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That’s a very useful summary of tips. I’m sitting F8 for the 2nd (and final time I hope) this March after getting 47% on it last June. i’m going to use any hints and tips I can get 🙂 Thanks again.
Hi Samir,
Thanks so much for the very detailed and helpful response. Pretty sure it was definitely my technique that let me down in the end, plus I did the CBE for this in June and I don’t think I practiced that enough before the exam day. Hopefully 2nd time round i’ll have more luck. 🙂 Thanks again
Heychi, I think you have a good point there and good strategy. I sat F8 & F9 last week and had planned to wait for results before booking next exam in sep- I had planned to sit F7 (for the 4th time as well!) But if I had to repeat anything from last week I was going to do that instead- only thing about resitting like that is at least it’s still relatively fresh in your head plus I’ll be self studying them as my employer certainly won’t be paying for me to do the course again for repeats. I have to have a think about it, next term doesn’t start until mid- July and I’d planned on taking a break and having next few weeks off
I also meant to add- I’ve listened to many of your lectures on F9 during my morning and evening commutes to work and I found them extremely helpful on top of my other online lectures with my college in dublin- I liked your humour as well ? thanks again
Ah thanks John ? it’s never too late- I might just check out your lecture over next few days as it was frustrating me today that I was seeing conflicting workings in the notes and books I was working off- thanks for clarifying that for me
Noureen i feel your pain..i’m attempting F7 hopefuly this Sep for the FOURTH time! Like you I keep getting just slightly less than the pass mark which is so frustrating. I’m sitting F9 CBE this Friday for the first time. Not feeling very confident..had F8 yesterday and thought I’d fly through that but the MCQ’s tripped me up a good bit.
i’m struggling with the best way to go about my revision & studying over the next couple of days..thank god i have time off work so I’m off today until the exam on Friday.
I was looking over some calculations for basic computations like NPV, ARR, IRR etc just to remind myself about these but I really think I just need to get stuck into past exam papers and work through them, I think this is the only way i’ll accustom myself to the structure and the style of questioins. i’ve already done some of this but i’m thinking over next couple of days this is all i should be doing. Also practicing some of the specimen CBE’s online.
Good luck on Friday..I know it’s hard but just try to stay positive and I know it’s a pain in the a** but ya know…even if you end up having to repeat again, you just have to think..i’ts not the end of the world in the grand scheme of things 🙂 Right now I just want to get Friday out of the way so I can start enjoying my summer 🙂
Hi All,
Anyone doing the F9 CBE on Friday, good luck! Just wondering, for anyone that sat t he CBE for F9 in March – how was it? Any tips?
How does anyone even remember what they picked for mcqs??
I sat the afternoon paper today- found the mcqs quite tricky and I practiced a fair few of them but I definitely ended up spending too much time on them- I always find time management hard in these exams
I found part B a lot easier but I ended up having to quickly fly through the last few questions due to running out of time and I wasn’t even able to answer the 14 marker on audit risk because of running out of time, was gutted.
Just glad it’s over- I definitely preferred the computer based to paper, no fiddling around with an answer booklet and I preferred having to type quickly rather than write quickly.Hey! Oh god well started off with a technical error with some of the computers lol they had to switch me over to a different one to the one I was assigned to- I felt fairly confident going in but the multiple choice were quite tricky and one question covered an area is hardly looked at, typical and it threw my confidence a little. My brain started to go blank then and I struggled with time management, which I always do. I did my best though, actually found section B easier than A lol just glad it’s over, have F9 on fri.
I’ve done F5 years ago and I repeated F6 twice, time management issues again. I actually liked tax but there was sooo much to go over. Did you get time off work at least to study? I’m still off this week thank God.
make sure you know your pro formas for F6, just do loads of questions. Good luck, let me know how you get on ?Paula,
Thanks so much for the tips! I have been taking note of all of those things while studying the last couple of days. At this point my brain is shouting “no more”..lol I plan on getting up tomorrow morning to squeeze in a couple of hours of revision before heading to the exam so I’ve been trying to make sure the last couple of days that I’ve covered as many areas as I can…it’s still quite hard though….you get to the point where you start spotting areas you haven’t looked at and then you panic…as I said..I keep reminding myself that i only need 50% .
