Some Useful tips on How To Navigate the Challenges of Acing the ACCA

It takes 3-4 years generally to complete the ACCA exam and the journey can be a rocky ride up the hill. 

Sheer determination and practice is required to clear the ACCA exam, become an affiliate, and complete the PER (practical experience requirement) to officially become a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. 

There are several challenges posed by this comprehensive finance and accounting exam which takes a toll on the student or working professional. 

This blog will give you a roadmap to navigate through the challenges of the ACCA exam and ace through its style.

5 High-Profile Tips to Clear The ACCA Exam & Navigate Through Challenges 

Students across the globe attempt the distinguished ACCA exam with the goal of settling into an amazing accounting career. Yet, during the course of completing the various papers, they can become overwhelmed as a result of a lack of critical understanding of how the ACCA exam needs to be approached. 

Let’s look at 5 tips that will help you steer through the challenges and clear the exam. 

1. Understanding Course Syllabus 

The first and foremost question an ACCA student must ask is: 

• What am I going to learn?
• What are the crucial topics that will be covered through the entirety of the ACCA syllabus?
• How does the syllabus help with real-world finance and accounting scenarios?

When you go through and understand the ACCA syllabus and its structure, you will lay the foundational block to clear the exam. 

The ACCA course is divided into 3 levels with each level having a set of papers/exams. 

• Applied Knowledge
• Applied Skills
• Strategic Professional 

ACCA aspirants have to clear a total of 13 papers within these 3 levels with one additional Ethics and Professional Skills Module to become an affiliate of the global accounting body. 

Let’s look at the papers that need to be cleared in each of these levels. 

1. Applied Knowledge (3 Papers)

This initial level of the ACCA course is composed of 3 papers, namely

• BT (Business and Technology)
• MA (Management Accounting)
• FA (Financial Accounting)

These 3 papers in the applied knowledge level get you started into the world of accounting and finance. It sets the stage for an accountant and finance professional to get into the right mind and understand real-world business scenarios. 

For instance, in the first course, Business and Technology, students learn about how modern-day businesses run and exist given their interplay with technology. 

Both management accounting and financial accounting give a perspective lens into the interior workings of organizations and corporate firms within their management circles and insights into financial statements and analysis.

2. Applied Skills (6 Papers)
This secondary level of the ACCA course has 6 papers that take you further into the world of finance & accounting. 

• LW (Corporate and Business Law)
• PM (Performance Management)
• TX (Taxation)
• FR (Financial Reporting)
• AA (Audit and Assurance)
• FM (Financial Management)

Here you begin to go in-depth and understand & solve various accounting metrics such as taxation, audit and assurance, and financial reporting. In the very first paper, you gain an understanding of the legal and ethical aspects of running a business and all compliance measures necessary for its smooth functioning. 
Performance Management gives you insights into the various metrics used to calculate the existing KPIs of a business and come up with solutions that enhance the fiscal and operational performance within a set time period. 

3. Strategic Professional (4 Papers) 
Here’s where you go deep and learn all the accounting and finance-related subjects that are apparent in real-world scenarios. Every ACCA aspirant needs to clear 2 essential papers and 2 (out of 4) optional papers to become a strategic professional and a business leader. 

Essential Papers (2 Required)

• SBL (Strategic Business Leader)
• SBR (Strategic Business Reporting)

The essential papers will take you through the qualities and technical knowledge one needs to oversee financial operations from a business perspective. You also become adept in business reporting standards, a critical part of becoming a comprehensive finance magnet. 

Optional Papers (Choose 2 out of 4)

• AFM (Advanced Financial Management)
• APM (Advanced Performance Management)
• ATX (Advanced Taxation)
• AAA (Advanced Audit and Assurance)

You can deep dive either into aspects of taxation and audit, gaining a phenomenal advantage in real-world accounting, or venture into the business side of finance and learn advanced concepts in financial and performance management. 

2. Familiarizing with the Exam Pattern 
One of the biggest complexities of the ACCA papers lies in the variation of question types. Candidates have to understand that this exam does not have one common question format. However, most of the papers use Objective Test (OT) questions which comprise subtypes like:

• Multiple-choice questions (MCQs)
• Multiple response questions (select more than one correct answer)
• Multiple response matching
• Fill-in-the-blanks
• Drag and drop
• Drop-down lists
• Hot Spots 

The ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) bases the OTQs on real-world scenarios that require practical application of accounting and financial knowledge. Most ACCA exams are CBE (Computer Based Exams) that allow flexibility in question format.
With the progression of exam levels, you can expect a mix of question types ranging from objective-type questions to integrated case studies and detailed written answers. 

