Summer Reading

A-Vic

Hi all

Am about to embark on diploma in september but would like to start getting my books now, however am wary about getting them incase rules change i cant afford to have to buy all new books any ideas would be great

Did i mention how good it feels to be posting in the diploma/tech threads

SandyHood

See if you could use one of the university libraries, or the public library. The Universities are likely to have up-to-date texts.

A-Vic

SandyHood wrote: »

See if you could use one of the university libraries, or the public library. The Universities are likely to have up-to-date texts.

Thanks sandy :001_smile: i know what units am doing but could you point me to which books ive tried emaling my tutor (who we also had this year) but they will be away till college re-opens

Thanks again

Vic

SandyHood

A Vic
You may well know which units you intend to study, but if I'm going to recommend suitable texts, you'd need to say which units on here.

A-Vic

SandyHood wrote: »

A Vic
You may well know which units you intend to study, but if I'm going to recommend suitable texts, you'd need to say which units on here.

Am hopefully completing units

33 - Management accounting
11 - Drafing Financial Statements
18 - Preparing business taxation computations
19 - Preparing personal taxation computations

I think they will be the units i will be studying - i didn't include unit 10 as i have an overload of information for this.

Thanks


Vic

SandyHood

Thanks A Vic
Accounting course texts often tend to use $ rather than £. Occassionally this can add a problem for an AAT student.

My advice at the momement relates to Unit 33
Management and Cost Accounting by Colin Dury has lots of different editions and is

1. widely used on university accounting courses
2. tends to have questions in £s

Typically the Unit 33 syllabus is made up of

1. Budgeting
2. Budgetary control
3. Variance Analysis
4. Ratio analysis
5. and some other "peripheral topics"

As you may not get the most up-to-date edition, I suggest you focus on the first 4 areas.
Find a quiet corner in the library, get a copy of Drury and read through the appropriate chapter.
Work through the worked examples
Have a go at the questions at the end of the chapter
Typically he has 2 supplementary books (one with answers for students and another with answers for teachers). The idea is that the student can practice some questions and see how well he/she did but also there are questions that can be set as homework. You'll see from the questions with a * which is which.

I certainly found the discipline of setting myself a time and going to a library very helpful in the days when I was doing my exams, and I continued to do it years later when preparing my classes.

I hope this book will help
Sandy

Bookworm55

Management and Cost Accounting by Colin Dury has lots of different editions and is
widely used on university accounting courses
tends to have questions in £s

Seconded. I got a lot of use out of that one. It does have some fairly advanced stuff in it: it saw me through all three years of uni as well as the technician stage of the AAT. There is also a supplementary students guide with more practice questions and answers.

Frank Wood's Business Accounting 1 & 2 was also very useful and often appears in public libraries. Volume 2 has extensive sections on group accounts and company accounts (for Drafting Financial Statements), as well as budgeting and standard costing (for Management Accounting).

A Students Guide to IFRS by Clare Finch helped me through DFS and subsequent financial accounting exams. That one is more of a revision guide than a source for tuition though, and I've never seen it in a library.

For tax, I found the Osborne Books AAT tax unit textbooks more than sufficient. Taxation policy and practice by Andy Lymer and Lynne Oats is also good, but lingers in economic theory a little too long and I didn't start using that one until university. Just remember to get the tax books for the correct Finance Act for your exams.

If you do find yourself in a university library, take a look for Financial Accounting and Reporting by Barry and Jamie Elliot. It is a little more advanced than you'll need for DFS though. Curiously, if you're the kind of person who likes to read around so they understand more about why they're doing what they're doing, Advanced Financial Accounting by Richard Lewis and David Pendrill may be worth a read. Don't let the title put you off!

For Management Accounting in a university library, you'll probably still find lots of Colin Drury's books. Other names to look out for are Charles Horngren and Alnoor Bhimani. Or if you're really keen on Management Accounting, Anthony Puxty or David Otley.

Have a poke around charity shops. There are a lot of students right now getting rid of their degree-level books: some might be worth picking up.

