What optional units to take??

SammyRPA

Hello everyone
I'm sorry if I'm repeating anything, I've looked and cannot find a similar thread

I'm just wandering how important it is to choose the right optional units in level 4...I've read through all of them so many times and just can't decide which two to do :confused1:
What I'm asking really is, do the units I choose determine what course of career I want to take (financial or management accounting) or should I just choose the ones I just feel more comfortable with and I can still go in whatever direction I want to later on?

Any advise would be much appreciated

Sammy :001_smile:

RyanKimbo

Hi Sammy,

That all depends on the career path you wish to take. Are you planning to go on to further studies?

In my opinion the exam most people struggle with is Business Tax, so unless you are planning to be a Tax specialist my advice would be to steer away from that unit. (Not just because people find it difficult, but also because tax regulations change that often, two years down the line, what you have learned may be completely out of date!!)

The two I did were Personal Tax and External Auditing, I enjoyed personal tax. Mainly because when you tell somebody (family/friends) your an accountant they always asking tax based questions, so it's nice to be able to give them some (informal) advice.

In my opinion External Auditing was extremely dull, however this was countered by the fact it was a fairly simple and quick unit from my experience.

Hope that helps!

Ryan.

Nps

Do you plan to carry on studying after AAT? If so, I'd see which modules are likely to give you a head start in whichever further qualification you choose. If you don't plan to continue and none of the units are relevant to your work, I don't suppose I could blame anyone for just choosing the easiest 2 modules.

I did the tax units and they stood me in very good stead for the ACCA tax exam (but would be equally useful for ATT etc).
When I did the ACCA audit exam I had a look at the AAT audit module and although it seemed very relevant to the ACCA exam, I don't think you are particularly disadvantaged if you have no previous audit experience prior to ACCA.
I don't know much about the credit mgmt unit but I've heard it's quite easy but I've yet to do anything at ACCA level which follows on from it so I'm glad I didn't do it.

So if you plan to continue your studies after AAT, I would recommend the tax units. Yes, I agree that Business Tax is definitely the hardest optional module, but if you do plan to continue, you need to pass tax exams at a higher level anyway so you may as well start getting your head around it now.

SammyRPA

Thank you Ryan

I was thinking of doing personal tax for the same reasons you said and cash management as I have theory that that might be quite 'universal' and relevant to whichever path I decide to take when completed...with regards to further studies, again I've been looking and just not 100% on which direction I want to go at the moment it's really tough deciding your future isn't it haha! That's the main reason I wanted to know if these two options were important to get right or if was ok to just 'go with the flow' :cool2:
Thanks again :001_smile:

Jo Clark

Nps1976 wrote: »

So if you plan to continue your studies after AAT, I would recommend the tax units. Yes, I agree that Business Tax is definitely the hardest optional module, but if you do plan to continue, you need to pass tax exams at a higher level anyway so you may as well start getting your head around it now.

I agree with NPS (again)... plus should you wish to become a MIP, the tax modules are going to be very useful, more so that auditing, in my opinion

SammyRPA

Thank you Nps1976
I've heard of quite a few people doing both Tax units as good foundation for ACCA and it has crossed my mind...hmmmm think it sounds like I should be thinking more about my future route and decide from that?

Sammy

emuratty

I did both taxes and credit management, nothing to stop you doing more than 2 if you wanted to. Personally I found credit management a bit dull, personal tax was a bit tricky, really enjoyed business tax. I would say if you're doing one tax module you might as well do both. My college didn't run auditing, they said they didn't have enough people wanting to do it, but I probably would have done that too.