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53%… it is done. Finally an affiliate! 5 years of my life revolving around this qualification… whether its for a trip back to my home country, going out to have some fun with my friends, spending some leisure time… all of these and many many more revolving around ACCA, the study schedule and the exam dates.. I haven’t realised what has happened yet… I just have no words…
To those that failed, don’t give up. I also failed exams. I failed PM with 44% and ATX with 38%, and the latter hurt A LOT cause I studied 6 months and I got 38% but then I managed to pass on the second attempt. Take one or two days off to relax and then get back on it! You can do this!
Pass 56% first attempt… it was a very difficult paper with very unusual questions. To those who failed, keep pushing, you will get there. Falling down is part of the game, getting back up has to do with the player! Now, on to the last exam, AFM here we go!
I passed ATX on my second attempt with 50%. In my first attempt I scored 38% which is the lowest I have ever scored in any of my ACCA exams.
I think ATX is one of those exams where anything can happen as the syllabus is massive and no matter how hard you focus on learning the material and applying the knowledge, you will always miss something out. I remember that on my first attempt, I didn’t touch Q4 as it was about a director’s current account and benefits which I had completely forgotten as I had mostly focused on topics such as SSE, Rollover relief and overseas aspects of tax.
What I did was to check where things went wrong, identify the areas on which my knowledge appeared to be weak and went back and developed those areas. I remember that during my second attempt, I focused a lot on inheritance tax for example and on my second attempt there was an IHT question and managed to score quite a few marks there.
What I understood from the exam is that the first 3 questions are rather normal level (revision kit – based) and the 4th one is a question which tests rather “unexpected” topics. I remember that the 4th question on my second attempt was a liquidation and you had to mention how the timing of distributions changes the nature of the funds received (before the administrator is appointed and after), how the tax rates change based on the timing of distributions as the receipts will be classed as either dividend or capital (so either dividend tax rates + DNRB, or CGT rates + AEA) and how you are supposed to split the accounting year between two accounting periods. If I remember correctly, there was also a substantial shareholding exemption element in that question too.
My advice is to identify the topics on which you think your knowledge is not sufficient enough and develop them further. Look at your mistakes in your previous sittings and see where you think your knowledge needs improvement. For example, my weakness in the ATX (and TX) exam was always inheritance tax, pensions, and accounting periods so I made sure that I was comfortable with those areas of the syllabus.
Lastly, there is a factor which I hate bringing up when it comes to exams in general but I think in ATX is a rather contributing one – the factor of luck. The reason I am mentioning luck is because the syllabus is so big that your chances of encountering an area of the syllabus familiar to you are not as high as in other exams. I know luck is not something you can control directly… the only way to get the factor of luck to work in your favour is to focus on understanding as many areas of the syllabus as possible, that way you are more likely to encounter a topic which you are familiar with.
I hope this helps.
First attempt in September 38%…passed on second with 50%. I honestly have no words! I had a feeling that the incorporation relief section of Q1 would have resulted in me failing the exam again! 3 to go! Congratulations to those who passed, and to those who failed, keep pushing! Don’t give up.
@Mkholo39 said:
I’m preparing for ATX-UK for September 2020. I am using BBP Textbook together with their exam kit. I can follow or understand the concepts when studying but when it comes to attempting the questions, i find my answers very shallow or else not understanding what the questions are really requiring. How to overcome this predicament?Hi friend,
Regarding your post, first, you need to understand what has changed between TX and ATX in terms of questions. The syllabus is more or less the same with a few things added here and there but its the question style that mostly changes. In TX, the question would give you all the information and it would ask you to calculate the tax.
In ATX, you will notice that the questions follow an advisory pattern mostly, rather than just calculating the numbers.
