struggling :(

frankythefish

hi all

i have worked in practice over 2 years now. workwise i am quite content and managing.

exams are my problem (i am doing cpa). i find it really difficult to study.

i am extremely stressed by the whole situation and considering moving from accountancy to another finance field whereby the pursuance of exams is not a requirement. i think an old friend got into funds (doin navs etc) and did nt have to pursue further exams there.

any suggestions

mr_edge_to_you

frankythefish wrote: »

hi all

i have worked in practice over 2 years now. workwise i am quite content and managing.

exams are my problem (i am doing cpa). i find it really difficult to study.

i am extremely stressed by the whole situation and considering moving from accountancy to another finance field whereby the pursuance of exams is not a requirement. i think an old friend got into funds (doin navs etc) and did nt have to pursue further exams there.

any suggestions

one of the reasons qualified professionals are held in high regard is because it is evidence that the individual is hard working, disciplined, committed, driven and able to juggle a number of different tasks.

studying and working isn't easy but we've all been there. I was 8 years doing exams. When I put the head down I flew through the exams.

you need to reevaluate what you want from your career.

thomlin

Hi OP,

My advice would be to stick with the accounting and just develop some study skills and coping mechanisms easier said than done but achievable non the less.

Have you thought about switching to another professional body such as ACCA or ACA maybe you'll have better luck with study with them and before anyone flames me I am not putting CPA down just some people do better with other professional bodies.

Even if you go into funds you will be expected to complete the ACCA exams or equivalent while you might be able to not do them your chances of getting anywhere career wise even in funds will be limited.

While I have never worked in funds from reading other peoples comments on them you will be bored to tears eventually in that industry too so better to have a fallback plan if you're intending to take that route.

Either way you will have to do some sort of professional standard exams at some point and none of them are easy when you work full time and study part time also remember you only need to pass the exams don't need to be no 1 in Ireland or the world you're still qualified once you've passed them.

Best of luck either way :-)

dbran

Hi

All the others have posted some good advice. The only think I would add is that you should take some time to consider your exam technique and also your method of study.

After all it is not nescessarily how much you know (but this of course helps) but also how much of it you can get down on paper in the time given on the day and also that it is relevant to the question.

You will never get the money you are entitled to get without your qualifications and once you stop, it is very hard to go back to them again. Most people I have come across in funds are wanting to get out of it again because it is a very specialised area where you can get stuck in for a long time.

Good luck

dbran

yes - focus on practicing exam questions, even when you don't know the material well. It's easy to waste time poring over huge accounting books needlessly. It's much easier to focus on exam questions, rather than on theory. For the non-computational questions, no need to write out full answer, just sketch out the points that you would make. Get a big question set with the answers provided and spend most of your time on this. I wouldn't even bother going to lectures - bit of a waste of time unless you read the material in advance. Revision weekends are worthwhile though. Using this method your time is much better utilised and you don't have to spend 1/2 as much time overall on passing the exams.

another thing that I found useful was to write up summaries on index cards. makes study much more focused and you can use them for revision.