Must read advice from June 2016 students!

Time can pass by very quickly in an ACCA exam and before you know it your time is up and you’re out of the exam room. There isn’t anything worse than leaving an ACCA exam wishing you had just 10 more minutes! Sound familiar? Well don’t worry, you’re not alone. Time Management is an issue that many students face across all exams.

Recently I tutored a Masterclass that involved students doing timed practise questions. Despite a clear reminder for people to manage their time within the questions, students still fell into the trap of spending too long on the first part and doing very poor, and short, second parts of questions. This emphasised to me once again that effective time management is not just about answering all the questions within the total exam time but also dividing your time within the questions.

So I'm not surprised that around a third of students that took part in our June 2016 ACCA Exam Experience Survey said they wished they’d spent more time developing their time management skills prior to their ACCA exam.

Year on year ACCA Examiners' Reports have also frequently highlighted it as a problem that has resulted in rushed answers and even some incomplete scripts. Take the advice from me, fellow students and examiners to ensure the clock doesn’t beat you!

Whether it is an ACCA multiple choice or written based exam, perfecting this skill isn’t easy so here are some simple tips that can help you to significantly improve:

Tick Tock Tick Tock - 10 ways to manage your time!

Time can pass by very quickly in an ACCA exam and before you know it your time is up and you’re out of the exam room. There isn’t anything worse than leaving an ACCA exam wishing you had just 10 more minutes! Sound familiar? Well don’t worry, you’re not alone. Time Management is an issue that many students face across all exams.

Recently I tutored a Masterclass that involved students doing timed practise questions. Despite a clear reminder for people to manage their time within the questions, students still fell into the trap of spending too long on the first part and doing very poor, and short, second parts of questions. This emphasised to me once again that effective time management is not just about answering all the questions within the total exam time but also dividing your time within the questions.

So I'm not surprised that around a third of students that took part in our June 2016 ACCA Exam Experience Survey said they wished they’d spent more time developing their time management skills prior to their ACCA exam.

Year on year ACCA Examiners' Reports have also frequently highlighted it as a problem that has resulted in rushed answers and even some incomplete scripts. Take the advice from me, fellow students and examiners to ensure the clock doesn’t beat you!

Whether it is an ACCA multiple choice or written based exam, perfecting this skill isn’t easy so here are some simple tips that can help you to significantly improve:

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:

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 P7 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 P4 and P5. ACCA P6 and P7 will follow over the next few days.