A-Vic

That great thanks for the advise Sandy and Bookworm

I have the whole weekend to myself so going to take your advice and spend it looking for a good librury as my home town one isnt great.

mikes

A-Vic wrote: »

Did i mention how good it feels to be posting in the diploma/tech threads

Sniff, my aren't we all grown up now, off to the big school now, with all the other big children. Hope you won't forget the rest of us, left behind. :001_tt2:
Best of luck and soon it will be us that will be asking you for advise on how to do the work.:thumbup:

lessci

If you're planning to sit the tax exams in december the current books cover the relevant finance act, otherwise wait for those.

mark130273

A-Vic wrote: »

Hi all

Am about to embark on diploma in september but would like to start getting my books now, however am wary about getting them incase rules change i cant afford to have to buy all new books any ideas would be great

Did i mention how good it feels to be posting in the diploma/tech threads

welcome to the tech forum !!!!

A-Vic

mikes wrote: »

Sniff, my aren't we all grown up now, off to the big school now, with all the other big children. Hope you won't forget the rest of us, left behind. :001_tt2:
Best of luck and soon it will be us that will be asking you for advise on how to do the work.:thumbup:

Havnt had result for ECR yet but still gonna try and for sure after reading the threads you have been in you know your stuff

Julia

I'd advise you to take a look at Steve Collings IFRS summaries for your DFS. They do cover every IFRS but the price is very reasonable for a revision tool.

I think it is still on sale for a reduced price on his website.

Julia (BPP)

A-Vic

Julia wrote: »

I'd advise you to take a look at Steve Collings IFRS summaries for your DFS. They do cover every IFRS but the price is very reasonable for a revision tool.

I think it is still on sale for a reduced price on his website.

Julia (BPP)

Thanks julia i was thinking about that too but hopfully if he does his seminar again this year in manchester i hope to go ive heard its great and very imformational :001_smile:

rachelrunshaw

A-Vic wrote: »

Am hopefully completing units

33 - Management accounting
11 - Drafing Financial Statements
18 - Preparing business taxation computations
19 - Preparing personal taxation computations

I think they will be the units i will be studying - i didn't include unit 10 as i have an overload of information for this.

Thanks


Vic

Hi A-Vic

I am in a similar position, waiting for FRA results(by the way has anyone "officially" answered this paper?) and due to start Technician in September.
My college tutor gave me Osborne books Managing Performance & Resources which covers Units 8&9 or unit 33 and the business and personal taxation books from both Osborne and BPP. He did stress though that the tax books are only good for exams to be sat in December 2009 and would not be any good for use if sitting tax exams in June 2010. Check when you will be put in for your tax exams and make sure you get your tax books for exams in that period.

mikes

A-Vic wrote: »

Havnt had result for ECR yet but still gonna try and for sure after reading the threads you have been in you know your stuff

Thank you. :thumbup1:

Steve Collings

A-Vic wrote: »

Thanks julia i was thinking about that too but hopfully if he does his seminar again this year in manchester i hope to go ive heard its great and very imformational :001_smile:

Hi A-Vic,

I'm quite impressed with your forward planning!

I will be running some revision days in Manchester for the December sittings as well as running other days throughout the country. I will confirm the dates for these after the results have been released and students know what they are going to be sitting in December (though I have got a couple of dates pencilled in to team up with Sandy Hood). Again we'll post details up after the results release.

Julia, thank you for the recommendation! :thumbup1: My book is still on sale on AccountancyStudents and is still discounted until the paperbacks are published.

Kind regards

Steve

A-Vic

Steve Collings wrote: »

Hi A-Vic,

I'm quite impressed with your forward planning!

I will be running some revision days in Manchester for the December sittings as well as running other days throughout the country. I will confirm the dates for these after the results have been released and students know what they are going to be sitting in December (though I have got a couple of dates pencilled in to team up with Sandy Hood). Again we'll post details up after the results release.

thanks steve i will definatley be attending this year's :001_smile:

taskey

i am going to try and get to one of steve's days aswell this year - but i need to book flights and hotel etc.

once you now the days steve, can you email me them, so i can start to make plans.

Tracy

A-Vic

taskey wrote: »

i am going to try and get to one of steve's days aswell this year - but i need to book flights and hotel etc.

once you now the days steve, can you email me them, so i can start to make plans.

