Interview with Haris, Genius Hunt winner in Paper F6

Interview with Haris, Genius Hunt winner in Paper F6, who scored 89 marks in June 2014 exam

Please tell us a little bit about yourself

I am from Pakistan. I started ACCA during the last semester of my Master’s degree. I have been self-studying from the day one and have never attended any formal tuition provider. Having completed the fundamental level exams, I have started looking for a job in the financial sector of Pakistan.

Which study resources did you use?

I used BPP (sometimes KAPLAN) study text and revision kit together with Open Tuition study notes and video lectures.

Having scored such high marks, many students are asking – what approach did you use to your studying?

Before starting the actual study, the first thing that I do is to draw an overall picture of the subject. This helps in accessing the difficulty level of the paper, exam format and composition, study resources to be used and the estimated time required for the exam preparation. For this purpose I refer to the resources available on ACCA’s website, introductory video lecture of Open Tuition and OT forums. For actual study I use study text, revision kit and Open tuition resources side by side. My first objective is to understand the topic itself. After I have achieved this, I use question bank and revision kit to prepare the topic for exam. I regularly revise topics during my study and the final revision is a speedy one and for difficult topics. For F6 paper students should practice and revise topics regularly. There is an exhaustive list of tax rules which can only be remembered by developing a habit of constant practice and revision. I found the most of F6 easy, but the main challenge was to remember tax rules and not to mix them up.

How much time each week did you spend studying?

I don’t follow any particular schedule but I try to spend 3 hours daily on my studies. I try to finish the course two weeks before the exam and do my final revision during last two weeks. The studying hours can increase substantially if I think that I will not be able to complete the course on time.

How important do you regard the practicing of past exam questions?

Past exam and revision kit questions are really important for achieving high marks in exams. Instead of leaving them for the final revision, I practice relevant past exam and revision kit questions with my normal study. Question bank and revision kit are not only useful for exam preparation, but I have also found them quite helpful for actually clearing many confusing points. Students should also read marking scheme and Examiner’s comments to have an understanding of the approach to be used for different types of questions and to avoid making obvious mistakes in the exam.

How did you find out about OpenTuition?

I found OpenTuition while I was looking for some online forum to supplement my self-study. I found OpenTuition helpful not only for the actual study but also it provides students with a forum to share their problems and experiences.

And finally, what would you say was the most important factor in achieving your success?

I never enter for the ACCA exams unless and until I am confident that I would easily pass the exam. Probably this is the main reason that I have cleared all of Fundamental level exams in my first attempt and with high marks percentage. I try to cover all the topics of the course and never do selective study. I always set high targets for my exams and this gives me a big margin of safety. With selective study students don’t have this advantage and even minor error can result in failure.