Anyone else finding DFS a struggle

jewels.p

I am studying DFS by Distance Learning and have to admit this is the most difficult Unit I have studied so far (I know it should be as I am at Diploma Level now) but I am really struggling to take it all in. Even the wording seems a lot more complicated to me. I have read Chapters One to Four in the Osbourne Book and think I have learned nothing. I am now about to start all over again to see if any of it makes sense this time.

I just wondered if anyone else is going through this as well.

taskey

i am there with you. the book i have from BPP is only small, but boy it is packed full of writing. I find it is all reading and no practical, so i have printed off past exams and work through those. I find if i am doing it, i remember it better than just reading and reading.

Claire321

I also found this unit difficult, more so than any of the others. It was going through and practising questions from all of the past papers which helped me to understand everything.

jewels.p

I think I might try and do what you two have done as maybe then I will understand it better. As you say it all seems to be reading and reading.

Esme

I'm finding it a real struggle but I think I did with most Units at this stage. I'm onto chapter 6 of the Osbourne book and haven't learnt much. I'm hoping after going through the book again and attempting all of the practice questions everything will start to sink in.

I've got to get through this, cash management, personal tax and unit 10 by June.... eeeek!!!

Claire321

To be honest, I'm studying via home study as well and I don't always understand everything in the book when I read it. But I have found once you start practising questions and understand each small part you have a better chance of understanding what the book was going on about!

I find I often leant the most from looking at where you've gone wrong attempting prectice questions, especially at first and you learn to avoid making some of the silly errors and loosing marks.

A-Vic

Can i suggest that you look in to doing the revision courses either with steve collins or AAT am in college but did these anyway and found them really REALLY helpful

http://forums.aat.org.uk/showthread.php?t=25619

jewels.p

That is no good to me A-Vic as I am in Scotland and there isnt any revision courses up here.

A-Vic

jewels.p wrote: »

That is no good to me A-Vic as I am in Scotland and there isnt any revision courses up here.

Shame jewels well if can help let me know.

Did you get my pm by the way?

Londina

I found this unit the easiest one instead and with no problem I passed the June exams ! it just follows what you have been studying from foundation.....it's mainly financial bookkeeping!
I found a nightmare MAC (the management one..)

A-Vic

Londina wrote: »

I found this unit the easiest one instead and with no problem I passed the June exams ! it just follows what you have been studying from foundation.....it's mainly financial bookkeeping!
I found a nightmare MAC (the management one..)

Dont say that am just doing that one now lol, although am having my fill of variances at the mo keep mixing them up

jewels.p

A-Vic wrote: »

Shame jewels well if can help let me know.

Did you get my pm by the way?

Yes I did cheers A-Vic

Steve Collings

Start Small

Hi Guys,

My advice for the start of DFS studies is to start small! Lots of students immediately jump in and start on the consolidated financial statements - this is not the right place to start. Start off by brushing up on your double entry skills as you will need these to make adjustments to a trial balance in section 1. Don't think it a waste of time getting out your FRA books and revisiting that paper because much of the concepts involved in that paper are built on in DFS.

Try attempting some introductory level questions relating to single entity financial statement preparation. These are a section 1 requirement. Keep attempting various introductory level questions in this area and then build up the levels until you feel fairly confident. I would also look at doing incorporating your single entity skills by doing some study on basic consolidations.

Most students I come across on my courses absolutely hate ratios with a passion. I would leave these for a couple of weeks yet and concentrate on the 'number-crunching' parts - single entity financial statements, consolidations, statements of cash flows and looking at some accounting standards. Where the accounting standards are concerned, my book summarises the main requirements of these (note my book covers every IFRS/IAS but not all of the are examinable).

I have also written several articles concerning financial reporting. I have linked a number of these which are relevant to DFS which you might find helpful:

Where has all the money gone? looks at the Statement of Cash Flows (IAS 7)
IAS 7 Statement of cash flows another article on the statement of cash flows.
The Framework for IFRS looks at an important document relating to accounting standards which students MUST learn.
Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income looks at how such a statement is prepared/
Consolidating your knowledge about consolidated accounts looks at the consolidated statement of financial position.
To Revalue or not Revalue looks at asset revaluations including investment property.
IAS 17 - Leases looks at the accounting treatment of operating and finance leases.
IAS 10 - a Technical Summary looks at 'events after the reporting date'.
Lead up to DFS Exam I wrote this for December 2009 entrants but should still apply to DFS candidates revision process - I would refer back to this around May 2010.

Hopefully that lot should keep you going with lots of bedtime reading!!

Good luck
Steve

CrazySexyCool

It's slowly going in for me. I'm studying with Kaplan- had the books for about a week and even though I have to keep re-reading things, the progression seems logical. The examples and questions are really helping. I suppose I just get frustrated with the pro-formas not going in fast enough!

steveJ

Check out:

https://www.aat.org.uk/myaat/unit/elearning/item13768/

Im not on this level yet, but i found this and thought that if you havent used it yet it might help ??

jewels.p

steveJ wrote: »

Check out:

https://www.aat.org.uk/myaat/unit/elearning/item13768/

Im not on this level yet, but i found this and thought that if you havent used it yet it might help ??

I looked at the E-Learning already and most of it is the same as the E-Learning for FRA it doesnt seem to be for Limited Companies

jewels.p

Steve Collings wrote: »

Hi Guys,

My advice for the start of DFS studies is to start small! Lots of students immediately jump in and start on the consolidated financial statements - this is not the right place to start. Start off by brushing up on your double entry skills as you will need these to make adjustments to a trial balance in section 1. Don't think it a waste of time getting out your FRA books and revisiting that paper because much of the concepts involved in that paper are built on in DFS.

Try attempting some introductory level questions relating to single entity financial statement preparation. These are a section 1 requirement. Keep attempting various introductory level questions in this area and then build up the levels until you feel fairly confident. I would also look at doing incorporating your single entity skills by doing some study on basic consolidations.

Most students I come across on my courses absolutely hate ratios with a passion. I would leave these for a couple of weeks yet and concentrate on the 'number-crunching' parts - single entity financial statements, consolidations, statements of cash flows and looking at some accounting standards. Where the accounting standards are concerned, my book summarises the main requirements of these (note my book covers every IFRS/IAS but not all of the are examinable).

I have also written several articles concerning financial reporting. I have linked a number of these which are relevant to DFS which you might find helpful:

Where has all the money gone? looks at the Statement of Cash Flows (IAS 7)
IAS 7 Statement of cash flows another article on the statement of cash flows.
The Framework for IFRS looks at an important document relating to accounting standards which students MUST learn.
Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income looks at how such a statement is prepared/
Consolidating your knowledge about consolidated accounts looks at the consolidated statement of financial position.
To Revalue or not Revalue looks at asset revaluations including investment property.
IAS 17 - Leases looks at the accounting treatment of operating and finance leases.
IAS 10 - a Technical Summary looks at 'events after the reporting date'.
Lead up to DFS Exam I wrote this for December 2009 entrants but should still apply to DFS candidates revision process - I would refer back to this around May 2010.

Hopefully that lot should keep you going with lots of bedtime reading!!

Good luck
Steve

This is great Steve. Thanks a lot:001_smile:

Andypandy

Thanks for this thread & the links posted - glad to know it's not just me that has fried brains!

Julia

steve's advice cannot be bettered but as a tutor I would advise on getting some tutorial support for papers like DFS. Whilst this paper is somewhat predictable the syllabus is vast but I would recommend Steve's articles -they are excellent and easy to read.

Julia
BPP subject specialist