Understand that in ATX, the answer is usually to calculate and EXPLAIN each way, and sometimes which one might be more beneficial. For example, a taxpayer goes back and forth between the UK and another country, and he made some capital disposals during his time abroad. He has been UK resident for 5 out of the 7 tax years immediately preceding the tax year of departure, he is non-UK resident for 2 years and he is coming back to the UK soon or in 4 years (he hasn’t made up his mind yet).
The question in the exam can be something like this: advise on the capital gains tax implications of this sale.
In the question, you need to understand that he has been UK resident for 5 out of the 7 tax years immediately preceding the tax year of departure and he is non-UK resident for 2 years, so if he sells now, he will be treated as a temporary non-UK resident and if there is a gain on that sale, it will be subject to UK CGT even though the transaction might have taken place abroad. So when he comes back to the UK, he will be charged with CGT on that gain.
You will need to explain both scenarios; one when he comes back now and the gain is subject to CGT as he will be treated as a temporary non-UK resident, and one when he comes back in 4 years (if he comes back in 4 years, he will not be treated as a temporary non-UK resident as the limit is 5 years abroad or less (2 years already abroad + 4 more = 6 years abroad in total), thus no CGT). If the question also asks you to advise on the most beneficial option, you need to tell that client to come back in 4 years to avoid that gain being taxed.
As you can see, there would have been a very small calculation element in that question and you would have to mostly explain why you did it like this, based on what rules etc. I hope this helps.
Good luck!
@thekhalida1 said:
Hi all, just wondering what people use to study. As in do most just use use pencil and paper. Or do people see it worth investing in ipads etc. Just wondering what everyone uses and if it helps. Looking at youtube I see people using macs on ultra wide screens so they can have 3 pages open at once etc. Is it worth the investment?Please do not buy an iPad or any super expensive PC. Studying for these exams is a matter of time investment and not money 🙂 The PC I use to study is a cheap laptop that I bought 5 years ago and I never felt the need for any additional electronic devices. As beth33 said above, paper and pencil is the way I go for as well. The only time I have to use a computer is when I am doing revision and I use MS Excel to solve past exam questions (as the exams are all computer-based here in the UK). And please try to limit advice from online sources other than the official ACCA website and Opentuition, as many of them will give “obvious” tips such as “you should aim to score as many marks as possible” (I really heard someone say that as a tip). Each person has his own way of studying for these exams and that way might not be effective for you, and vice versa.
@f6ali said:
Very sensible approach, especially considering that all of us are economically hit by the pandemic to some extent and are forced to spend wisely. Both the exams are expensive and attempting both together is a bigger financial burden than in normal circumstances.Anyways, good luck with your preparation. I hope and pray that this pandemic is over soon and things get back to normal.
Stay safe.You too mate, good luck!
@f6ali said:
Thanks alot for your response.I started late because my classes started late. I am a full time student so i tend to study with the classes. I initially took classes for June 2020 attempt, but due to the corona outbreak, all classes were shifted to September 2020. Plus the book shops are still closed in my country and there’s no Amazon to call for help. The restrictions have just started to be lifted temporarily so i ordered Kaplan Study Text and Exam Kit, which arrived yesterday. All these factors contributed to starting so late despite having a lot of time.
Looking at your situation, taking SBR and ATX together is a huge burden. Both of them have very large syllabi. In SBR you have to remember what standards guide and how to apply them in exam questions. Each standard has its own set of rules and a number of them have quite complex issues. I struggled to remember specific details when i attempted SBR in December 2019. Somehow i managed to get over the line.
Regarding ATX, it is even bigger syllabus plus it is more detail-oriented than SBR. You must feel like Superman while preparing for both!
I understand…the whole pandemic brought a weird period to be honest, even in my company all classes were canceled but the online courses were still up. Nevertheless, I like to see this as an opportunity. Although my company offers study support, I self-study which takes a lot more time. As I am writing this, it’s 00:45 and I literally just finished another chapter in the book. However, if there was a commute to and back from work during the day, I would not have been able to do that, but, since I work from home now, I have more time to study. There were talks in the company to rotate us 1 day in the office and 4 days home as they lift the lockdown measures which I think will buy me enough time to start SBR as well.
