Jump up to Technician Stage

David0097

Can anyone doing technician stage tell me if there is a big jump in difficulty/understanding from intermediate stage? I found intermediate really quite simple and am debating just going straight into ACCA rather than "wasting" a year completing AAT.

Only problem is the company I'm with will fund AAT to completion, then ACCA, but not if I miss out the final stage of AAT. Would have to therefore fund the first year of ACCA myself!

Any help greatfully received!!

Bookworm55

I would just do the final year of the AAT rather than leaving it incomplete, then do the ACCA. Especially if your employer is funding it. I can't see any advantage in abandoning the AAT: just jump through the relevant hoops and you can move on.

I found that the Technician level is a step up in difficulty, but not too great a jump. I think it's more a case of volume that actual difficulty: there's just more stuff to learn about. Especially if you're doing the tax units and have never done tax before.

You'll get exemptions from the first three ACCA Fundamental papers anyway if you finish the AAT, so it'll make little or no net difference. You'll likely also have an easier time on some of the other papers if you've covered some of the material before. Plus if something happens and you feel compelled to leave your current employer, a full AAT and partial ACCA looks a lot better than partial AAT and partial ACCA.

Pencil

I'd say that Technician was different but not that much harder, more of a case of learning more in a shorter space of time. You have to have a lot of self discipline to put the hours in required.

After taking the exceptions you'll gain through doing AAT our tutors told us that the first set of exams you would do through either ACCA or CIMA were not that disimilar to the final year of AAT, with just a bit of extra tweeking here and there, which would make life bearable for the first year at least.