Considering quitting after first L4 module?

Adele69

I wonder if anyone has taken a study break and come back to it after a few months or a year, how much do you still remember if not directly working in accountancy?

I've been feeling ill since a cold at the end of October, and know no cold should last 3 months so am undergoing tests to check what else it might be. Some days I feel okay and can get a lot of study done but others I can barely sit down and concentrate for an hour so my study plan has gone to pot and with distance learning shut down for 3 weeks over Dec/Jan I'm a month behind on my target.

zebra246

Your post has conflated a number of issues. I will tease them apart.

I do not work in accountancy and have just finished Level 4. So, it is very possible. I started at level 3 and just ploughed through the two levels, unit by unit, exam by exam, in around 18 months. Before this I had studied double-entry bookkeeping about 23 years (yes, "years") earlier. So it is all doable.

Illness will disrupt your ability to focus.

If inability to focus is not due to illness, can you find the source of the problem. Have you turned off your phone? Turned off the tv? Got a pattern of study that you are comfortable with?

Typically a study time of one hour is about optimal. Beyond that, everybody's concentration begins to wander. For challenging topics break them down into sessions of one hour.

If your study plan has fallen behind schedule, revise it. Impossible targets lead to demotivation (that's in the budgeting module!). Push your target date back.

"Distance learning shut down for 3 weeks"???? Surely there is something you could do e.g. recorded lectures or practice questions. Have to be honest, this sounds like a lame excuse.

Hope that helps. But if you have decided to give up already, you shouldn't prolong the torture. Make a decision one way or the other.

MarieNoelle

Hi @Adele69
Sorry to hear you are not well. You obviously need to concentrate on getting better.
Are you following a structured plan from your distance learning provider or can you set your own targets? If the former, you may want to give them a call and ask for a longer study plan. If the latter, just take it one day at a time and if it takes longer than a year to complete L4 so be it. If you are able to study a little bit each week rather than take longer breaks it will be easier to retain the information.
I hope this helps
Good luck

Adele69

I think @zebra246 you may be the exception than the rule. I have read your other posts and few could do multiple exams at L4 on the same day, so all credit to you.

I have fallen behind on the targeted dates as I had not completed the coursework or started the revision and practice assessments before being reminded about the shutdown for xmas period. In hindsight I should have signed up in September as I always felt I would need 3 months for FS (given what most other people who've done it have said) to have the flexibility of a late Nov/early Dec exam (since a late Dec/early Jan isn't really as workable)

It's the first time I have booked outside of a training provider (as they announced on the last week of L3 they were dropping L4) and admit that is my fault. I was pushed to book this quite early but had no real confidence I would know and learn the material by third week of December which was the cutoff I could have booked, and as I've been feeling ill even wondering if I would be kicked out of an exam room for coughing, I kept putting this off until a couple of weeks ago when I was a week into revision.

The only previous distance learning experience I've had was with the Open University and it was a lot better imo, so thought it wouldn't be that much different. @MarieNoelle I feel there is a lot more about targets and dates and a lot less about the accounting content and how to learn. Since I passed all L2 and L3 first time I've also never had a resit and was maybe relying on this doing enough each time to get a pass, though previously I always had a Training Provider set date there was no way around, and this time it was upto me to decide when to book and what might be available when I went in.

Thanks for your input. I think the main difference from L3 is there is written material that you can practice but without some feedback won't really know if it's a passable or poor answer so that's what I mean about lost time, not that I haven't been doing some studying. I'm fairly confident I have the calculating and accounting rules

zebra246

If I understand your post correctly,
i) you have insufficient learning resources
ii) you booked or were pressured to book exam dates in advance and now you feel you don't have time to complete the syllabus adequately before the exam.

i) This is something you need to address. Perhaps go to a distance learning training provider. For L4, I paid around £750 for the Kaplan revision kits, online lectures (not from Kaplan) and feedback from tutors for homework and when required. How does that fit with your budget? They also offer single unit deals.

ii) I think some exam centres will allow you to reschedule....for a fee! This may be a good plan if you feel you are not ready to take the exam(s). In future, there may be a lesson to learn here. There is no need to book exams until, say, a month or less before the actual exam date.

Hope that helps.

Think positive. Focus on solutions rather than problems.

Adele69

I think you may be missing the point I was trying to make:

illness has held me back from studying as many hours as I had planned with a distance learning mentor when beginning in Oct 6th
illness also added an uncertainty that I did not want to book an exam until I felt well again, but I could not delay this any further and still have reasonable hope of completing the remainder of L4 modules (still going back and forth to my doctors every couple of weeks)

Was really hoping more for feedback from someone with relevant experience of having a short or large break through illness or pregnancy from AAT study. I'd not done any prior to 2014