" not just re check the figures etc. The is the only difference I found between my two sittings, i put a lot more "buzz" words in and i passed it. If you can include those kind of words I think it should help bringing up your marks (or at least it did for me.)