F8 enquiru

In answer to your first Q, the FR standards examinable in AA are those of FA(F3) so you do not have to sit FR(F7) before AA. BUT, AA is NOT a theory exam – it is an applied skills exam. If you look at the student poll on this weeks’ AA exam, you will see that only 4% of students thought it was ‘easy’ and 15% thought it was a ‘disaster’.
I would recommend to any student who is self-studying, and therefore has a real choice about the order in which they sit exams, is to do FR before AA. Even if you sat F3 (rather than exempt), it is likely that this would have been a while ago. Studying AA, which is mostly about the audit of FINANCIAL STATEMENTS, will make more sense if you have a thorough understanding and appreciation of financial statements. In AA, candidates need to be able to identify risks of material misstatement in financial statements and devise audit procedures for financial statement assertions – trying simply to learn these without comprehension is far harder than if you have a real grasp of financial statements.