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Which is the best combination of ACCA Papers?

VIVA

Many students have problems choosing which combination of ACCA exams to sit. We have conducted a survey, and over a 1,000 students participated.

Here are the results:

2 ACCA Papers – the best combination

2 ACCA papers best combination

2 ACCA papers

3 ACCA Papers – the best combination

3 ACCA Papers best combination

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Greetings all
    I seek for an insight in the stages of this ACCA, would writing the papers in there sequence have a positive impact on your result ie. if i write f5, will f6 be a continuation of the f5 or will my knowlegde in f5 have a sinificant impact in writing f6?

    • There is no connection whatsoever between F5 and F6 and since ACCA has allowed for the papers to be taken in any order, it means that the order doesn’t matter.

      I have given all my papers in order and I liked it, it is just more organised – I also liked something else about giving the papers in order, this has always allowed for having a theory paper with the numeric papers, which is nice because it made it easier for me to manage my study time, I used to give three papers at a time and it was always the case that one of the three papers is just theory, so I used to spend less time on that paper because I have always found theory to be easier and I would take that time and put it in studying the other numeric papers which i felt required more efforts from me to pass.

      Look at your strength and see which papers to give together, I personally didn’t choose much I just followed the order and it was perfect for me.

      • The reason you would do the two together is they cover the same things the IFRS and IAS.

        Other than the 35 mark consol/cashflow statement P2 basically examins the standards. A lot of persons give you the impression that P2 is a computational exam it is not.

        Once you understand the Standards all you have to do is apply it; for P2 you would apply it by giving advise in the question and for P7 it would be with regards to Audit procedure.

        It is usually advised that if you are going to chose P7 as your optional to do it with or after P2.

        However you are the one sitting the exam and know what you can manage.

        Good luck

    • P1 and P7 are both theory and can be boring, I personally found them to be relatively easier to pass than the rest of the Ps so I wouldn’t combine them together, I would combine each of them with other more challenging papers to balance the difficulty.

      I agree with latoyah, P7 requires you to know the accounting standards taught in P2, if you write both P7 and P2, you will have the accounting standards fresh in your mind because you will be studying it for P2 and that will make P7 even easier, plus P7 has such a short syllabus and you can use most of your time studying for P2 and actually your study for P2 will be an indirect study for P7 because once you know the accounting standards, you can tackle P7 questions really well – OF COURSE you have to study P7 really well too, but I am just saying that P2 will make it easier. I think both are a perfect combination.

  3. Hi
    Please can someone guide me? I need to make a decision on which paper to sit for this sept.i failed f9 and want to go with p1.

    I only have 1 month to go. Have already finished OT lectures on p1 and yet to go with revisions.
    Do i have time for p1?

  4. Could someone please tell me if doing P6(UK) is really helpful and useful ? I’m planning to do P6 & P4 right now since I have completed the rest.
    Or Is it better to go with P4 and P7?
    I’m really confused.

  5. In year 2013 I took F1, F2 and F3. I failed, I was considering to re take the paper, but I have lefted my previous college. now i want to study part time. I am from Penang, Malaysia. What should I do?

    • You said it, do what you want, study part time! 馃檪

      I never took any tuition or went to college to study for ACCA, I used LSBF videos and of course OT materials for all my papers (except for F1, F2 and F3 because I was still new and didn’t know how to handle the study) – Having said that, you can definitely start studying on your own and write exams, I don’t see what is the problem.

  7. I am just studying by my self with out attending classes after i failed , can any one help me on how can i do in other that i perform well,i am now studying F1 to F3, of which i am to take exams by December

    • Purchase Kaplan material for f1 to f4 or bpp which one u like . Read the text one hundred times at least then do exam kit form bpp or Kaplan that’s it u will pass with good marks. U can also watch open tuition lectures if u want .

      • Ha ha. Do NOT read the text 100 times. Read the text book once and then Practice exam kit question and as many past exam papers as you can.
        This means you are practicing exam technique which is one of the most important aspects of ACCA exams.

    • Rishabh says you should read the textbook 100 times ,of which i am at odds with that. Reading a textbook many times without practising some questions will just make someone good like a passenger who knows the road to somewhere but not knowing how to drive.You will never claim to be a driver or be confident in driving if you have never practised it , regardless of how many times you have been travelling as a passenger or how many beautiful roads you have been travelling on. That will never make you an expert in anything. Practise ,practise and practise will make it perfect. Not practising reading a textbook in this regard but how to answer exam questions ,as all of us now doing ACCA have gone thru the stage of practising reading , ie we are good readers.

  8. I am asking for help i am doing knowledge module currently, i wrote several times where by in those times i did not perform well of which i did not know what went wrong, may i kindly find help or good strategy in doing well on CBEs

    • Those three papers never imposed any difficulties on me. I enjoyed studying and writting them. I passed them very well. One thing or two i can tell you is that reading the textbook hundred times will never help you so much. You can read the textbook ones , practise as many questions as you can , each question should be worked on or tried many times , which i cant tell how many times , but just try untill you feel like its a grade one question. Do the same with watching the video lectures until you get to a point where you know what the lecturer on the video will say before he says it. Believe you me , you will not have any challenges anymore. This is a bridge to the second part of ACCA if you will be patient with my strategy and if you will implement it. Your name seems South African , if so you can contact me for help on 0845764955 i am in SA also.

    • @Lebo when i registered i started with a college too and failed then i did it on my own with OT and JohnMoffat and passed.
      The strategy for me was simple I set my exam date for the end of the month then i watched the lectures while looking at the notes- practice the questions on the site daily. I also used Bpp text, kit and I-pass CDs.
      If you are confused at any point about what is being said you can post your questions and you will get your response.

