Is anyone els strugling with level 4?

ms sadat

I dont know if its me or evrybody feels the same . i am strugling with AAT level 4 i have allready sat the exam for personal tax,financial performance and business tax but i didnt pass personal tax and financial performance and am still waiting for my business tax result which is due next week but i have the feeling that i havent passed that too .i have 2 exams coming this month at the 15th and 30th of june and i,m so scared .its not that i dont study ...istudy so hard and read the books like 3times and more ,i do the activity questions in each chapter ..i do the workbook...i do the osbourn tutur zoon workbook ..i do the practice simulations and evrything and after all i ended up failing which drives me mad .i realy dont know what to do and if anyone knows any other ways of revising for best results please please let me know .
also i dont know whats gona happen if i dont pass any of them ,i know that i can retake them but dont know how much time i have for retakes and we also have the project which we do in september...

tomburns1987

Have you tried the past papers?

pirate

Ms sadat

I know its daunting all these exams.
but as Tom says have you tried the past papers? It didnt really sink in for me until I had done a few of these.
When you failed did you fail on both sections of the paper?
Have you thought of attending a revision class. Its really worth it if you can they run on a weekend and I found them really helpful in consolidating everything.

Also try going back to just the activities and do those first without reading the books. If there is stuff you get wrong then right it down and you will have a list of stuff you need to revise more.

The main thing is not to panic or be scared. By doing some of the past papers it will help to get a feeling for the way questions are worded and what sort of stuff they expect.

HTH

ms sadat

as u might know we r doing CBE computer based exam not paper based exam and there are limited, infact only one online practise in the AAT website .besides last year when i did level 3 and it was paper based ,i didnt have any problem because in the website there were many passed exam papers to revise and i was fine .

Craig9

I'm doing level 4 this year and have sat personal tax, financial statements, budgeting and passed them all by using Kaplan book and the online past papers are a huge help...you don't just need to use the online new practice CBA's. I also sat financial performance today and it was an absolute stroll due to doing past papers. Use the following -

Go to access to old resources, NVQ/SVQ pathway, technician

Budgeting - Unit 9 papers
Financial Performance - Unit 8 papers
Financial Statements - Unit 11 papers
Personal Tax - Unit 19 papers (only u.k., watch out for South Africa and you should only really do the two 2010 papers due to rate changes or you may get confused)
Business Tax - Unit 18 papers (same as above, only 2010 papers and U.K. versions)

Hope that helps and good luck, you could also order revision kits that Kaplan have now added to their website that have around 100-140 questions in them that are very similar to those in the CBA's but with different versions/numbers. £18 a book though...

pirate

Are you a distance learner or at college, if at colleage ask for some extra assessments. They should be helping you explain your concerns same also with distance learner. My distance learner gave me some extra questions on stuff that was a bit unclear to me.

When you do the activities are you getting them right mostly, and the assessments.
If you are you may be a bit panicky in the exams, this happened to me in my finals so I took some quiet Life (its a herbal thing) and helped me to be a bit relaxed. Also believe you are going to pass there is an element of positive thinking I think,

I had the same problem with past papers but I did some others from past years. I know they are CBEs but the theory is the same, I have had a look at the CBTs they seem fairly straightforward.
If you are doing it in June is will be based on the same tax information from the une 2010 and Dec 2010 tax exams paper based.

I also did the revision courses for Business Tax as I was ok with Personal. they are 1 day and are totally excellent, the business tax really helped me, it went through the more complicated areas and got some practice questions really really useful.

Also the BPP passcards (I dont know if they do them for hte new Pathway) but they were brilliant, they are about £8 and are really small and you can read them on the train etc etc.

I hope that helps you, everyone is anxious about exams, and this is the hardest level so don't be too disheartened. Concentrate now on the exam thats happening on the 15th, youve got 2 weeks so just concentrate on that, then when its over concentrate on the next one and dont worry about the results or what might come up just practice and son on

HTH

zara5034

Another thing that you need to look at is the written questions as when you do the practice CBE's they do not mark the written parts, so you could technically leave them blank and still pass, which really doesn't help students to understand where they are going wrong.

When I took Financial Statements my tutor advised that the majority of students failed on the written parts simply because they didn't write in depth answers.

Hope that helps

ms sadat

Thank u guys so so much !!!
I am doing the course at college.
dear zara ! i didnt get what u said about writen parts , could u please make it a bit clear

pirate

Ms Sadat
Zara means by the written parts the parts of the exam where you have to type in an answer such as a letter or an email when you have to explain a point, or a ratio or ratios or explain why a client should make an investment or not.
Intepretation is a major part in Level 4 and Zara is absolutely correct in that this is a part that the chief assessor is looking at more closely at level 4. At Level 3 there are a lot of calculations but at Level 4 you have to do the calculations and explain what they mean, for example you might have to work out some ratios like gearing or ROCE andthen explain what they mean for the example you have been set. In the practice assessment for Financial Performance CBT 1 question 2.2 for example there is a report to the finance director asking for an explanation of why the variances are different.
Have a look at the chief assessors report for previous exams, (even if they are written ones on the old standard my sister is under the new standards and she is studying exactly what I studied) they do mention about the written tasks. It is not enough to explain that a vaiance has increased you have to explain why this might have happened in the context of the question.
I do remember spending a bit of time in my revision practicing my interpretation of these figures.
HTH

zara5034

pirate wrote: »

Ms Sadat
Zara means by the written parts the parts of the exam where you have to type in an answer such as a letter or an email when you have to explain a point, or a ratio or ratios or explain why a client should make an investment or not.
Intepretation is a major part in Level 4 and Zara is absolutely correct in that this is a part that the chief assessor is looking at more closely at level 4. At Level 3 there are a lot of calculations but at Level 4 you have to do the calculations and explain what they mean, for example you might have to work out some ratios like gearing or ROCE andthen explain what they mean for the example you have been set. In the practice assessment for Financial Performance CBT 1 question 2.2 for example there is a report to the finance director asking for an explanation of why the variances are different.
Have a look at the chief assessors report for previous exams, (even if they are written ones on the old standard my sister is under the new standards and she is studying exactly what I studied) they do mention about the written tasks. It is not enough to explain that a vaiance has increased you have to explain why this might have happened in the context of the question.
I do remember spending a bit of time in my revision practicing my interpretation of these figures.
HTH

Couldn't have put it better myself!