What exams have you next week?Best of luck with them 🙂 Thanks again for the tips, really appreciate it….This is a message for shareefa. i’ve only just seen your reply from last Dec! What did you decide to do in the end? How did your exam go in Dec??
i’m in the same situation as you but without the having a child bit 🙂 I registered with the ACCA about 7 years ago, during that time at different times and because of personal reasons I had to take a year out, did that twice…last year I decided to take a break as the stress of balancing a full time accounts job as finance manager AND studying for exams was just too much and my health actually started to suffer. My husband helped me make the decision to take the break as my health was more important. The break did me a world of good and this year I went back and decided my short term goal was to sit F7 (which I’m repeating for the FOURTH time lol), F8 & F9 this year making use of the new extra exam sessions. I am sitting the CBE’s for F8 & F9 next week and I left F7 for last so planning on sitting that in Sep. I think i’ve decided to finish after F9, complete the new Ethics module and get my advanced diploma. I’m lucky in the sense that I’ve been working for the same company for nearly 12 years, I started off as an assistant accountant with just the accounting technician qualification under my belt and I’ve worked my way up and now I’m finance manager and I absolutely love my job. I came to the realisation last year that I don’t want to be a finance director or a financial controller in some large multi-national company….I want to work somewhere that I enjoy working and where I’m constantly learning and where I work now is exactly that place. My managers have also said that if I didn’t finish the ACCA it wouldn’t reflect badly on me and wouldn’t change their respect for me or their opinion which was nice to hear but at the end of the day, I think you need to do the ACCA for yourself and not anyone else. I have to keep reminding myself that the grade I get in each exam and whether or not i pass the exams does not define who I am. At this point, I want to finish the F papers for me and so that all the time and sacrifice i’ve put in is not wasted. I don’t see anything wrong with finishing at F9 and getting your advance diploma. Some people want to finish the whole thing and get their ACCA qualification but that’s them and honestly, If I hadn’t taken the 2 years out I may have decided to go on and finish but at this point, I want to just live my life and spend time with my husband and my family and friends and not spend the next 2 years trying to finish the ACCA. Who knows..maybe I’ll change my mind next year but for now i’m concentrating on the last 3 F’s.
Best of luck with yours, which exam are you on now? Apart from the exams, the knowledge you gain from studying the ACCA is worth it I think, especially if you want to get into accountancy..unfortunately it’s still the case that a lot of employers insist on having some sort of qualification which I’ve always thought was unfair..I have about 20 years experience of accounts and I think that has benefited me more than any qualification but I do think also having a qualification helps 🙂
Best of luck 🙂Hi Paula,
Great idea! I was thinking of doing this myself so i’m glad someone else thought of it 🙂
I have to say….I LOVE “Accastudentofoman”‘s attitude to revision, studying, the exams and just the ACCA battle in general. I registered with the ACCA I think about 7 years ago at this point? I took a year off at one point, then last year I took another year off and this year I went back to do F7 (for the 4th time!), F8 & F9. i’m sitting F8 and F9 next week (decided as well to do the CBE’s). I also decided this year to study online at home with the Accountancy School in Dublin and it was the best thing i ever did, no wasting time driving to college or sitting on a bus or train…..ability to watch my lectures in the comfort of my own home in my pj’s I might add!
Anyway, i’ve always found the ACCA a total mental battle. I’ve been torn lately with wanting to at least finish the Foundation level exams and deciding whether or not I want to finish any of it. I really don’t know if I’ll go on and do the P papers next year….my aim this year was to get the F’s finished, complete the Ethics module and get my diploma at least. I have to say though, as tough as it’s been, I love the learning process and going through the process has made me a much better accountant where I work (i’m a finance manager).