As for SBR, I got the book today and it doesn’t look that bad. About half the size of the ATX book, and more or less familiar topics so I am not that worried about it. I will start the SBR study text once I am done with the first ATX revision kit. At the end of the day, it will also depend on how the ATX revision goes. If it becomes challenging, I might just drop SBR mid-summer and just focus on ATX, not the first time I have done that. But given the fact that the lockdown has freed up so much time, I think it’s doable.
@f6ali said:
I was wondering who else is attempting ATX-UK in September 2020. I am yet to start proper preparation for the exam and am interested to see how other students are doing.Any response is greatly appreciated.
I am sitting ATX-UK in September 2020. To be honest with you, I started going through the study text in early March and I will finish it this week. The reason I started so early is that I will probably sit SBR-UK as well in September (already ordered the books). I am using Kaplan for study text and BPP for revision and my plan is to finish the BPP kit by early June. I also ordered the Kaplan revision kit last week (first time I am using the revision kit from both publishers), so that I can practice ATX questions and retain as much as possible while I am going through the SBR syllabus (by the way, Kaplan has an amazing cheat sheet which has all the deadlines for HMRC for claims, penalties, and fines – I wanted this part cause ATX questions in the exam might come in a form of advisory and the client might ask when they should make a claim or when they can pay, etc).
Based on what I’ve seen, almost the entire book is a revision of the TX syllabus, with about 10% being additional content (every chapter starts with “this is basically a revision of the TX knowledge on Inheritance Tax, the only new thing is added for ATX is BPR and APR”). There are some notable exceptions, however, such as the overseas aspect of tax which is not examinable in TX. Overall, I think it’s definitely doable – for me, the virus has freed up a lot of space from my work commute since I work from home now and my study schedule has become much more flexible.
I do suggest that you start studying rather early though. If it wasn’t for the virus, I don’t think I would have been able to finish and comprehend both the study the revision kit based on the amount of knowledge you need to retain. Although it’s mostly previous knowledge from TX, the volume is too much. For TX, I spent 3 months on both study and revision and got 69. I think for this one, an extra month might be needed. Again, study types vary and other people may be more efficient.
If you have any more questions, just let me know.
Thanks!
@treadstone417 said:
Is there anyone who can explain me one thing:In A section was question about Internal environment failure cost????? What the hell is that????
I can find nothing about these costs in BPP study text.
Was it the one were you had 4 costs and you had to match it to the cost category? Cause I had that question too. In any case, here you go my friend!
I must say, I am bit surprised with the BPP study text not having the environmental cost categories….very strange. I thought that Kaplan didn’t have them either to be honest but as it turns out, it was 1 single page in the entire chapter…hence it might be a bit difficult to find them.
@khiloo90 said:
i think it was not 60 because the v.oh was 60 and they wanted the maximum profit ,if the price was 125 the demand will be zero so there are to left answer 92 and 75 and i picked 92, the n.o of units was 5000I don’t really remember…I immediately deleted everything from my mind about this exam!
@dk1981 said:
Just one question I would like to know the answer… was anyone asked a demand question where the product demand dropped by 200 for each £1 it Increased in price? Think the sales were 1000 and currently selling at £100It was one of those MC=MQ questions. I had actually come up with a different way to deal with that type of question in general and by using my method, the function ended up with was P=125-bQ (don’t remember how much b was). By doing MC=MQ (cause MC was given) I got a price of 60 if I remember correctly. Maybe I am wrong though…
I got the CVP question which I barely touched (attempted the theory section, hoping to get 3-4 marks from there) and an ROI question about 2 divisions asking to find ROI, bonus based on ROI % for the 2 divisional managers, comment on performance (including working capital!!!) and discuss why ROI might not be a good method to determine the bonuses for that company. That was a very straightforward question actually… but the CVP one was like out of this world. I have mixed feelings about the multiple-choice questions. Had to guess quite a few… I barely got any variance questions and I remember stressing about the formulae only to end up with only a section B instead of a section C question which was also rather tough. I am hoping for a 50… All I can say is, good luck to everyone.
