ACCA - Self/Home Study

William Gates

Hi guys, I'm looking for a bit of guidance. I'm considering doing the ACCA exams and can get exemptions from F1 - F4.

I'm not a big fan of lectures so my question is, is it possible (in your opinion) to study for the exams yourself and pass? Or is it just so much easier / more beneficial to attend lectures.

From what I am gathering from other posts, it's do-able for F5 - F9 but possibly not for the P's?

I don't have a background in Accountancy, I have a Business Degree and approx 10 years Lending / Banking experience.

Any input would be much appreciated.

SBWife

I did all the exams without attending lectures.

William Gates

SBWife wrote: »

I did all the exams without attending lectures.

Fair play. Do you mind telling me (1) if you had to repeat any, (2) approx how many hours of self study per exam, (3) how long it took you to pass all exams and (4) with hindsight, are there any of the exams that you would attend lectures for?

SBWife

No repeats.
My guess is 80 to 120 hours per exam.
I did 14 exams across 4 diets so a little over 18 months.
Maybe P5, it was my narrowest passing margin, it was a large syllubas and it seemed like everything came up on the exam.

William Gates

SBWife wrote: »

No repeats.
My guess is 80 to 120 hours per exam.
I did 14 exams across 4 diets so a little over 18 months.
Maybe P5, it was my narrowest passing margin, it was a large syllubas and it seemed like everything came up on the exam.

80- 120 hours per exam! Wow, that seems like a lot.

Thanks for the info.

Would other people concur with this amount of hours per exam?

ianuss

William Gates wrote: »

80- 120 hours per exam! Wow, that seems like a lot.

Thanks for the info.

Would other people concur with this amount of hours per exam?

Yeah, I'd agree with that. There are no shortcuts with professional exams.

thefa

Lectures provide organisation and discipline when you get into them so as the exams get more difficult, you will have to be more organised and disciplined to succeed without them but I am sure it is possible.

Having someone at hand to explain things you dont quite grasp is a benefit with going to lecturers and saves time.

I also found that lecturers and their notes have saved me time by prioritising parts of the curriculum to cover, time which would have be spent going into excessive detail if I had just been using the BPP/Kaplan study texts for the entire subject.

William Gates

thefa wrote: »

Lectures provide organisation and discipline when you get into them so as the exams get more difficult, you will have to be more organised and disciplined to succeed without them but I am sure it is possible.

Having someone at hand to explain things you dont quite grasp is a benefit with going to lecturers and saves time.

I also found that lecturers and their notes have saved me time by prioritising parts of the curriculum to cover, time which would have be spent going into excessive detail if I had just been using the BPP/Kaplan study texts for the entire subject.

Thanks. I have to pay for everything myself so just weighing up the pros and cons.

JM_2009

How many exams would you have to do?

I did self study for all my exams. Mainly studied on the train every morning on my way to work.

If I could give one piece of advice I would say practice plenty of questions, and I really mean plenty.

In terms of the toughest one - P6 by a mile (got 50%), thankfully didn't have to repeat any of them however

William Gates

JM_2009 wrote: »

How many exams would you have to do?

I did self study for all my exams. Mainly studied on the train every morning on my way to work.

If I could give one piece of advice I would say practice plenty of questions, and I really mean plenty.

In terms of the toughest one - P6 by a mile (got 50%), thankfully didn't have to repeat any of them however

4 exemptions so 13 exams to do.

Football Friend

If you're exempt from 4 then you only have 10 exams to do. You have a choice of doing any 2 of P4, P5, P6 and P7.

I was exempt for 8 of them and have done the classes so far and to be honest for me personally I couldnt do it any other way. However if you were disciplined enough I'd say the F's should be ok on your own, and P1 and P3 are fairly theory based so they should be doable on your own.

If you're not feeling the whole lecture thing you could opt for the revision course? They are usually a full weekend week of two before exams which tend to brush over the whole course.

William Gates

Football Friend wrote: »

If you're exempt from 4 then you only have 10 exams to do. You have a choice of doing any 2 of P4, P5, P6 and P7.

I was exempt for 8 of them and have done the classes so far and to be honest for me personally I couldnt do it any other way. However if you were disciplined enough I'd say the F's should be ok on your own, and P1 and P3 are fairly theory based so they should be doable on your own.

If you're not feeling the whole lecture thing you could opt for the revision course? They are usually a full weekend week of two before exams which tend to brush over the whole course.

Thanks FF and of course you are correct, I'd have 10 exams to do not 13.

KevLeppard

It can be done without lectures. For the most part, just work off the exam papers and the ACCA textbook. Then go the weekend revision crash course at the end of it. Thing u gotta remember is u cant become a Tax expert in 10 weeks, u gotta become an Exam expert in 10 weeks.

For the more "technical" exams, u would be better off going to the lectures. I am a tad out of touch with the current set up as I did the previous set up, but thats my 2 cents on it.

William Gates

KevLeppard wrote: »

It can be done without lectures. For the most part, just work off the exam papers and the ACCA textbook. Then go the weekend revision crash course at the end of it. Thing u gotta remember is u cant become a Tax expert in 10 weeks, u gotta become an Exam expert in 10 weeks.

For the more "technical" exams, u would be better off going to the lectures. I am a tad out of touch with the current set up as I did the previous set up, but thats my 2 cents on it.

Which exams would you class as more technical?

SBWife

F7, F9, P2, P4 maybe F6 & F5.

Aine5

OP have you looked into online classes?
BPP have a special rate for students in IE at the min. I think this is what I am going to do for P1 and do F7 homestudy.
I done homestudy for F5 & F8 last sitting and I found it very difficult so I am giving online a bash this sitting.

sReq | uTeK

Hi All.

Can anyone give me a link of the best places to get past papers for f1, f2, f3 if its the acca website do you have to be signed member (Paid fee) in order to be able to obtain them.

William Gates

Aine5 wrote: »

OP have you looked into online classes?
BPP have a special rate for students in IE at the min. I think this is what I am going to do for P1 and do F7 homestudy.
I done homestudy for F5 & F8 last sitting and I found it very difficult so I am giving online a bash this sitting.

No Aine, I haven't looked into that yet, is it much cheaper?

KevLeppard

William Gates wrote: »

Which exams would you class as more technical?

I did the old set up so not too familar with the current set up. "Back in the day", the more technical ones would be the tax paper (3.2), Strategic Financial Management (3.7).

Anything to do with Company Law or Auditing, u can pretty much pick up from past exams papers what u need to know, along with the text book from BPP.

Hope this helps and best of luck with the exams.

Iddles76

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