I’m a panicker though..and I tend to start focusing way too much on the result and on how much I really want to pass and have that good feeling when you open up your email and you see your pass rate….i’ve been on study leave since Wed and rather than thinking “oh my god I’m on study leave now, i’ve only got so many days left until the exam” I’ve been trying to think of it as just my usual revision time…I put a lot of pressure on myself and i’m sure all of us at some point think we haven’t done enough and we get overwhelmed the more we study and revise at just how much material we need to go over. I have to keep thinking “I only need 50%!”. when I really start to panic or if I’m looking over something and I think oh my god..I’m never going to remember that..I need to remind myself that i’m NOT going to remember absolutely everything..thumbs up to anyone that does and managed to get so much more than just a pass rate….i’m only ever aiming for 50%….I just want to pass them.
I totally believe a lot of it is about attitude…studying for these exams and sitting the exams doesn’t just teach us about accountancy & business, I think it also teaches us about ourselves and being resilliant and staying motivated, it’s bloody hard but all we can do is our best. I think having these forums helps too so thanks for starting this thread 🙂 Best of luck guys with the exams!Actually, anyone else doing the CBE’s??
Hi Caspian,
Great!! Yes, I was looking at the question for so long working out other bits I left out working out the standard debtor days using the info provided. Thanks so much. Was so frustrating! 🙂
That is very odd. Ah well, at least the CBE one is there as I plan on doing the CBE versions anyway in June, thanks Ken.
Hi Ken,
So does this mean we can’t access and print off the actual Dec 16 exam but only the Specimen exam?
Thanks
So sorry Khurram! I’ve only seen this now. I do actually still have these but I’im assuming you’ve already gone ahead and bought them?
Hey,
I got lecture notes from the college I’m with. They are very useful but if you already have the BPP book I’m sure you could just use the lecture notes from Open Tuition? I’m sure they’ll be very similar. Let me know though if you do want the lecture notes i have as I also have the BPP questions books plus the small revision book.
I certainly do. I have them here in work with me. Just message me back and let me know how you want to collect them? Thanks
Wow!! i’ve only just logged in here after taking last year off college altogether and I’m just blown away by the response! This makes me feel SO much better to read all your stories and see such a similarity between my struggles and what other people are going through. Plus, to all the parents that are also studying ACCA – seriously, big pat on the back..I really admire your determination.
Soooo….latest update on me is I decided after taking last year off (was totally burnt out and decided I needed the break to get my head sorted and decide what I wanted to do) i’ve decided to at least finish the next three F papers this year. i’m taking advantage of the extra exam sessions this year as well. My original plan was to do F8 this term & sit the exam in March, then F9 in June and finally, the one I dread….F7 in Sep. I had to sign up with a totally new college this year and I decided also to do it all from home watching the live lectures. I didn’t want to waste time sitting in traffic on the way to college or having to get a train into the city centre and then travelling home late so decided why not do it from the comfort of home where I could sit there in my pj’s if I wanted..lol
So, I signed up with The Accountancy School now based in Lad Lane and i’m very impressed so far. Not the best start I have to say as I’;m not slightly behind with the lectures and have to spend this week catching up on half of last week’s lecture plus about 5 hours from last Sunday! I just need to set up a plan, going to invest in a wall calendar this year too and slot all my study sessions and revision in and try and stick to it!
I did start to panic a little though as I realised this term is quite short and the F8 exam is the 6th March so I decided to sit this and F9 in June which gives me plenty of time to do both, F9 doesn’t start until 22nd Feb.
i’ll save the hardest to last! The dreaded F7.My short term goal is to finish the F papers. I’m struggling with whether or not to go on and do the P papers then…once I finish all the F’s and my PER i’ll have my advanced diploma and honestly, that might be enough for me…I just couldn’t NOT finish the F papers.
I love where I work, I’m working here now for 12 years this Oct and I realise now that I have no intentions of ever leaving here – I did chat with 2 of the directors who are basically my mentors about college and the only thing they did say was that if they ever had a need for a fully qualified accountant, they would have to probably hire someone to work with me so I need to decide if I’ll be ok with that.
