Good luck ACCAers
Barry
Registered Posts: 101 Dedicated contributor ๐ฆ
Good luck to you all sitting exams over the next week and a half.
I'm sitting F8 and dreading it. I've heard so many stories about this paper being easy to study for but hard to pass.
Lets hope the papers and the markers are nice to us.
I'm sitting F8 and dreading it. I've heard so many stories about this paper being easy to study for but hard to pass.
Lets hope the papers and the markers are nice to us.
0
Comments
-
Good luck Barry, NPS, Rozzi and all other students sitting their ACCA exams this week
~ An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest ~Benjamin Franklin0 -
Good luck everyone!0
-
Good luck to you all sitting exams over the next week and a half.
I'm sitting F8 and dreading it. I've heard so many stories about this paper being easy to study for but hard to pass.
Lets hope the papers and the markers are nice to us.
I self studied F8 with no previous audit knowledge or experience, and didn't feel overly confident going into the exam (or when I finished!). Before the exam started I thought some people in this room have to pass this exam, why shouldn't one of them be me - it put me in a positive frame of mind before starting the exam. My tips are to make sure you write something sensible and relevant to the question, and use the scenario as often the answers are in there. When reading through it, highlight what looks wrong or incomplete, then in the answer explain why it is wrong and suggest a better method of checking things.
I passed first time, so I feel the examiners do try and give you credit for writing sensible, relevant things.
Good luck, and to everyone else, soon it will be over and we can enjoy what's left of the summer!0 -
I'm sitting F8 this time as well, so thanks Rozzi for the encouragement.
I've been only taking revision courses payed for by my employer for my ACCA exams so far and studying the text myself while preparing for it. I'm really grateful for these, I've been finding them really useful. My mock exam 2 weeks ago came back with 52 marks, so I just might have a chance. Fingers crossed...
Good luck to all of you sitting exams this week.0 -
I'm an F8'er too. I just feel like I'm reading the same things over and over again, just in a different context in each chapter. I think I'd find the actual work interesting, but actually studying it is a bit dull!0
-
I'm also sitting F8 on Thursday. I've self studied, and found this to the most dull subject, like Nps1976. I've read
through all my notes today and I've got Wednesday off work so will tackle a mock exam under timed conditions.
I think I just want to get it over with now though. Here's hoping for a fair exam. Good luck everyone.0 -
So how did all your exams go, did you get the questions you wanted?
I'm just back from taking P2 and I actually quite enjoyed it! Much preferred it to P1. As with most of the ACCA exams I've sat, I could have done with another 10 minutes or so to check my work. I actually got my Consolidated SOFP to balance first time, which I was really pleased about, I nearly let out a cheer in the exam hall. So that put me in a good mood for the next question, coz I wouldn't really have had time to find any difference. I thought the group structure itself was rather complicated, the one situation that didn't come up in my revision questions! But I think I got there.....
I left the last question as the choice to leave out as it looked rather vague. I thought from practice papers that I would be leaving that one as I've never liked the look of it! I found it hard enough remembering all the current rules, let alone trying to learn what they are thinking of changing!
Mini Schnauzer, and anyone else who sat P2 - how did you find it?0 -
Hello Rozzi
I had a brain freeze today for P2 ... damm it! Looking at the comments on Opentution forum for P2 NCI calc was correct but my goodwill went a bit funny. I had a good stab at the other questions - chose no 2 and 4.
P3 went better the day before - my excuse for today was that I was drained from P3 exam yesterday...
I was quite annoyed with my exam centre today - 2 chinese woman sat and openly started to read the exam question booklet 10 minutes before the exam started and write in it. I immediately spoke to an invigilator who went over but later told me that it was alright they only noted down how much time each question was going to take - I asked if everyone else was going to get another 10 minutes - but he ignored me and walked off! (rant over :001_smile:)
All will be revealed in August.
Hope everyone else did ok.0 -
Of my 3, I was really time pressured in all of them. I didn't stop writing in F7 or F8 so looking back I have no recollection of anything I wrote! During my 15mins read through though, none of the questions bought me out in a cold sweat, so my main problems will be mistakes through rushing and not having time to check anything (I hate not being able to check my work). F4 was the one I was most worried about as I simply ran out of time to study it so I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked to have been. Strangely though, it's the one I now expect to get the highest mark in.
My main issue is the fact that I threw 10% of my F7 marks away and I am so annoyed with myself. Unbeknown to me, the F7 UK syllabus has an extra section compared to the F7 International syllabus yet they use the same study text. And the exams are identical apart from 10% which is dedicated to UK GAAP. I've now found the 2 lines in the introduction of the text (my fault, I just skim read it and decided it was just the same introduction as in all their other books) which says I needed to download an extra 40 pages to cover the extra from their website. And there was me thinking the F7 UK text book would actually include everything! I'm now assuming that the revision kits only use the past International exams too because I've never seen a question on any of the previous exams which cover the extra. The really annoying thing is that the 10% of questions from the International paper that the UK bit replaced was all about ratios which I could have done in my sleep!