      Dont give up but also dont set unrealistic goals don’t plan to sit 3 exams at once knowing that you have a lot of commitments. I gave myself a month per paper but maybe you need two because of your commitments and your way of learning.

      good luck

      • Hi Paul… u r so intelligent !! it goes like this ……

        F1-F4 Exempted Dec 2014
        F5,F6,F9 Passed Dec 2014
        F7,F8,P1 Passed Jun 2015
        P2,P3,P4 ?????

        Can I have your kind comment on this Paul. Thanks a lot

      • I personally think that you can given that you are a full time student. I used to give three papers and I am a full time worker and I still cleared them – It also seem that you are doing well clearing the papers on first attempt, so you probably can do it.

        I hope you started studying for any of these papers, or at least, start studying right away, you cannot afford anymore delay. Please note that the three papers you are writing are very technical and require hard work, you will probably be studying all the time for the coming months, if you can do that, then I say give it a shot and you should be able to pass them

    • Mahoysam, Thank u for your kind advice. as u hoped, I have already started studying P2 and P3 for this Dec 2015 leaving P4 to the Jun 16 session along with the P7 towards the mission of completing ACCA. I am very happy to see your comments for almost all the valuable questions here in this forum. Last Dec only i started my ACCA, and going smoothly so far. I really welcome your suggestion and i need your help in the future too. my fb id : Mohamed Nidhal e mail : ni*****@***oo.com Thnx Mohoysam

  10. Pls I just need advise on what to do. Kind of discouraged now. This is the 2nd time am writing F6. I think I should attempt other papers and come back to it. So which papers can I take with F7.

      • I got 73 for F8 and 70 for F5. For me that was a nice combination of theory and calculation. When I was tire of numbers I turned to F8 and vice versa 馃檪 Tax is the paper I don’t like.

    • I used to write three papers while being a full time worker and I cleared them all on first attempt. It will solely depend on you, you will probably have to give up all your weekends and study everyday after you come back from work, if you can do that, you should be able to pass. i had no problem giving up my social life for a while, so that help me clear three papers at a time every exam session while being full time employed.

      • If you are going to combine two papers together, I wouldn’t suggest putting P2 with F9 – It is just that both of them are relatively challenging and are numerical , so i would probably combine F9 with P1 or P3 – But hey, difficult is relative, right! To me, numerical papers are more challenging, that’s why I wouldn’t combine them together, either choice, you will do fine, just study and practice.

  13. Hi,

    After just finishing the F papers, I want to sit two papers out of P1, P2, & P3, in December.
    Could you tell me which two you would recommend sitting together please?

    Thank you

      • If you are going to write two papers each session, so you are bound to combine P2 with another paper either way, I would say take P1 with P2 – Why? Because P1 is relatively easier than the rest of the Ps so you can spend most of your time studying for P2 but please also make sure to give it some attention, plus P2 has some corporate governance in question 1 usually, so you will be studying that in P1 anyway.

      • Adim, I am not sure this is true, I know someone who passed very advanced paper when he didn’t clear F2. I think the trick is, that you have to register for the exam, so they would allow you to register for F4, you don’t have to attend and pass the exam, just as long as you register for it, you will be allowed to write F4.

        Personally, I don’t see a reason why anyone would do that, it is just a waste of money to pay for an exam you are not planning to sit for, but some people still do it! If I were you, I would clear my papers in order, or register for both F4 and F2 and sit for both exams.

  16. Hello

    I gather that there are not 4 sittings per year and I am looking to sit an exam each sitting.

    1, Is it possible to study for one exam in 12 weeks from start to finish and pass it comfortably, given the fact that I will do around 10 hours of study a week ?

    2, Which sitting is best to sit the F6 Taxation exam in or shall I say which sitting does ACCA introduce the next Finance Act in ?

    Thanks

    Gentl3

    • 1. 10 hours a week amounts to around 120 hours which you are prepared to spend on a single paper. In my opinion that is plenty of time to be able to pass any paper comfortably.

      2. As far as the F6 UK variant is concerned, the next finance act will be applicable from June 2016 onwards till March 2017.

      Hope this helps,

      Danyal.

  17. Hi,

    I need advice with which paper I should sit for December 2015. I work full time and this sitting will be the last sitting where I can sit one unit alone.

    I have been weighing up whether to sit F8, although this may not bode well considering I need to complete F4 this year. Or whether to go for a more complex numerical based unit as I will be able to dedicate more time to it before moving to two units per sitting next year.

    I sat F7 in June 2015 which was my first ACCA paper after studying at BPP…so awaiting the result of this.

    I also have all of the BPP materials to self study for F4. Which I aim to begin studying in August.

    Any guidance would be much appreciated.

    Thank you.

    • Hi,

      Don’t u want to take F4 together with F8? Last year I passed F7 and F4 in one sitting. I also work full time in the Big4, have a baby and a husband, which is like a second full-time job. Moreover, I studied in the former CIS country, where the study system differs… So I believe you are able to take and pass ANY paper. Just believe in yourself. Good luck

  18. Hello. I am done with F1-F9 and also done with P2 and P3. I am therefore left with P1 for to finish the compulsory level and then the two optional papers to complete. I will like to know if i can write P1 together with P7 and P4 at the same exam sitting.

    • On June 23, this year, you still had F5 to pass. You appear to be a very confused student

      P7 is Monday

      P1 is Wednesday

      P4 is Friday

      So, yes, you can do that but, unfortunately, F5 clashes with P1 on Wednesday. So ….. well, it depends upon which post you are claiming to rely. If you still claim to have F5 remaining, as per your post from June 23 then, no, you can’t do F5 in the same session as P1

      If you are relying on your post to which this is a response then, yes, go for it because F5 is no long an issue

      Or is it?

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