So, for now it’s just the next 3 F’s and then maybe if I pass those and build up a bit of confidence I may decide to attempt the P papers next year.
Thanks to everyone for responding, it really had helped reading through all your stories 🙂 We should all keep in touch here and keep motivating each other.
Good luck this year everyone and to those that have now finished – fair play
Erin.
Thanks Seagoat again for your advice. After having a long, hard think about it I decided I would sit both F8 & F9 in June. I hadn’t even considered starting to study now for any of them and I didn’t want to put myself under unnecessary pressure to sit a paper this March. i’m still debating whether or not to self-study F8 (my employer will be paying all the costs so not my expense). Work is crazy busy at the moment so i’d rather self-study one of them and just go into college 1 night a week for F9 so still just weighing it up.
Thanks again for all advice, really appreciate it.
I sat F7 for the third time in Dec so i’m really, really hoping and praying I passed this time. I really just want to move on from it and sit a different one in June. Fingers crossed! Good luck everyone. 🙂
Hi Caroline,
From experience there will be a lot of work involved in this but it depends on your employment circumstances too (are you working? If so, part-time, full-time?)
I’ve sat F7 three times at this point, waiting for my results now in a couple of weeks. I sat F6 twice a couple of years ago and found there was a LOT of work involved in this (this is just my experience, everyone is different).
both of these papers involved a lot of computational work, some tricky.
I found both exams very time pressured.
I think passing any of the papers regardless of what combination you do them in is all down to the person as everyone studies differently and it’s always harder putting more time into studying when you work full time as well. I work full time in a very pressured and busy accounts job so I find at the moment even studying for 1 paper at a time is exhausting.
Best of luck if you do decide to do both of these, from my experience doing both of these I wouldn’t study the 2 together. That’s just me though.
Good luck with everything
Erin.Hi Seagoat,
Thanks a lot for the reply. I hadn’t considered sitting any of them in March to be honest as I plan on attending The Accountancy School in dublin city centre, commencing end of Feb and going to lectures there. i’ve only ever studied myself at home when I was re-sitting F7 for the 2nd time and have never considered studying any of the other subjects myself without going to lectures. i’m assuming you actually mean to start studying F8 myself at home now (I don’t actually have any text books or anything at the moment).
I was going to leave the march session open to repeat F7 if necessary (which I really hope isn’t!) and then possibly go to lectures for F8 & F9 and sit them both in June which would then mean I could start the P papers and sit one of them in Dec.
F8 looks like it’s all theory (is this the case?) so I figured if one of them was mostly theory and no computational work and F9 involved mostly computational work then it wouldn’t be very difficult or tricky to study both together. The last 2 times I’ve sat the exam for F7 I was only doing F7 and nothing else as i wanted to give it my best shot.
Hope this makes sense.
Hi mark,
I agree with you. I always think this question is the hardest and most detailed. I had only 35 mins to complete it!
I had to ignore the finance lease and loan bit as well. I had the info in my head but I just didn’t have the time or mental energy to be honest to try and dig it out. I did the same as you..I wrote out all the statements, did the easy workings and filled in whatever I could….I’ve never written so fast in my life! Good luck with the result..you never know…This was my 3rd time sitting F7 and i can honestly say I think out of the 3 papers this one was the most OK one. I think I was a lot more prepared this time. I had about 5 days study leave and I threw myself into the exam questions and spent plenty of time on the MCQ’s and timed myself as well. if anyone sat this in Croke Park, the lights going out part way through was quite funny….:-)
I didn’t manage to finish the financial statements for eithuer Q1 or Q3 in Part B and with only 35 mins to spare to start AND finish Q3 i’m surprised I got anything done on Q3. I normally panic when I only have that much time left but this time I did what I could on Q2 and then just wrote out all the financial statements for Q3 and did whatever workings I was able to and slot whatever figures in that i could. I found Q2 tricky….I work in f inance and this kind of questions should be so easy but something about having that added time pressure just makes my mind go blank!
I feel like I did pass this time, at least a pass so cross fingers!! Good luck to everyone with the results.