Tracy

Tracy if you do make it manchester :thumbup1:

taskey

manchester would be good as i have family there too

Tracy

Steve Collings

Hi Taskey,

Yes I will drop you a PM when I know some dates. At the moment I am looking at early October because I am planning to run three days relating to DFS.

What I tend to do on the first day is to look at some complicated accounting standards, effective consolidation techniques and advise students on the best way to start the revision phase. I also offer advice on section 2 (which is often the section students fall down on) and how to fully understand what it is the examiner is expecting from you (often students know HOW to do something but not have a clue WHY).

Students on day 2 will look at the same aspects of day 1 but I will set some questions for homework which students will then send to me for marking.

Students on day 3 will look at two exam papers and I will go through in fine detail what it is that is expected of you whilst students attempt this paper. This is what I day on the Birmingham revision day in May which all my students found beneficial as it helped them understand what it is the examiner is wanting from them as well as clarifying a few issues which they had struggled with during the study phase.

Day 1 is primarily (but not exclusively) aimed at those who are studying at home and need some input. Days 2 and 3 are aimed at students are nearing their study phase and need some help knowing what to do and how to handle the revision phase.

I am not blowing my own trumpet but I find my methods of teaching quite beneficial to students because I work in practice but also lecture so I can combine the two thus illustrating how a text book scenario/exam paper scenario can be brought to life which I think helps students appreciate why they are doing something a little more.

Kind wishes
Steve

A-Vic

taskey wrote: »

manchester would be good as i have family there too

Tracy

Cool i'll get in the beers :001_smile:

joantuba

Keep a look out on the amazon site as well. I picked up a copy of the unit 8 BPP manual for £2.30! Our college uses Osborne tutors which I personally found not helpful at all for units 8 and 9. BPP used plain english not jargon and formulae.

Good luck

Joan

A-Vic

talk about slight fustration but trying to find books in my home town is like trying to find gold dust.

Sorry bit of a rant to follow:-

firstly local librury has only one copy of the one book i wanted but was due back in may (ha not a chance)

Secondly try librurys further afield not a single copy as the books i was after have now been discontinued.

Lastly went on Manchester uni librury site and to use that i can only go as a public user 3 times then have to pay £88 plus £30 for the use of the reference librury.

I understood there would be a fee but i think that is a little extortionate.

ok rant over :001_smile:

SandyHood

It seems mean to charge you to read the books in the library
I've added this link from Salford
http://www.ils.salford.ac.uk/library/visitors/#1
I get the impression that going without taking books out is free for visitors, if you ring them they can confirm, or correct me, or even agree to make a special case for you.

A-Vic

SandyHood wrote: »

It seems mean to charge you to read the books in the library
I've added this link from Salford
http://www.ils.salford.ac.uk/library/visitors/#1
I get the impression that going without taking books out is free for visitors, if you ring them they can confirm, or correct me, or even agree to make a special case for you.

Thanks again sandy i will have a look in to that, after the holidays :001_smile:

jow774

Might sound obvious A-Vic, but have you tried ebay for books.? If your selective you can sometimes find up to date ones.

A-Vic

jow774 wrote: »

Might sound obvious A-Vic, but have you tried ebay for books.? If your selective you can sometimes find up to date ones.

I will have a look.

These are extra books jow that i really dont want to have buy just for summer reading and extra to get a better understanding of core subjects for next year for intance the book advised buy sandy is £34 second hand on amazon (who ive found to be the best seller) and myself being 3 quarters self funding next year so trying to save as much money as poss and only buying what i need too :001_smile:

SandyHood

Avic
I am recommending that you read these books in the university libraries while their undergraduates are on holiday
The whole second hand text book market is entirely different
I would not buy any at this stage
Instead take your own paper pens calculator etc and sit in the library

This helped me when I was studying, and this time of year is normally excellent, few of the summer course students use the libraries and the students who borrow books are away and have returned those books they'd used for their exams.
I also found it an oasis away from domestic responsibilities. It is very hard to break off from study to clean the oven/back of a cupboard when you're in a library.

A-Vic

hi sandy

the only problem i have is the librury is closed during none semsiter time but i will keep looking

But like you said i cant see the point in spending money on books till i need them