ACCA P1 or P3?

Nps

Hi,

I'm planning to do F5 and F9 in December, so I spend my official study time working through those. However, I get a lot of extra time to read when I'm getting the baby to sleep so looking at downloading a study text to my Kindle. I'm considering making a start on either P1 or P3 with a view to either squeezing it into the December sitting or doing it next June (depending on how difficult it is).

If you've done P1 or P3 (or both), are either of them the kind of subject where just reading them is useful (rather than constantly taking notes or practicing calculations etc)? Of course, I'll be taking notes etc at a later stage, but just in the meantime, I'm looking for a subject that allows me to make use of those hours where I can realistically only read. Basically, I'm asking which one is the most theory based (and easier as I didn't really intend to do a 3rd paper, but will if I can).

I prefer studying from a proper text book (but prefer general reading on my Kindle) so loathed to spend £40 on a Kindle text if it ends up not really suitable and I have to buy the text book anyway.

Thanks for any advice.

sama

This is not exactly an anwer to your question, but might be something to cosider.

I'm planning to sit F9 and P1 in December and to keep the momentum after having sat F8 a few weeks ago I've started reading the new material. I found that just listening to the Opentuition lectures on P1 while having lunch or doing other stuff is easy to do and doesn't require any note taking or calculations. As you are looking for reading material this might not suit you, but when I think back to the time when I was spending hours putting my baby to sleep, I can imagine that with headphones I could have listened to these lectures and just absorb the material that way. Unfortunately you can't download these lectures, but depending on your computer setup it might work. This way you don't have to buy any books either. You can download the notes to go with the lectures, this is what I did. Later if you do decide to sit this exam, you can still buy a book or revision kit to help with exam practice.

I've used Opentuition a lot in the past, I've even managed without buying a textbook for F4 and F5. I passed these after having used just the Opentuition material and past exam papers.

Congratulations for managing to study while taking care of a baby, it's one of the most difficult things to do in my opinion.

Nps

Thanks,

I dip in and out of Open Tuition but to be honest I don't trust it to cover everything so depend more on text books. I've just found too many mistakes and they themselves say you shouldn't rely on them alone (but nice to hear real feedback that it is possible). But yes, you're right, the Ipad and a set of headphones might be ideal (if I don't drop off to sleep in the dark and if I can stop a certain little person constantly pulling them out of my ears!)

I did F8 a few weeks ago too. Have no idea what was in the exam though as I clearly deleted it from my memory immediately afterwards! I just know I read through the questions and was reasonably happy so hopefully that's a good sign.

sama

I don't think I'd risk sitting an exam after only having listened to Opentuition lectures either. Even when I din't buy a textbook I did use a revision kit and BPP flash cards. I found that the lectures are surprisingly enterntaining especially for the more wordy papers such as F4, F8 and P1. Later I tend to just remember what I heard in these lectures rather than what I read in the textboox while struggling to stay awake. The textbooks may cover more, but if I hardly remember what's in them because they just don't stick in my head, they aren't as useful. Don't get me wrong, I have bought BPP or Kaplan textbooks for all the other papers othen than F5 and F4 so I'm not saying they are not necessary at all. In a lot of subjects I prefer to read the book after having heard the lecture so that it makes much more sense.

Fingers crossed for the F8 results :-)

Nps

Well I listened to my first P1 lecture last night, and I found it sooo slow. I was just willing him to get on with it! Hopefully it was just more of an introductory first lecture and the rest will pick up the pace, so I'll stick with them for a few more chapters. On the plus side, I didn't use headphones and my daughter didn't seem too bothered, she was asleep within seconds (not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad!)

Then again, I think I may just be more of a bookworm type person.......hence the reason I've never really considered distance learning either.

sama

If Opentuition can put your baby to sleep, that's fantastic! :001_smile:
I have to admit that I sometimes surf the net or do other stuff while listening, but wouldn't most of us do the same in a classroom?
I hope you'll find it useful. Now I'm off to get my lunchtime P1 fix too.

Bluewednesday

I would suggest P1 as that tends to stand on its own a little, it's a nice introduction to the professional papers. I would say that for me it needed the least amount of work whereas P3 I needed to do more for. It didn't help that I was exempted from the appropriate F paper that led onto P3 due to AAT yet we hadn't really covered the subject matter (it was exempted due to the project)