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Interview with Thuy Ho, December 2015 P4 Genius Hunt Winner, who scored 82%

Thuy HoPlease tell us in which country you live, and what work do you do.

I live in Viet Nam and work as Deputy Finance Manager in a conglomerate operating in real estate development, hospitality, hydropower and construction.

How much time each week did you spend studying, on average?

I usually start studying 3-4 months before the exam date. For P4, I spent 1 hour per day studying, 1 month before exam date I studied all weekend and took 5 days before the exam date off work to fully focus on revision.

Which study resources did you use?

I used OpenTuition lectures and notes, BPP textbook and past exam questions and answers.

 

Did you get support from your firm?

Yes, they gave me time off for exam revision.

What was your approach to your studying?

I came to Opentuition resource first to get the overview of P4 structure and content.

Then I used BPP textbook to cover the area that I need to understand more and answer detailed questions of the syllabus. I tried to study the full syllabus.

The last step was to practice using past exam questions. I arranged past exam questions into main topics and practiced 2-3 times for each question. I believe that the more I practice, the more I can understand and the more quickly I can do the exam. For each time I tried a question, I took notes of what I did wrong then asked myself “how to do it right” by looking at the answer then found the answer for “why I did it wrong” by revising the textbook or asking my friends who studying or passed P4 or leaving the question there and trying the similar one with the hope that I could find the answer. The list became very long at first but shorter towards the exam date and I could see the linkage among topics. I read many comments from people who did attend P4 previously complaining about time management. I think that they are all right but one way to escape from that is to build up confidence and speed by understanding the knowledge clearly and practicing past exam questions.

What would you say was the most important factor that helped you to achieve such a high mark?

I think that the most important factor that helped me to achieve such a high mark was not just remembering but understanding the knowledge and building speed by practicing past exam questions.

How did you find out about OpenTuition, and which of our resources did you use?

I found Opentuition when searching for resources via Google. I did use Opentuition notes, lectures and forums. I would like to thank Opentuition team for providing such great resources.

Many thanks! and Congratulations!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. election says

    December 16, 2017 at 8:05 am

    good work

    Log in to Reply
  2. Abdulazeez says

    July 19, 2016 at 2:48 pm

    A big congratulations. Difficult joggling work with study. You have motivated us all. December 2016 P4 and P7 here I come.

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  3. joanel says

    February 29, 2016 at 1:12 pm

    Hi mate i will really need you to give me tips on how to overcome this paper.
    Thank you in advance for your help.

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  4. jigsaw1992 says

    January 31, 2016 at 4:20 pm

    hello mate, congratulations on your result. i however failed with 43 maybe partly because i took it with P2 and P7, but i passed those two. Now that im revising again for a resit, im knowing things and understanding better the P4 topics. So i feel P4 needs time to understand the technique involved.

    My question is how long did u study for P4, 6 months? and did u blend it with another paper or u took it alone?

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    • hothuy84 says

      February 22, 2016 at 2:54 am

      I have not notified about your question. Hope that it’s not too late to advise. Yes, I think understanding knowledge and practicing past exam questions are equally important in P4. I took P4 (my final exam) alone and spent time as answered to the interview question above.

      Log in to Reply
      • oggybaby5994 says

        February 22, 2016 at 5:07 am

        I was a student. I am just beginning to learn accounting in this website. Currently, I am self-paced FA1-MA1. I need advice when beginning to learn FIA / CAT to ACCA knowledge for the future. Could you give me some advice for my ACCA journey?
        Ti?ng Anh c?a em không ???c t?t cho l?m. Em mong ch? có th? cho em m?t vài l?i khuyên ?? em theo ?u?i nh?ng môn c? s? ki?n th?c ?? b?t ??u h?c ACCA. Em c?m ?n ch? nhi?u ?.

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