@josephinelyk95 said:
Hello, I am currently a P paper student and have just passed AAA and SBL (it is a weird combination I agree)
Therefore, wondering if ATX would be the next best complementary subject to SBR (the next best optional paper after AAA)?What would be your take based on experience compared to AFM and APM?
I think you need to consider two factors in this case:
1) Regarding SBR and ATX, assuming you sat for the UK variant of AAA and you are in the UK and you want to start a practice or become a statutory auditor in the future, then you should at least attempt SBR under the UK variant which will allow you to apply for the practicing certificate and the audit qualification in a few years. As for ATX, if you are in the UK, you DO NOT actually need to attempt it to get either the practicing certificate or the audit qualification (but LW, TX, SBR, and AAA must be attempted under the UK variant).
2) If, however, the above does not apply to you (you are not in the UK or any other reason), then you can look at APM and AFM. In this case, I think you prioritize whichever is closer to your profession or closer to what you want to do in the future as an ACCA member. If for example, you work (or want to work) in budgeting, I think APM would be better, or if your position is Finance related (or you want to make an attempt and move to Finance) then AFM would be better.
That being said, I think you should make a choice based on what you want to do in the future.
@nooromer said:
Thank you so much..My question is do I need to practice the past exams which were before Jun-2019? , since the Finance Act 2018 has been started to be examinable on Jun-2019?
The Practice and Revision kit (for sittings from June 2019 to March 2020) includes most (if not all) of the past exam questions, amended to reflect on the changes made to the previous Finance Acts. With that in mind, a question which might have been based under FA17 in ACCA’s website will have Personal Allowance of £11,500.00 for example, but, in the Practice and Revision Kit for the current exams (June 2019 – March 2020), it will be £11,850.00.
You don’t have to attempt the previous TX exams on the ACCA’s website if they are based in a Finance Act other than FA18. However, it is highly likely that you will encounter the exact same questions in the revision kit but it will be an amended version on which the currently examinable Finance Act will apply.
That being said, just practice the questions on the revision kit. In addition, ACCA uploads the most recent exam questions every 6 months if I am not mistaken, and the sample questions from March/June 2019 sittings were uploaded recently (link included below).
Let me know if you need anything else!
Good luck! 🙂
@yas555 said:
preparing my exam for TA exam for Sept and I have not finished the lectures – currently on lecture 14. Do you think I should go straight to practice questions and revision kit? I can probably complete the lecture videos by end of the week but that will leave me with 3 weeks revision and practice. Do you think that would be enough? It is my first acca exam and I am already freaking out!!I am not sure about this… Assuming you are already familiar with the tax legislation in the UK (assuming you are sitting the UK variant – I don’t know the structure and the volume of other country variants), then and only then I would personally give it a shot. However, having just checked my book, you are about to finish Capital Gains: Special rules (Kaplan).
After that, you have to go through very important topics such as Inheritance Tax, Corporation Tax, and VAT, some of which will probably appear as Section C questions. Corporation Tax is very similar to Tax for individuals (with a few differences here and there such as capital allowances) but there are also group reliefs which you need to take into account and then you have Inheritance Tax which is a massive chapter itself. VAT is not so big but can be very confusing when it goes to purchases and sales to/from EU and non-EU countries (this appeared to me on a section B question but a much more simplified version with zero rate and 0% rate invoices) as well as tax points.
Regarding your situation, personally, I don’t think I would continue given the fact that I prepared 3 months for TX and I tend to be very strict with my study schedule when it comes to ACCA exams (for example, I just finished my PM study kit and I am 3 days late on PM revision and I am freaking out…I even requested 2 days off work next week to patch that 3 day hole!).
