Pass 1st Time

Hi Soul, thanks millions for the free report.

One thing I find hard is there is too much information to take in at once. I am doing three ACCA exams in June and it is hard to keep all the information separate in my mind – it feels like my head is full of information.

So for my question, it is how do I keep clear in my mind all the different things I have to know and learn?

Hi Soul,
I also found the report to be encouraging and insightful. My scenario is that i used to go the class in the city where i work because there is no school close to where i live and the commute is about 2 hours– one way. But at day’s end i used to be really tired and nothing from class stuck. I used to get home at 11pm and have to wake at 4am the following morning to go to work. So i opted to do homestudy this time around and with all the online classes available now from kaplan and LSBF, it should be easier… i think. What do you think is a better option? Going to formal classes and commuting? Or homestudy maybe with online lectures?

Hi Jair,
yep, learning so much so quickly can lead to your head feeling like it’s about to explode. For me using Mindmaps was the best thing to help with this.

You can use the good old pencil and paper and make them yourself, or for the more modern way try Tony Buzan’s iMindMap software here: http://bit.ly/imindmap (there’s a free trial) If you want I can do a video on how to use the software… let me know..

Hi Giselle,
To be honest I don’t think there is a better option. I studied one qualification at home and the other with formal classes. The best is what works best for you.

In my opinion getting 5 hours sleep a night is not sustainable (I’ve tried it too!) so it sounds like you have no real choice but to study at home. If you can afford it go for the online lectures, but most of all you MUST be disciplined with your studying and put the hours in, especially in question and mock exam practice. If you know other students it can be good to create a mastermind group with them too.

As a full time employee, how did u manage ur time-especially on working days?

Hi Martin,
That’s a very good question. As I was doing intensive studying I used three techniques:

1) One of the companies I worked for gave flexi-time if you worked over a certain number of hours in a day. I would build up a lot of that when in the breaks between exam sittings and take a few days off together when I was closer to exams

2) I would tell my boss I needed to study, and go home at 6pm and work 3-4 hours in the evening. Boss may not have been too happy, but the exams were more important to me!

3) And when I needed to I used some of my holiday time – passing was that important in my opinion that it was worth the sacrifice

Hi Soul i have been studying for one ACCA paper and have sat for four exams. I do self study with only text books. I have recently tried on online but could not access it. I have flanked four times and writing this june the fithy time.I work fulltime and i only manage 2hours sometimes 1 hour. How do prepare for this last paper. No schools or students around here.Help

Anastasia

Hi soul, I myself working in financial instituion. I belong to the rural area of Hyderabad having keen intrest to enroll for ACCA. Please help me out seniors.

Thanks & Regards,

Hi Anastasia – it sounds like you need to take on a distance learning package to get the best support. It can be difficult to structure your studying with only text books and by yourself. Find the post on the site about distance learning courses to get some more advice on this.

Hi Habib – please go to the ACCA home page at http://www.accaglobal.com to find out about learning options.

Hi Soul,
I already work with your exam preparation tips and I think they are great and did help me a lot whenever the work started piling up and everything seemed soooo scary.
I will be sitting two P exams this semester but I do not get any support from my work place. I work full time for a company that won’t give me study leave or flex-time……Since I am forced to take holidays over xmas (compnay is closed) I won’t have holidays available to prepare exams or go to revision classes (at Thursdays and Fridays all day). Usually I take all of my anual holiday for exams but as mentioned…..that’s not working this semester. I have all day classes every weekend.
Where can I find the time to revise and every now and again to do nothing and simply “re-charge” my batteries? Am I missing some simple but genious solution?
Thanks & Regards

Hi Katrin,

Glad the tips helped! If you want the more advanced full AIDE System you can learn more here: http://www.accaexamtips.org

In answer to your question this is a very tough situation to be in and it depends on what you want ultimately. There is no genius solution but it depends on how radical you want to be. I went as far as leaving work earlier than was seen as “acceptable” by my boss. I annoyed her, but for me it was a price worth paying. I didn’t get a great review from my boss at the end of the year, but I did pass my exams!

Also if you’re willing to be more radical you could become super-efficient at your work. That means using the 80/20 rule (in the AIDE System Course above) on your work activities. This way you create a couple of spare hours during the day when you can revise, or leave work earlier, but still do the same amount of work.

It just depends if your job is one where you can go for example “a conference call”, go hide in a room somewhere, and revise for an hour! I did that sometimes! Some people might say that’s unethical, but so long as I was getting all my work done I didn’t see it as something wrong.

I can’t give you an easy solution I’m afraid. I only went on two weekend holiday breaks abroad in two years when studying. Sometimes you just have to tough it out. Not easy I know, but worth it in the end.

Amazing site! Continue the informative entries.

Hello Soul,

Working on this AIDE Course almost on a daily basis and now found out why I could not retain much of what I was study especially with review and spaced repitition.This is a new concept and will now have to work on it. I would like to know your opinion concerning Study aids.BPP offers Success CDs that give the Key Learning Points in your studies and examiners.Kindly let me know your honest opinion on this or I should ensure total coverage of the syllabi.Many thanks indeed.

Hi Andrew, thank you for letting me know it’s working for you. It makes me happy knowing that people are getting value out of the course.

For the debate between working on key points and trying to learn the whole syllabus my view is this: You should approach any exam with the mindset you need to know it all, not just the main points, or the things “likely” to come up. This way WHATEVER comes up you can handle it.

However if the exam is close and you don’t have time to study everything (and I mean you REALLY don’t have time!) then it makes sense to focus on just the key points. You can also be smart and see the things that come up regularly and make sure you know those inside out.

I can’t really comment on the CDs as I haven’t seen them – maybe ask other students who have?