So to anyone who is planning to sit F7 in the future, sit the International paper not the UK one! I suppose that's the gamble I took with self studying and not having somebody advising me, I just wish BPP had really highlighted that the UK text book only covered 90% of the syllabus.0 -
I know exactly how you feel with the differences for F7 UK compared to International. If it's any consolation the extra 40 pages may not have been that much help anyway! I had the Kaplan F7 UK text and exam kit and their entire contribution to the UK differences was half a page at the end of each chapter just listing the differences. While that might sound fine, when every chapter question you practice (and all the exam kit questions) are on the International syllabus just listing differences doesn't sink in no matter how many times you read them!
I was really panicing when I first read through everything (and, like you wishing I'd had someone advise me to do the Interational one) but then decided/convinced myself that the most that would be asked would be a few marks rather than doing a whole question based on a UK format so I kind of ignored them anyway and concentrated on being able to do enough in Q1-3 to pass.
I also found it really time pressured. This one and F6 were my first ACCA exams and I still can't believe how much longer it took in the exam hall compared to practice at home. I think I was so paranoid about my answers being readable that I took way too long.
Am also really kicking myself for mistakes I made in F6 that were simply down to exam panic rather than not knowing (I'd have much preferred losing marks for not knowing!!). I realised what I'd done as soon as I left the hall.
Still, just have to wait til August now. Not completely sure how I did with F7 as I ran out of time (spent too long on Q1 and Q2). I'm sad enough that I downloaded the question paper this week and tried to work out how much I may have scraped - although I had a complete wobbly when I saw the ratio analysis on Q3 because I couldn't for the life of me remember calculating any ratios so decided I must have missed that completely and lost 10 marks! Still can't remember now though what that part was?0 -
Ha ha, don't panic, the ratio questions were the 10 marks on the International paper which were replaced with the UK GAAP questions.
At least Kaplan include the UK specific stuff in their books. I've always been a big fan of BPP, but not including the UK specific stuff in the UK book has really annoyed me and to be honest I think it was bad form on their part. No matter what mark I get, I will always be more annoyed about that potential extra 10%.
Sounds like you do exactly what I do - worry about making the calculations all clear and neat, and then realise you've spent too much time on question 1, despite knowing full well that there isn't time to spare.0 -
Yep, that's me too!! I'm hoping I've learnt my lesson now at least. Again, I think it's one of those things where you suffer slightly not having tutor support because I couldn't ask how much 'shorthand' we could get away with on the exam paper. When you practice the questions at home you don't tend to write everything out in full but I was a bit paranoid in the exam and didn't realise how much the time difference would be!
I have tried the BPP books in the past but I just seemed to get on better with Kaplan. I did buy the BPP revision kits for F6 and F7 this time to have extra practice but to be honest I couldn't get on with them either. The answer breakdowns in the Kaplan kit were much, much fuller and, I thought, more helpful than the BPP ones. I know they are the Platinum provider for ACCA but I don't think I'll get their revision kits next time (they also had fewer practice questions).
At least F7 is the only one that has this UK/International problem (I think) so we won't have to face it again!0 -
-
Thank you KernowAccountant.
I'm hoping to do that either in December or next June, unsurprisingly I'll be choosing the International paper unless someone gives me a good reason not to!0 -
As far as I'm aware, the only reason to sit UK stream papers is that should you wish to practise as a registered auditor within the UK you must pass the P2 and P7 UK papers.
The ACCA website makes reference to also having to do UK stream F6 and F4 for the audit PC. There's no mention of UK stream F7 or F8 being a requirement though.
I'm sitting all UK stream; just to make it harder for myself!!0 -
Ah, now I knew I needed to do the UK audit paper, didn't realise I needed to do the UK P2 paper too (though of course I intended to check before doing my exam entry!)
Looks like I'll be sticking with the UK streams then, but taking more care with my choice of text books!0 -
Hi,
Sorry to invade on this thread. I am hoping to gain my result from my last AAT exam early September 2013. Hopefully, this should give me enough time to register with ACCA and enter for the December 2013 sitting.
I was just wondering, once I have received confirmation of my final result from AAT. Do I contact AAT to transfer my details over to ACCA? Or do I have to wait until I receive my AAT Certificate for Level 4 in order to proceed with the ACCA registration.
Just concerned that I might not have enough time to enter for the ACCA exams in December 2013 due to the transistional period of my AAT records.
I do apologise if this has been asked already. I did do a search before I composed this post but I couldnt anything related.
