How to pass ACCA exams first attempt around

How to pass ACCA exams first attempt around: My approach: Spend 30% of your time on study text, 70% time on Exam kit

Passing ACCA exams is challenging. However, with right approach, you can pass all ACCA exams in first attempt. For each exam, you must select the right study material. That’s your starting point. I’d suggest you use Kaplan study material, textbook and exam kit. These two resources are enough to prepare you for exam. If you want, you can also use BPP class notes for each subject. I am suggesting BPP class notes, not study text. BPP study text is good, but it goes in too much detail. Use BPP class notes. Those notes are also very good.

After selecting study material, you must learn basic concepts from text book. Try to go over important concepts twice. Focus more on concepts, not on excessive detail that is given in the study text.

ACCA Exam (Kaplan’s TYU examples):

In ACCA, there are theoretical exams, or calculation-based exams, or a mix of both. Kaplan study texts has examples called “test your understandings”. Those TYU examples are very good to develop an understanding of the basic topics. Whether you are preparing for theoretical areas or preparing for calculation-based questions, Kaplan’s TYU examples are very good.

Exam Kit For Preparation:

Right, so you are done with learning concepts and solving understandings. Now you should open exam kit. For each exam, you must calculate how much total time you’d have. 30% of your study time should be spent on learning concepts and solving TYU examples from study text or notes. Remaining 70% of study time should be spent on practicing exam kit questions.

You must solve exam kit questions, at least two times. Allocating more time to exam kit questions is important because examples in Kaplan or BPP notes are easier. Those examples are good because student can learn step by step. However, those examples are not at exam level in most cases. Exam level questions will be harder. Exam kit questions are at actual examination level. Therefore, practicing exam kit questions will give you much needed confidence.

Strategy To Solve Exam Questions:

Let me tell you about a strategy to solve exam questions which will be helpful to complete the paper. Let’s suppose, you have 60 questions in the exam kit. Start solving from question number 1, 2, 3 so on upto question number 60. Then you start again, right from question number 1 and go up to question number 60. I am not asking you to go through questions. I am asking you to actually solve those questions. When you will solve exam kit for the first time, you will be learning. When you are solving the exam kit second time, then all important concepts will sit in your head.

Practice All The  Questions:

We all know that we learn calculations by practicing. But even for theoretical parts, I’d suggest you to do writing practice. For each question, first read requirement, then keep that requirement in mind and read question. If you have some idea how to solve that question, then please try. If you have no idea, then open answer and read it part by part. First, you read answer of part a, for example, develop a good understanding. Now hide answer, and try to write down the answer by yourself. Once you are done, check your answer and compare that with examiner’s answer. Mark your mistakes with a red or green pen. If you omitted something, then write down those words. If you can see better words in the model answers, then replace your words with those ones.

Think Like The Examiner:

This way, you’d be able to think like examiner, and write like examiner. Theoretical answers in exam kit are considerably longer because those answers are written by examiner. In actual exam, students are not expected to write such long answers. A good idea is to make a shorter version of answer by yourself. Mark only important lines in the answer and try learning them. For example, for a five marks question, five to seven lines are more than enough, if relevant concepts are written. Its important that you don’t write irrelevant things. Examiner is looking for, spot on, important concepts. If you write those concepts, you will surely be given marks.

Practice Writing Theoretical Answers:

Most students just read theoretical answers and they think that they are good. They would be able to write theoretical answers in exam. But its not that simple. If you don’t practice writing theoretical answers, then in exam, you will struggle. You know the concept, but downloading speed from your brain to your fingers, is slow, because you did little practice of writing theory answers. If you have done enough practice of writing theoretical answers during your preparation, then downloading speed from your brain to your fingers will be much faster.

Theoretical answers can be written fast as compared to calculation questions, helping you to score valuable marks. This whole exercise is time consuming but believe me, its worth it, especially in applied skills and then at strategic professional levels. First time you solve exam kit questions, you are understanding, absorbing and processing your learning. Second time, you are developing your ability to apply your knowledge. ACCA exams cannot be passed by rote.

Secret Tips For ACCA Exam Success:

So, you must have a positive mindset. Plan your study. Implement your plan. Learn and then revise. Allow enough time for everything. Don’t take stress, that will not help. Take good sleep night before exam. On exam day, be relaxed and easy. Have a good healthy meal before exam. During exam, stay calm, do your best. You will pass your exam.

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