Here’s a table that illustrates the exam pattern for various ACCA papers. 

From the table, it is understood that ACCA students have to become familiar with a variety of question types to get the maximum marks for each paper. Exam papers in the Applied Knowledge Level and the first paper of the Applied Skills Level are completely based on objective-type and multi-task questions.  
All the other papers of the Applied Skills Level have a mix of OTQs and constructed workspace response questions. At the Strategic Professional Level, you will deal with case-study-based questions. For instance, you will get a pre-seen case study 2 weeks before your SBL paper. 
The case study will mention the specific industry of the respective business and other mandatory financial information. On the day of the exam, you will have to complete 3 tasks that are associated with the case scenario. 

• Pro Tip to Pass SBL & SPR exam - Gain a strong hand into the applicational side while demonstrating case scenarios. Develop the points in the context of the task requirements. Develop your commercial acumen to improve your professional marks. 

3. Enroll In a Reputable ACCA Course Program

Unless you’re a genius in accounting ratios and financial principles, it’s better advised to take an ACCA course from a recognized provider. Several distinguished course providers do a good job in helping students clear the ACCA exam and develop a fundamental understanding of the syllabus, exam pattern, and various tips needed to complete all 13 papers of the exam. 

The expert faculties of the course providers give you a leap way into understanding the crux of every core topic and getting your mind into the intricacies of real-world accounting and finance scenarios. You will learn 5x faster by following their innovative teaching methodologies. 

Most reputable offline and online ACCA course providers use study materials and mock paper banks from ACCA's Content Partner program namely, 

• BPP Learning Media
• Kaplan Publishing 

Students can refer to these books to learn and clear all the papers. The study guides will take you through the various sections of the books and help you solve complex questions. 

One of the top ACCA course providers is MyLogic. 
Check out our ACCA program here - https://www.mylogic.ac/acca.aspx#sec

4. Practice Mock Tests & Time Management 

After all, it’s all about practice…

The more mock papers you solve, the more you grow in confidence and skill, and the more your chances of clearing the ACCA exam. What’s better than practicing the tests from the official site itself?

ACCA offers Practice Tests that are now available via the ACCA Learning platform. Login to your myACCA account and start practicing. 
These tests are designed to replicate the question format of the exam and provide the student with all the essential question types that he/she would likely encounter in the CBE. 

Now, it’s very important that you practice time management while taking the mock tests. All exams in the Applied Knowledge Level have a duration of 2 hrs with the exam format being OTQs. 

Generally, it is advised to practice questions with a famous metric known as the time-per-mark metric. This way you can manage your time and devote extra time to those questions that are complex. On average, you can allocate around 1.2 minutes per mark in an ACCA exam. 

Proceeding in this manner, for 2-mark questions, you can allocate 2.4 minutes and henceforth. While practicing case scenario-based questions, allocate the time according to the complexity of the question. Make sure to practice questions that have a greater level of applicational coverage.

5. Join the ACCA Study Hub & Network with Members 

While it’s great that you enroll in a course and learn systematically, it’s also important to make use of all the material that you can get to help you ace the ACCA exam.

ACCA gives you the benefit of joining their study hub where you get direct access to study materials for every level of the exam. Short quizzes at the end of every chapter help you to re-instate your knowledge on core topics and memorize key points. 

You also get access to practice and revision questions that help you with preparation. A great part of the ACCA preparation must also go into networking with distinguished members of the board and other students preparing for the exam. 

When you have an active community of ACCA members who can share insightful tips for clearing the exam, you have all the chance of acing through. A study group will help you to actively discuss core topics and generate a culture of practicing and reviewing your mock test papers. 

One person’s strength is not the others. So, by teaming up with passionate ACCA aspirants, you can get to understand their strengths and learn from them. You can also impart your knowledge and help them in areas you are strong. 

Let’s Make Your ACCA Dream Come True!

Are you geared up to take the ACCA exam now? By following these 5 high-profile tips, you have a great chance of clearing the exam and becoming a member of the accounting body by matching the practical experience requirement. 

At MyLogic, we’ll help you ace through various concepts of the ACCA course and get you the highest rank in the exam. 

Check out our course details here- https://www.mylogic.ac/acca.aspx#sec

My Logic is a pioneer in catering world-class training in financial professional courses like CMA (USA),  CPA (USA), ACCA, CIMA, CFP, etc to students across the globe. We offer top-class online training videos along with online interactive classrooms that help you crack competitive finance and accounting exams.

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