Sure that your English won't let you down as much as you think that it will... I coached a Nigerian gentleman who had a really poor grasp of written English (verbal wasn't too bad) and he got through and if he can then so can you.
as you know you have ten years from when you sign up to complete the qualification.
Some who study full time complete the qualification in 3-4 years but they are really the exception rather than the rule.
For those in work who fit the qualification around their other commitments more typically fall into the 5-8 years to complete the qualification.
The main issue is the shock and awe effect which hits twice when doing ACCA.
1) the fundamentals papers (F1 to F3) are relatively simple and make students believe that the qualification will not be too bad. Most people pass the first three relatively quickly, normally within 12 to 18 months.
2) There is a major change of complexity when people hit F4 and many drop out at this stage due to the change of pace of the qualification. This level can be thought of as BSc level and as you know one of the options is to get a BSc in applied accountancy. F4 through F9. In full time study you should be able to complete at least two to three papers per year at this level.
3) When people hit the professional level papers (P1 through P7) it's real shock and awe stuff with a quantum leap in complexity and volume of study. Certain papers are complimentary such as P1, P3 and P5 which you may find beneficial to study together and take in a single sitting.
Also P2 and P7 should be sat together.
If you fail P5 but pass P1 and P3 I would suggest dropping it and doing P6 instead as the examiner for P5 seems to just want to show how clever they are and it's a major achievement in the exam even trying to fathom what he's looking for.
The taxation paper (P6) is more stand alone than the others but will probably be more useful in your career going forwards.
Don't forget that if you want to work in Audit you will need to do the UK Variant of P2 and P7.
Back to your original question. Considering the above analysis and taking into account that you will have some failures at the professional level I would say that you should be looking at a time frame of between five to eight years. As a rough guide try to beat these estimates :
F1 - F3 : 18 months F4 - F9 : 3 Years (Assuming two papers per sitting with failures resat in the immediately following session) P1 and P3 : 1 year (Assuming taken together in a single sitting and allow for and one retake) P2 and P7 : 1 Year (Assuming taken together in a single sitting and allow for and one retake) P5 or P6 : 6 months
You may hit a paper that's your Nemesis that you just don't seem to be able to get past even though you know the subject seemingly inside out and upside down and people that you know more than are getting through but you are not.
Don't give up. Many do but don't be a statistic.
If I had to give one peice of advice it would be don't stop doing mock papers for a paper that you've sat until you get the results.
Hope that the above helped.
Good luck with your qualification.
Kind regards,
Shaun.
-- Edited by Shamus on Sunday 5th of February 2012 12:04:37 PM
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Morning everybody,
Just wanted to ask how long did it take for some to finish Acca. I currently study full time, but as English is not my first language, sometimes I find it a bit more difficult to remember things - for example key terms.
I speak English fluently and have lived in the UK for a long time, just sometimes I have doubts that I can actually do it and finish the course because of it,
I enjoy it very much, but I do not know anybody in a similar situation. I would be very grateful for your opinion.
Shaun,
Thank you for your advice. I think I have gotten myself into a state because of this, as some of my former colleagues are passing the exams with ease and for me every exam is always a huge achievement.
I suppose we are all different and we are all "gifted" in different ways.
You have mentioned that you have mentored somebody in the past. Is it part of the forum, that members help each other? How would I go about getting a mentor?
Thank you. Have a nice weekend.
V
the mentoring was in the day job whilst working in the banking sector (head office stuff, not front line).
I know what you mean about some people seeming to walk through the qualification and from my experience it's not always the best candidates that pass the exams first time.
Even though the ACCA say that marking is now computerised that just means that the markers get to view the scripts in electronic form but it's still a human being that is marking the script and when human beings are involved there will always be a certain amount of luck as to the marker that you get looking at your script.
Personally I walked through the first eight papers without issue then had a shock fail on F8 (Audit) which was probably the paper that I had studied most for. After that it seems that I struggled with every paper with P2 proving to be my Nemsesis yet I've seen people with little idea about Corporate reporting who work for me and I still have to talk through the basics walk through it.
