The No.1 reason that can lead to failure in the ACCA F1 exam

Examiners commented in recent ACCA reports that a number of students appeared to be guessing answers. It is strongly recommended that this is avoided, as a process of logic and reasoning can often guide you to the answer even if it’s not immediately apparent. 

However, be aware of ‘distractors’ in ACCA Objective Test/Multiple Choice exams! These are answers that are incorrect but can often fool students as they are in some way related to the question.

Here are what the examiners had to say on this issue and some key advice on how to avoid guessing:

Don't let stress be the reason for failing your ACCA exams!

Stress can be your biggest enemy when it comes to your ACCA exams! In my fifteen years of teaching, I've seen excellent students fail their exams due to an inability to manage their stress levels! This is such a shame as they often work long and had to achieve success. 

Remember, everyone gets nervous in the build up to important events. Whether it's starting a new job, attending an interview or making a wedding speech, it's perfectly natural to feel butterflies in your stomach before the big day.

Sportsmen often say that a little stress is a good thing as it actually improves their performance. Similarly many famous actors suffer from stage fright just before giving outstanding performances on the stage.

Like these successful people, the secret is it to control the stress not let the stress control you!

So, let's think about stress in terms of your ACCA exams. Take a look at these 5 great tips that could be key the to passing:

Don't make this big mistake!

I was recently approached by a worried student who was struggling to remember his theory. He was spending hours reading the ACCA Study Text but simply couldn't remember what he'd just read - nothing was going in! He talked me through his revision technique and basically we soon released that he didn't have a strategy. He simply spent hours reading through the ACCA Study Text over and over again. 

His biggest mistake was that he was not taking notes. I suggested that he should spend one hour on a specific subject annotating the text and capturing the key points as he went along. I am pleased to say that he was quickly able to take me through the ACCA subject in great detail much to his own surprise!

Sometimes it isn't enough to simply read through a piece of text - in my experience you have to take things a step further like this student did. Take notes as you go along. The process of reading a portion of text and then translating this into a written note helps your brain to consume and understand the information. It also helps you to remember it at a later date.

To help you do this really well, here are 8 simple but effective note-taking tips:

6 ways to significantly improve your work life balance

Juggling work, revision and home life is the single biggest challenge for many ACCA students.

I was recently counseling an ACCA student who was struggling with getting this balance right. He was a committed rugby player as well as a father of two small children. Combined with a busy job in the finance team of a large multi-national corporation, his ACCA revision seemed like a step too far in his busy schedule. He found that not only was his revision going badly, he was not managing any of the key parts of his life successfully. He was heading for problems!

This reminded me of many conversations I have had with Accountancy students over the 15 years I've been teaching.

Of course there is no simple answer, but there are some steps that can be followed to help students to get the balance right and be successful in their ACCA exams.

Here are my six key tips:

Model, Average or Disaster Student... Which one are you?

People regularly use the term “The Model Student” within the education industry when describing successful candidates who pass their exams with top marks. However, the idea of the model student can seem a bit out of reach for many ACCA students, as they may think achieving that level of performance is unattainable for them.

I wanted to explore the idea of the ACCA model student therefore, in order to try and work out what really makes the perfect student within the accountancy world. This will hopefully inspire some of my ACCA students to reach that little bit further within their own studies to achieve the best result they possibly can.

To start off with we need to give the model student term a little bit more context. So let's first look at what makes an average student...

The Return of the 'must know tips from the examiners'!

Why do ACCA students ignore Examiners' Reports?

Your guess is as good as mine - as there is no better information to help them pass their exams!

Don't fall into the same trap by making time in your revision plan to work your way through the last five Examiners' Reports. This will give you an advantage by understanding exactly what the examiners are looking for.

Of course you could just continue to read this blog as we've done the hard work for you by summarising the main points in recent reports. 

To conclude our series of tips, here are the key points you need to know for the ACCA F3 exam:

Are you fit for the exam? Find out!

Fast food, fizzy drinks and burning the midnight oil are sadly not the recipe for ACCA exam success! As well as being mentally prepared for their ACCA exams, students also need to make sure that they are in good physical shape.

In my experience this is easy to neglect when spending hours and hours revising late into the night, often skipping meals and sitting behind a screen without a break.

Poor physical condition will affect your performance and can be the difference between a pass and a fail. Of course you're not preparing for an Olympic marathon but it's still worth making sure you give yourself the best chance to pass the ACCA exam! 

Here are some tips to make sure you are physically as well as mentally prepared for the ACCA exam.