My tutor spent a whole lesson going over interpretation of Ratios for Financial Statements and I'm so glad she did!

Best of luck Ms Sadat

ms sadat

thx again guys .
What i did , i orderd last night the kaplan revision kits for both budgeting and financial statments eventhough its a bit hard for me to afford it but have no choice and also i will try to do as many past exam papers as i can . i feel a bit in control now cos befor i just didnt know what to do and i realy realy want to finish and pass level 4 and get a job as i,m unemployed now .
One more thing ,i know its diffrent for evrybody but somehow i cant study during the night .

zara5034

I also struggle to study during the evenings, I am only working part time, but with small children as well I am very tired by the evening, this is why I have opted to do technician level at college rather than distance learning, which I did for level 3. However, even with going to college 1 day a week, I still need to study in the evenings.

Shell B

Hello

i must admit i have struggled this yr too, not that i ever thought it was going to be easy, but i dont think it has helped that we have been messed about sooooo much by AAT. I have not finished level 4 yet i still have budgeting to go and i am waiting on some results so still could be a little way off but all the way through i have remained determinded to finish this. So keep going with it all, i know sometimes there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel but i think this course is very much heads down and trucking on and everyone goes at there own pace, so it really does not matter if your futher behind than others or not passed an exam yet it does not mean to say your not going to get there eventually and if its one thing i have notice this yr its that people who try to rush it often dont pass straight away (i dont mean that in a nasty way either).

I have gone through phases myself where i have revised like hell and really stressed myself out with it, not allowing myself to have a break and this is not the way to revise it jsut makes you so miserable i have learnt that now, so give yourself small realistic targets or make a list of what you need to learn for each unit and as you go along tick them off, it always makes me feel like am getting somwhere when i have ticked a few items off my list and allow yourself a break. It really does not work slogging your guts out for hrs on end do an hr ahve a break and do a bit more etc

When i revise i tend to do all the past papers even though i am doing computer based exams.
i read the books if am really confused which is more often than not and do the questions in them.
If the info from the book does not go in i makes notes or revision cards
Then once i feel like i know somthing i do the online practise exam - not too see if i can pass though as they are just a guide to show you what they are like, and i do the practise exam about 3 times.

I hope i have not gone on and i have helped someone out there.

Good Luck to Everyone doing AAT

Shell B

ms sadat

I was wondering (who has done the budgeting CBE exam )what kind of questions u guys had ... any odd ..or unexpected questions......?

pirate

Ms sadat,
Have you ordered the kaplan revision stuff or about to. I would recommend the BPP passcards they are about £8 from Amazon, they are like revision notes and I found them invaluable for revision and really handy to pop in my bag/pocket so I could look at them when on a bus or train. I was using Osbourne for training and found them excellent but bought the BPP revision companion for the Personal and Business Tax for the extra papers which I found fabulous. Ive not seen the kaplan ones so I can't comment but the passcards are excellent.
I havent done a CBE exam all mine were paper based so I can't comment. Most of what came up on mine I had seen before, it was just timing for me didnt quite finish.
anyway you;ve still got almost two weeks so hopefully you'll have a chance to talk to your colleage about anything you are not sure of before the exam
Good luck

ms sadat

ths pirate.
i have already ordered the kaplan revision book. and i am trying the past papers and i realy found them usefull.

exam panic

On level 4 I was struggling with unit10 now I doing acca I'm really struggle I take on f4 and f5 but I finding f4 really hard f5 I'm about just fine . because English not my first language

mark057

Level 4 can be daunting and I found it a clear step forward from level 3.

It can take time to master so you need to be patient.

It sounds to me as if you have allowed panic to manifest your thoughts and you are suffereing from a fear of failing.

Try to let the fear drive your motivation to improve yourself rather than allowing it to take hold and reduce your chances of success.

On a more practical level you need to practice exam papers over and over again to get the job done on these exams.

Try to make a list of the areas of work you are not getting right or finding difficult and concentrate on practicing those questions first. Really look into each area closely and try to work out why your not getting that area right.

Maybe somebody could help you go through the areas you don't understand?

Be methodical in tackling each problem area and look for gradual improvement rather than a 5 minute fix.

As I said before these exams are tough and it took me many many hours to master them.

ms sadat

Cant belive it ....
I got my business taxation result today and i have passed.........

pirate

Fabulous
Well done
now just apply the same clear thinking to the 2 you are going to do this month and you'll be fine
Fabulous job well done

ms sadat

thx pirate
i am realy happy .

jewels.p

I was struggling with the final level too. I did it Distance Learning and sometimes felt that I would have been better in a Classroom. However after a lot of hard work and commitment I passed all my exams and am now AAT qualified and can put letters after my name. That makes it all worthwhile believe me. Sometimes you think that you are never going to learn it all but you will and once you are qualified you will be posting the same message as I am right now! :001_smile: