A Lazy Part Time Student’s Rocky Road to Membership – Singapore Perspective

I am a 2016 graduate who has belatedly decided to share his agonizing experience from academic failure to membership between 2011-2016 (and then to Msc Professional Accountancy in 2020 after a 3 year break from anything to do with studying). During these 6 years I had 6 different full time jobs and lost a family member to a heart attack just for some context.

Working at the Expo as I write this evokes nightmares of enduring 3hours of full blast aircon at the nearby exam hall whilst feverishly scribbling out feeble attempts at solutions to daunting word wall questions so I thought perhaps writing about my experience will exorcise the ghosts of 2015 in particular when P5(Advance Performance Management) drove me into depression twice. At the second failure thoughts of suicide flittered into my consciousness. Here is a brief recollection of how I overcame my status as polytechnic underachiever (my GPA was a pathetic 2.78) to finally scrap pass the options with only 50s. This is an approach for lazy and busy students who are juggling studies with full time jobs as accounts execs/assistants or maybe even Accountants.

– Hone your writing skills to the level of an above average UK student: the markers are based in UK(if I remember it well) so any broken English is frowned upon and will lose you “impression” marks very early. Fortunately I have conditioned myself to write on par with the average Englishman from experience ranting on football forums for example which brings me to the next point

– Align your interests with your studies: Ditch the Chinese/any language other than English program you watch on Netflix in your scarce free time. I have told my colleagues doing ACCA to forget their roots and focus on the objective. Listening is no strong alternative to writing but by swapping out non English mediums it helps in the long term.

– Sacrifice hobbies and family time to score the goals that matter. I dropped my gaming hobby which came back as an addiction after the demise of my late dad in 2014 for 2 years when it became apparent it was syphoning precious energy. This is also when you sieve out the chaff from the grain; anyone who does not support your need for time alone needs to be sidelined, perhaps for good.

– Go through the lecture notes after every class before bedtime. This helps to retain knowledge which regardless of what people say about exams not being about memorization is important. You need to go to the Expo armed with technical knowledge which is accumulated through… you guessed it, memory. I have failed my first P5 attempt because my answers werent substantive enough due to lack of effort in practice and ”consistent downloads”

-Consistent downloads are achieved through reading technical articles on your way to work and listening to open tuition lectures on YouTube during office hours. Lol, dont let the boss know and do not say you saw this advice here. If you are a lazy student who struggles to attempt any form of exam questions in controlled environments this is crucial!

– Personally I have NEVER did any 3 hour mock exams at home or at SAA/LSBF/Kaplan that is why my grades have always been scrappy 50-57 pointers. The slack alternative of simply reading questions, writing answers in point form then checking the answers can still work though if your command of the language is strong. If I had done just a few questions more before the P2 and P5s then its highly likely my approach would have worked. I passed P6 (Goh Sher Wee is fierce but effective) P1 (Paul Owen Merrison is engaging) and P3 (Philip Woo applies real life situations to the subject) with zero exam practice honestly but I did worship the mock exam book for days before the exam just highlighting the answers like a slacker.

My P2&5 tutors were great but I let them down with my own inadequacies.

To summarize, you get what you give. However, if you follow my approach above with a few mock exams thrown in you will clear 60 easily and not fret over results like I did. In fact, I suffered countless sleepless nights waiting for results especially before the P2 and 5 ones.

If a slacker who used to job hop regularly can still stumble pass the finishing line you can do it too, albeit with less scraps and bruises. Other challenges in life await; bad bosses, lousy jobs, mid life crisis, children misbehaving etc. Beat ACCA to arm yourself against such opponents. Help is always available but you need to take the first step. Exposing your vulnerable side is nothing to be ashamed of.

I will be visiting the Expo exam hall next week (assuming its still the battleground) just for nostalgia. Be strong. Kill the distractions. Win the battle.

Speak with you soon,
“Uncle K”