At the P level papers I do find them very, very time pressured. Often one has so much to write and it seems that there is so little time to write it in that at times I think that the exams actually favour those who know less about the subject matter so have less to write about in the exam!
We don't do Mentors on this site as for the most part people here are actually either full time accountants / bookkeepers or students with one group too busy to offer more help than they can through the site and the other not yet ready to be mentors.
However, have you thought about signing up for free with Opentuition and trying to find a study budy?
Which paper are you up to Vera? Maybe I can give you some pointers specific to your particular paper?
Have a good weekend too,
all the best,
Shaun.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Shaun,
Thank you for your quick reply.
I am currently doing f4-f7. Took a year off work to study and get ahead of myself. Worked in government finance for a long time, everybody around me had either acca or cima. I could do the job perfectly well, just did not have the piece of paper!
I passed 5 audits - put all the paperwork together, did everything from notes to explanations on the accounts. I am now finding it a lot different when I study. Like I mentioned before some of my former colleagues who do not have as much experience are flying through, while I struggle (it doesn't help to hear all the time how well they are doing). I am bit worried if I get a "buddy", that I will get left behind. But will have a look at the Opentuition, as you have mentioned.
I am using the Bpp text books, revision and cd's. And of course doing all the pass papers.
I am very glad I found this network and you have already helped me loads.
Thank you again very much.
Kind regards
V.
If your struggling it could be the study materials that are not working for you.
Try converting over from BPP to Kaplan.
I used to always buy BPP and then they changed their format back in 2007 and I started finding their texts really difficult to read whereas the Kaplan one's with far more embedded examples work a lot better with my learning style.
Just a suggestion. Maybe try the Kaplan text for F7 in addition to the BPP text and if it works for you then go Kaplan going forwards.
Note that BPP is the platinum study text provider because they pay £50k for it, not because they are better. (Sure that you've read the cash for books article in PQ magazine).
All the best,
Shaun.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I would appreciate your advice, I am currently studying for my ICB 3 Manual exam, I have completed my studies with my training provider and passed all the assignments, I have bought all the available mock exams from ICB for further practice. Which is the best method to work through these manual mock papers, use a piece of paper and write all the answers out or use my computer in excel or word.
Personally I'm quite happy sitting with pen and paper. Most mornings I start off with a random (from thirty that I have stored away) three company consolidation question and always do that long hand as that's the way that I would do it in an exam scenario.
I've not done the ICB level III so can't comment on the specifics of that one but for a general rule, always practice as close as possible to the format in which you will sit the real exam.
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
hypathetically you could call yourself a PQ as soon as you've passed one exam but that's not what employers and agencies actually mean.
Mostly they mean that you have passed or been exempted from the first nine papers and have the fundamentals level certificate that you get after paper F9.
If you're a bit of a good negotiator at interview then only having F1 through F3 you can argue tactfully that you have already passed the equivalent of AAT level IV to get to that stage.
My personal view is that the post 2007 F3 is not up to the pre 2007 paper 1.1 so if someone came to me with 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 I would judge them ahead of someone coming to me with F1, F2 and F3. (In fact, I would judge someone with 1.1 under the old syllabus as closer to someone who had achieved F7).
Short answer would be that you are not a PQ until after you have passed the first three and then it's all down to negotiation as to whether you fulfil the requirements of the agency or employer.
Hope that helps,
kind regards,
Shaun.
P.S. Don't be a stranger for so long. You've been missed.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I know it's been a while, although i do always read your threads ( not that i'm a stalker lol..) they are very helpful and informative and i always pick up a few tips form them.. So a good job well done...
After our last conversation (ICB-AAT) you made a suggestion on the ACCA route, which i have done some home work on. After completing my ICB 3 i will start studying towards ACCA. My academic background is not brilliant so i wanted to know even if i passed a handful if i could use those qualification or if they were going to be deemed useless.
you might surpise yourself at how far you can get. Don't write yourself off before you start and don't have negative vibes about yourself.
