Optional Unit Advice

DebsNJ

I'm struggling to choose which optional units to take. Which units did you take and what did you think?

I'm planning on going straight onto ACCA once I've finished and most of the units seem to be covered then so does anyone know if any would be helpful?

I've seen people have said before to go what would be more useful in your career but i'm still undecided which direction to go in!

Thanks
Deb

Emmalouise18

Hello,

It depends what you plan to do in your future career. Or what type of accounts you do now?

My optional units was credit control and auditing. These both helped me hugely with the synoptic as there is a cross over of revision/work.

Thank you,

Emma

Pian32

A few things to consider.

1. If you are in work at the moment what would be useful now.
2. I'm fairly certain that if you do both tax modules you'll get an exemption from F4 in ACCA so that might be worth while.

Personally I did both the tax modules, where I work I was going to end up doing some tax so it seemed the most sensible to look at. There's a lot of calculation involved and some of the wording can be subtle but I found it worked well.

Fee2019

Hi @DebsNJ

Like you, I am still very unsure about which direction I want my career to go in so choosing the optional units was quite tricky. I ended up taking the same units as Emma has mentioned above, Credit Management & External Auditing.

Credit control was one of the easiest units; I got this revised and sat the exam in the same month. I really enjoyed this topic actually, which was helpful as it made it easier to learn.

External Auditing took me a few months to work on, and was quite different to all the other exams as it has no mathematical element to it. I found the questions in my exam worded extremely awkwardly, and as I had revised my External Auditing book front to back (I knew it like the back of my hand!), a few questions that came up really did throw me off, but I suppose that’s just part & parcel of an exam.

I am currently working towards sitting my synoptic exam, and the external auditing unit especially is a massive help within this revision. Credit control is also helpful from the ratio side of the Synoptic exam, although ratios are covered in the Financial Statements unit also.

Have you sat the Synoptic exam yet?

Fee x

DebsNJ

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies.

I'm currently working as a bookkeeper for a few different businesses. I've always thought that I would eventually move into practice but I like one of the companies I work for and I think there’s room to grow my role.

I thought both tax options would be beneficial, but then again so would credit management. I also do really like auditing (sad I know!).

Would it be insane to do 4 and then use my best 2?

Fee2019

Hi @DebsNJ

Have you already sat all of the mandatory exams?

I think 4 units is a lot to take on, but I suppose it all depends on the time you have to commit to it and how quickly you learn. Personally, I would say just focus on 2 & get them passed, then if you want to sit the other 2 as well there isn't as much pressure on. X

Pian32

You could pick 2 to study and then get some books that cover the other 2 to do when you have chance. I was looking at buying the osborne books for the optionals I didn't use.