However, it would not hurt preparing as much as you can and just sit for the exam. I think the plan should be for you to cover whatever’s left from the syllabus (through Opetuition lectures, your book or by any other means) and then practice as much as you can and give it a go. You honestly have nothing to lose…if the worst happens, at least you will know first hand how the exam is structured and you can be much more prepared in the next sitting.
Let me know if you need anything else!
@maheracca1 said:
every body has his own option for memorizing thing my request is to share your best views to cop with such a big syllabus.
thanksIn my opinion, memorizing topics for the TX examination (at least for the UK variant) will not benefit you. The syllabus is so vast and to be honest, there is nothing to memorize such as rules or pros and cons (except for a few things such as why March and not April year-end or maybe some tax planning elements which you can find at the end of each chapter if you are using Kaplan’s study text).
I think the best approach for this exam is not to memorize the topics but to familiarize yourself with the Finance Act as much as possible through revision and practice. I know it sounds like a “duh” answer but there is nothing else you can do. Even memorizing the most basic thing such as tax computation for individuals or corporations is pointless cause after so many past exam questions, you know it by heart.
The more time you spend on past exam questions, the more likely you are to understand how each topic works such as Inheritance Tax, tax reliefs (b/f, current period, etc). I passed TX-UK in June 2019 and I prepared for it for 3 months and it was the first exam I sat for, that I didn’t memorize anything except for a few things such as penalties, fines and filing deadlines (Tax administration in other words) and maybe some minor details from pensions which I had a hard time understanding cause of all the different adjusted incomes that we need take into account.
Other than that, you are provided with some tax rates in the exam (I included the link below – again most of them you will probably know by heart if you practiced enough; I still used it in the exam despite the fact that I prepared for the exam for 3 months).
One advice I could offer is for you to include topics and rates you find hard remembering and make an “updated examinable document” to help you remember some topics better. That could resident or non-resident tests, % surcharge for not filing your VAT return on time, additional filing penalties, etc. This can be of great help if you want to better understand and solve exam questions.
Other than that, practice, practice, practice my friend!
Good luck!
@raniaslim said:
thank you so much. Can you also tell me the name of your learning provider for the knowledge exams?If you refer to external tuition, I am not very knowledgeable of them. I do know that Kaplan and BPP offer tuition courses but there are definitely other schools as well however, I don’t know how good they are.
For books, ACCA has 3 approved content providers: Kaplan, BPP, and Becker with Kaplan and BPP being the most popular ones. Personally, I use the study text from Kaplan cause it is more simplified and easier to read in my opinion in contrast to BPP. For the revision kit though, I use BPP. Although I am 99% sure that in both kits the questions (Section C at least) are just past exam questions amended to reflect the current changes in the syllabus.
@raniaslim said:
hi everyone
I would like to ask about the applied knowledge level. Is it necessary to start with it? and is there online courses and online exams for this level? Also, do you guys have any pieces of advice for newbies?
Thank youHey mate,
Regarding your question, there are three Applied Knowledge exams:
Accountant in Business
Management Accounting
Financial AccountingNow, you can’t move on to the applied skills exams if you haven’t finished these 3 first. The same applies to the Professional levels; you can’t move on to the Professional level until you have passed all the Applied Skills Exams.
However, if you have an Accounting (Finance or Business Administration/Management degree in some cases) you may be eligible for exemptions. Especially in the UK, most university degrees in Accounting will give you exemptions from all Applied Knowledge and Skills exams (9 papers in total) and start from the P-level. I have included the link for the exemptions calculator below:
https://www.accaglobal.com/gb/en/help/exemptions-calculator.html
As for the advice, the points below are my personal opinion and come from my experience while studying for ACCA exams (someone else might have a different way of studying or preparing for the exams to which my advice below might not apply). They are a bit general as you are just starting your ACCA journey:
1) Know what you are getting yourself into. As an ACCA student, you must be prepared to sacrifice a lot of time from your social and personal life in order to prepare for the ACCA exams (you might have to study even after work). You will have to say no to that Friday night out with your friends, or turn off your PS4 for the night so that you can study. There’s no other way to do this.
