Ideally, the preparation for your next exam should start immediately from the day after appearing your last exam. For a strong start, attend classes with an Approved Learning Partner. To get maximum benefits from the classes, be regular in the class and be attentive and participative. Take notes during the lectures, be it detailed, or just keywords or a flow chart, but TAKE NOTES.
Do the class-works and home-works sincerely. Tally your notes with the book. Check for any relevant technical articles on the ACCA Global website. Exploit Google and YouTube to answer your queries. Finally, practice questions from the revision kit and as many others as you can lay your hands on. Ask the tutor if any related questions arise while the tutor is still on the topic. By the time the course is complete, you should have finished the book and the Kit at least once. When the exam is near, you want to be revising, not studying your books for the first time.
Whether or not you have been able to keep up with the tutor’s speed, you have to prepare to obtain pass marks or more. You can’t really go back in time to make things right, but you can definitely study smart and increase the chances of passing with earnest efforts.
Tips to prepare for the Acca examination
1. Begin your revision when there’s still plenty of time left before the exams.
2. Know your syllabus and the exam format, the question types and the weightage of each chapter. This information can be obtained from the first few pages of your study text and exam kit.
3. Devise a study plan and stick to it.
– Set realistic, attainable but high-aiming goals.
– Draw a schedule, a time table for everyday until the exams, also accounting for days already committed to unavoidable events such as family obligations.
– Don’t cram many things into your brain at once, allow for short breaks every once in a while.
– Follow a long, difficult or tricky topic by a comparatively shorter and easier topic.
– Consistency is the key to a deeper understanding; even if you were too busy some days, make sure to revise at least some easy topic so that you don’t break the flow.
– Deal with difficult and marks-wise heavy topics first.
4. We have to learn most formulae by heart. Memorizing some theory portion also helps to save time during the exam. But at first, gain the concepts and practice questions; leave the memorizing for later on.
- Practice makes permanent. Practice questions from the study text, KIT, past questions. Practice discursive questions in writing too. Re-visit a difficult question you encountered at certain intervals.6. Recall and quiz yourself from time to time about topics you have already learnt.
- Don’t let your phone distract you while you are studying.8. Work on exam techniques.
– Time management: Practice questions on a spreadsheet or word-file under timed conditions.
– Get familiar with CBE format: The types of questions, the formulae sheet, flag, highlight, navigator features, etc.
– Know the requirement of the question: Marks will be gained for only those answers that precisely meet the questions’ requirements. You should know how your answers should be versed for different question verbs. (Discuss, Explain, Calculate, Assess, Evaluate, Compare, Criticize etc.)
-Solve easy questions first: Because we have limited time, secure easy pass marks first. You can use the time saved in solving more difficult questions.
– Marking scheme: You need to know how much to write for how many marks, so learning to roughly apportion the marks to the parts of a question from marking schemes given in exam kit is essential.
– Easy marks: Don’t miss the easy marks in the long questions, for e.g. for correct formats, or copying a figure given in the question into the format correctly.
– Read the examiner’s reports. At least last 4 of those in detail to know what the examiner expects in our answers.
– At least attempt: In the exam, don’t leave a question blank even though you don’t understand the requirements or don’t know how to solve it because you may still secure easy marks from those questions.
9. Practice mock exams available on ACCA Global website and on websites of Approved Content Providers. Review your shortcomings so that you don’t repeat the same mistakes in the real exam.
You can also visit our resources section to get different ACCA Resources which can be helpful to you.
