2 basic areas ACCA F2 students are neglecting!

Don't forget the basics!
 
Rather like an electrician needs to know how to change a light bulb, it is essential for an accountant to know their numbers.
 
ACCA examiners are continuously surprised at the number of basic mistakes made by candidates in two key areas. Firstly, an inability to do calculations correctly. Secondly, a poor understanding of commonly used accounting ratios.

These are fundamental requirements for all ACCA students. As you work hard at learning complex subjects across the ACCA syllabus, remember not to neglect the basics!

Let's look at these in a bit more detail...

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:

A simple tip to help make your revision sink in...

Sometimes it's easy to spend hours revising, revising and revising for your ACCA exams, to find that at the end of it all it feels like you can't remember a single thing.

This is obviously not ideal!

In my 15 years of teaching accountancy exams, I have found a number of ways to overcome this such as effective note-taking and having a structured revision plan.

However, there is an even more obvious way to make your ACCA revision more effective with minimal effort. It may seem simple but is often ignored by many students!

3 tips to make your revision fun and effective (yes I said fun!)

ACCA revision is of course very important - but are we guilty of making our approach a bit too serious?

It goes without saying that all students really want to pass their ACCA exams - so it's important to make sure your revision is as effective as possible. After all, it's a serious matter!

However, there is often a misconception that revision can't also be enjoyable. 

With that in mind, here are three tips that could not only make your revision more fun, they could also make your revision more effective!

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:

Must know tips from the examiners - the sequel!

It amazes me that so many ACCA students don't pay attention to the Examiners' Reports. After all, they are the people you need to impress on the big day!

These reports highlight the same old issues that come up time and time again. They summarise the mistakes students are making in the exams and give important and helpful advice on areas they should improve.

Make sure you don't ignore these! To help you out we've captured the key points here:

Must know tips from the examiners

What better advice can you receive than from the examiners themselves? After all not only do they write the ACCA exam, they also mark it!

I recently attended a conference in London where examiners fed back on the performance of accountancy students. It's a great shame that you were not all in the audience with me as they gave some great advice on how students can perform better in the exams. Despite the fact you weren't there, the good news is that the ACCA Examiners' Reports are issued after every sitting. They contain nuggets of information that are essential reading for students.

It was interesting in the conference that the examiners were disappointed that many students did not take the time to read their ACCA reports - as the same problems were coming up time and time again!

Here are the key points from ACCA F1. ACCA F2 and F3 will follow over the next few days. 

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.