Regards,
Andrej0 -
ACCA will have their own deadline, but I think you will probably miss it. Search my threads (a fairly early one) as I've advised someone on this exact point before, and how to get round it. I think you can fax copies of your exam results to them. There used to also be a reciprocal arrangement between AAT and ACCA for transferring results but I don't know if it still exists or how long it takes.
Are you planning to claim the exemptions? My advice would be to sit them as then you don't need to worry about the exemptions or timescales, it's brilliant revision, plus it gives you a good idea of the big increase in workload/syllabus/exam size from AAT to ACCA. You have to pay for them anyway so it will cost the same whatever you do. I did this and I found it very useful.0 -
-
Hi Nps1976,
Thanks for your prompt response.
The thread was quite helpful. I was planning on claiming my exemptions.
From reading the thread, my thoughts are to register with the ACCA at the end of this month, so this should hopefully speed up the registration process. Then this would just leave me to upload my statement or certificate providing I receive these documents in good time to be certified by ACCA in order to claim my exemptions and enter for December 2013 exam sittings.
How are you finding ACCA?
Regards
Andrej0 -
I'm enjoying ACCA. It is much meatier than AAT as to be expected. Content wise, I`d say each exam is equivalent in size to a whole AAT level so you can see what a jump it is. Difficulty wise, obviously it is a big jump too.0
-
mini_schnauzer wrote: ยปHello Rozzi
I had a brain freeze today for P2 ... damm it! Looking at the comments on Opentution forum for P2 NCI calc was correct but my goodwill went a bit funny. I had a good stab at the other questions - chose no 2 and 4.
P3 went better the day before - my excuse for today was that I was drained from P3 exam yesterday...
I was quite annoyed with my exam centre today - 2 chinese woman sat and openly started to read the exam question booklet 10 minutes before the exam started and write in it. I immediately spoke to an invigilator who went over but later told me that it was alright they only noted down how much time each question was going to take - I asked if everyone else was going to get another 10 minutes - but he ignored me and walked off! (rant over :001_smile:)
All will be revealed in August.
Hope everyone else did ok.
Thanks for mentioning the Opentuition forum - I never knew about that so might go take a look if I dare about what people are saying the answers are - although like Nps I don't think I can remember that much of what I wrote!
Good on you for taking P3 aswell, I couldn't take exams on two days running. How did you find studying for P3? I plan on taking that next (although at the moment I'm so bogged down with everything that got left while I've been studying that I have no intention of picking up a textbook for a long while!).
Wow that is really bad what happened in your exam - I thought the reading and planning time was for noting down how long each question was going to take?! And anyway whatever they did or didn't do, they still had 10 mins longer to think about the questions!!0 -
Hi Rozzi/Mini Schnauzer,
Which books/revision kits would you recommend for the P papers you've done so far? Kaplan or BPP?
Thanks0 -
The front of the exam states:
During reading and planning time only the question paper may
be annotated. You must NOT write in your answer booklet until
instructed by the supervisor.
If the 2 chinese woman sat and openly started to read the exam question booklet 10 minutes before the exam started and write in it.
Then they were using the Reading and planning: 15 minutes for what it is supposed to be used for
Were they doing this before the Reading and planning: 15 minutes?Sandy
sandy@sandyhood.com
www.sandyhood.com0 -
Hi Rozzi/Mini Schnauzer,
Which books/revision kits would you recommend for the P papers you've done so far? Kaplan or BPP?
Thanks
I have always used BPP as when I studied some of the F papers at college the tutors used BPP so I just continued with them. I like them, and plan to carry on using them, so would recommend BPP but cannot compare them to Kaplan as I haven't used those.0 -
Thanks, that's my problem, I've only ever used BPP (apart from F2 when I used Kaplan but wasn't that impressed), but am hearing increasingly good things about Kaplan so wonder if it's worth giving them another go. Will probably have a look at Kaplan P1 as I'm told P1 is quite dry, and as BPP can be quite dry in general, we'll see if Kaplan can liven it up!0
-
Yeah, BPP P1 was a bit dull in places, especially risk which is a large section in the middle! I got really bogged down with that part, and at one point thought I'd abandon studying risk for a while, move onto ethics and then come back to risk. I got through risk in one go in the end though, and ethics was more interesting.0
-
Sandy
Unfortunately they opened the exam paper 10 minutes before the reading time started, literally as soon as the guy gave the exam paper out - so they had 25 minutes of reading and note taking before the exam started at 10:15am.
At P paper level you would of thought they knew the rules...
I have completed the ACCA post exam survey and stated my comments, not anything else I can do.0 -
-
mini_schnauzer
I doubt the results will change, but I would like to think the invigilators will be re-trained (or ticked off)Sandy
sandy@sandyhood.com
www.sandyhood.com0