2) Don’t rush. You have 4 exam sittings each year, and you can sit up to 3-4 papers per sitting. You can sit one exam per sitting (that’s what most people do, including me) and you will be a finalist in 3-4 years. If you rush, the pressure might damage you.
3) Ignore the pass rates. Pass rates are irrelevant. The first paper I sat was FM and at my sitting, it had the second-lowest pass rate (after PM) and I still passed it. If you put in the proper hours and right amount of work, you will pass; that’s a universal law. I tend to sometimes check the pass rates but only because I am curious, however, I have never said “oh this paper has a 40% pass rate, it must be tougher than other exams”
4) Make a schedule/pattern (the most important in my opinion). Try and look at this from a bodybuilder’s point of view. You will not see any gains in muscle if you don’t go to the gym and eat properly for 4-5 days a week for 1-2 hrs a day. The same thing applies to ACCA but it can be more flexible when it comes to the days and the hours but you need to maintain a pattern from which you can see results (if you manage to make it into a habit, you are good to go). You have to allocate some hours to study almost every day (weekends can work too but that depends on your study style and current situation such as employment) if you want to pass these exams.
Best of luck with your journey mate, and feel free to ask me anything else you want.
@viollet said:
Thanks a lot mate.I did not ask the question but i have a habit of reading questions posed by my mates and learning from them.I have learned one thing which i think i have not been practicing the area of practicing all section C questions on Excel or Word.Thanks i will include this in one of my strategies.
Thanks againNo worries mate. One final note on that; it is very common for most of Section C questions to be split in 2 and the second part asking you to comment on the findings or mention pros and cons or something like that.
In such cases, when you reach that question on the CBE (say…Q32b in the live exam), the answer sheet will change and give you a text space instead of a spreadsheet. To tackle this best, during your revision you can use excel to draw a “text box” on top of the cells and you can drag it anywhere you want and write in it.
That way its almost 100% simulation. (open Excel, go to the Insert tab, and it should be on the far right). With that way, you don’t have to use Word (unless of course, you are sitting AA in which case I strongly recommend Word over Excel).
Best of luck!
@atheef55 said:
Can i pass the PM exam doing self study?pls Give me some tips about studying methodYou can pass any ACCA paper by self-studying. The key is coming up with a schedule and sticking to it (for example, I currently self-study for this paper as well and I study for it 5 times a week for about 3-4 hours after work). My law is: no finished chapter so far? No sleep then until its done.
I usually allocate 1 month to finish the study text and an additional 20-25 days to finish the revision kit (the BPP revision kit mentioned above). The remaining days I revise any weak areas or redo the MCQs in the revision kit. Lastly, I just check how the CBE version of the exam looks like on ACCAs website (how the questions are structured, etc). In addition, all the section C questions that I encounter in the revision kit, I solve ONLY in Excel as in the UK we have to sit the CBE version. It really helps cause you can greatly increase your writing speed in the actual exam. So, if you are required to sit for a CBE in your country, I would advise that you practice the section C questions in excel and not on paper.
Lastly, I am not sure how I can advise on the final mock exam. Some people tend to attempt 1-2 mock exams under timed conditions while other people don’t (including myself). It really is a matter a preference here.
Best of luck mate!
@salmanzaki1991 said:
I have failed very badly at this attempt. I know exactly where things went wrong and I have only one question: can I use my June study material (i.e. Notes, Kit) for the September session?Hey mate, I am sorry to hear about that….please don’t let this discourage you..I am sure you will pass with flying colors in September!
Regarding the notes and material, yes, you can use them for the next sitting and up to March 2020 assuming you are sitting for the UK variant (I don’t know how the curriculum works for other country variants).
All the best mate, keep pushing!
