How difficult are the Level 4 modules - in your opinion.

jenkitractorboy

Ladies and gents,

Thought I would do a little market research. I would welcome posters' views on how difficult the various modules are that make up Level 4. Say rate them from hardest to least hard. Of course not everybody will have done them all, so feel free to rate what you have studied to date. I have studied but not yet sat the CBT for Budgets. I believe the sylabus and the practice tests that I have done to date are relatively straight forward. Similarly I have been studying Financial Performance and understand what I have done so far, but am only about 2/3 of my way through the study of this module.

The reason I am asking the question is to try and understand what others feel are the hardest subjects and to try and judge if I am going to find the other areas the same sort of challenge or if they will be tougher or easier. From what I have seen on this forum, ICAS will prove much harder than budgets. Be nice though to guage how much more difficult.

Many thanks in advance for any replies received. Good luck with your studies.

Jenki :001_smile:

guinea pig

Hi Jenki, it's very difficult to judge, as each module will depend on your work experience and aptitude for study .
Bizarrely I enjoyed ICAS and did this completely by self study in the summer break between levels 3 and 4. As I ran my own business for many years, and also work in a very structured organisation, with an integrated computer system, I could relate to the case study.
I found financial statements and financial performance very challenging, although I was happy doing the written, wordy answers which many students find tough.
Budgeting was fine, credit management, easiest of the lot, and income tax was fine, although they all involved a substantial amount of study!
Good luck,
Gp

emuratty

Hi Jenki

I am part way through Level 4. I have passed Budgeting, Financial Performance and ICAS. About to do Financial Statements exam in 2 weeks and then on to my optional units.

I found budgeting fairly easy and got exceeded for every question on my exam. Financial Performance I struggled with, but I think that might have been because of my tutor's teaching style - found it difficult to remember all the variances and ratios, didn't get much advice on written questions etc. That said, I passed first time with exceeded or met for every question.

ICAS is a bit different, we had quite a good template to follow which was provided by the college and that made it fairly easy, just time consuming and to be honest boring.

Loving Financial Statements so far, but struggling to remember all the ins and outs of the standards, but pretty confident with all the calculations, statement layouts etc. So feeling confident of a pass at the exam.

Can't comment on any of the optional units, but feedback from other students suggests that Business Tax is probably the hardest unit and Credit Management the easiest.

Hope that helps

Jo Clark

guinea pig wrote: »

Hi Jenki, it's very difficult to judge, as each module will depend on your work experience and aptitude for study .

I agree with guinea pig on this.

I also enjoyed ICAS and completed it using one of the case studies.

I found financial statements the most challenging. I enjoyed budgeting and financial performance, and really enjoyed the two optional tax papers, in so far that I am looking into how I can fund the ATT myself, and I know it will be a lot more involved/challenging than the ATT papers as I will not be able to attend classes although I won't let this deter me! I think the tax papers at AAT have a huge amount of information to learn but they are really interesting and useful in your personal life as well as at work.

Unlike a lot of students, I was happy with the written elements of the level 4 papers and had lots of help/support from my tutors at BPP as well as lots of practice questions - remember it is the quality of what you write, not necessarily the quantity.

All the best with the remainder of your modules.


JC

billdoor

emuratty wrote: »

I found budgeting fairly easy and got exceeded for every question on my exam.

How do you find out details of how you did for Level 4 exams?

I was marked as competent for Budgeting last week but can't see any way to find out which sections I Exceeded, Met etc. Is it on MyAAT somewhere?



So far, I found Budgeting to be easier than Financial Performance. In both cases I found the written answers the most difficult so make sure you're practised with those.

I've just started Financial Statements so can't comment on that yet, but the book is the biggest I've had so far (100 pages longer than FNPF, with BPP books).

guinea pig

Hi billdoor,
Your training provider should provide you with a feedback report, which they download from a secure access area.
Well done on passing Budgeting, Good luck with Financial Statements.
GP

jenkitractorboy

Thank you all for your replies. Just did my budgeting exam today and it was very much what I expected so am quietly confident on that one. Have financial perforamnce tomorrow and not as confident on that one but revising as much as possible between now and start of exam. Good luck to all of you on your studies. I have another feedback question which I will put on the forum shortly.

Thanks again.

j1994

Best books to use for level 4?