Everything that you have done prior to now doesn't matter.
My dyslexia really put a damper on me academically at school but I went on to get pretty high in banking and I've got almost all the way there with the ACCA qualification (darn that paper P2!) so it's not all about what's behind you, it's what's ahead that matters.
What you really need is a few exam successes with the ACCA to really boost your confidence that you can do this (which I'm sure that you can).
Why not do ACCA in parallel with ICB? ICB level III and ACCA paper F3 are complimentary and you could kill two birds with one lot of study.
F2 is all about management accountancy which needs a lot of question practice.
Paper F1 is a bit of a loose cannon. It's all about management and stakeholder theory with little if anything in the exam about calculations.
F1 through F3 are all rwo hour multi choice question papers and really nothing to worry too much about. I know that you could get through those three with a bit of application.
Things get more complicated at F4 which is corporate law and requires you to memorise a lot of case law and also moves you up to three hour essay style papers.
That one, and to a certain extent the tax paper (F6) aside the other papers very much build on your studies from papers F2 and F3 (F5 & F9 building on management accounting and F7 & F8 building on financial accounting).
Exams are closed book with only pens and calculator allowed in the hall so you will need to memorise all of the financial, audit and ethical standards plus some key definitions but you would be surprised how quickly you can do that by carrying a pack of index cards around with you everywhere and going through them at every available moment.
As with an earlier email today though a quick warning that the ACCA qualification is not completely compatible with self employment until you have an ACCA practice certificate and that can at times seem almost impossible to achieve so at some stage if you take this route be prepared to swap out to a more amenable qualification... Unless of course you manage to use the qualification to get a role in a suitable practice in which case, next stop practicing accountant!
Good luck with the qualification and don't be afraid to stalk me whenever you get the urge!
kind regards,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Thank you for the boost of confidence much appreciated. I am prepared to put the time in and work hard in achieving my goal but like most people i do doubt my capabilities. You must be proud of yourself for getting where you are.
I will definitely take a look at the F3 syllabus, however i don't want bite more than i can chew.
I'm not planning on going self employed under ACCA anytime soon, thats seems a lifetime away.
Shamus, I am registering with the ACCA and intend on attending lectures in the evening for F1 - F3 from July - Dec and taking the exams online soon after. I am also going to take the additional 2 technicians exams (and all other introductory papers relevent to the CAT qualification) and so hope to be fully CAT qualified by latest Jan '14, about 9 months from now. You mentioned above that most people will take 18 months to do F1 - F3, if this is the case do you think my plan is perhaps a bit far fetched? My degree was in mechanical engineering, but I have nearly 3 years experience in various AP/AR roles so the coursework will not be completly unfamiliar to me.
I also hope to do 3 more foundation exams in Jun '14 and the remaining 3 in Dec '14. I will also be attending lectures for all subjects. Again, is this perhaps pushing it a bit too much timewise? Or with the right lectures and study, is this qualification obtainable in this time frame?
my initial reply was based on someone coming to the subject fresh with the assumption of centre based exams at the usual sitting dates (June and december).
this can as you indicate be greatly reduced by ad hoc computer based on demand sittings but it's still worth noting that yu are only allowed to take a maximum of 4 papers within any one period (jan-jun, jul-dec).
since the changes to CAT I must admit to having lost track of the idiosyncracies of that qualification which now seems more tied to the FIA than the professional level qualification.
I'll have to look up the details as to how CAT now ties in with F1 through F3.
Taking into account the four paper max per period can I assume that you are looking then to take F1 to F3 before the end of December with the remaining papers in the new year?
Even with experience I thuink that your timelines are tight as you will be sitting accounting theory (which incorporates studying all of the theorists), management accounting and financial accounting all very close together.
Personally I think that I would take on either F1 and F2 together or F1 and F3 together but I'm not saying that you could not take on all three at once and good luck to you if you do.
welcome to the forum by the way, looking forwards to chatting as you progress towards your goal.
kindest regards,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
