Interview with P1 Genius Hunt winner Irina from Moldova

Can you tell us more about yourself ?

My name is Irina Punga and I am from Republic of Moldova. I have been working for the last 4 years in a great national audit company named Moldauditing which hired me right after my university graduation. I enjoy working in audit and also it is related to my graduate degree – Finance and Accounting and post-graduate degree – Audit and Financial Expertise.

Many students are working just like you, how do you balance between studying, job and private life?

Like for most of the students, for me, also, balancing the studies, job and private life is not easy, but, I guess, I am a little bit of lucky in this way. My boyfriend and I are ACCA students so we both understand the importance of the studies before the exam. We try to have the same schedule: time to study, time to go out, etc. Also, we usually take the same exams and can study together, especially for the revision part. In this way we help each other. One mind is good, two minds are better. As regards the job and studies: working full-time there aren’t many hours left available for studies, but including the week-ends and with a little of sacrifice and effort it is possible to balance those two.

Do you get support from your firm? Like time off work or do they pay for your tuition etc?

For the first ACCA exams I got full financial support from my company for which I am grateful, but no time off. But for the last exams I decided to try out to pass the exams without taking classes and I succeeded. Also, for the last one and a half year, I have been paying myself for the tuition.

 Which Study Texts and/or Revision Kits and other resources did you use, or found the most useful in your studies for this exam?

For all the exams I tried a lot of resources: BPP, Kaplan, OpenTuition information. For me, all of them were very useful and important in succeeding the exams. In a way, I find Kaplan books easier to understand, BBP books contain more information to get through theory and practice and OpenTuition notes are very relevant.

Especially for this P1 exam I used Kaplan books and OpenTuition Course Notes.

You have scored such high marks, many students must wonder what is your study technique?

Before taking my first ACCA exams I have talked to many students. They all gave me their useful technique advises, but through the exams I can say that I developed my own technique. After reading one theory compartment I necessary try to get to know what are the questions alike for the respective compartment and solve at least 3 or 4, then move on to the next division. The remaining month I dedicate it only to the practice. I try to solve as many questions as I can. Also, I try to sit at least one mock exam under exam conditions. In the exam I always calculate how many minutes I should spend on each point of the question (1,8 minutes for every mark). I cannot afford myself to lose any easy mark, that’s why I try not to leave any question unanswered.

It usually takes me somewhere between 6-8 weeks of serious study for one exam. I study almost every day for 2-3 hours after the work and 6-8 hours (maybe more) in the week-ends days.

This is my technique. At least it works for me, taking into consideration that most of my results were more than 70%.

What do you think was the most important factor in your success in your ACCA exams?

It is a “cocktail” of different factors: responsibility, commitment, good planning and efficient revision. I may have not said anything new here, but it really works.

How did you find out about OpenTuition and which OpenTuition resources helped you towards your success.

One of my colleagues told me about this site when I was registering for the ACCA. The information on the site is really useful. Especially the Course Notes and the forums helped me a lot.

Good job, OpenTuition! Thanks a lot!

Thank you Irina, and best of luck in December! 🙂