Help – which paper to sit?

@shannonmcnamara said:
Hye

Just wondering how people are finding this module?
(I know it differs for each person) but how long you think you’d need for this syllabus?

I have FM or FR left to sit and can’t decide which to go for next. I will be using Kaplan & Opentuition!

Just any advice you have would be appreciated!! 🙂

Before deciding to sit any of these papers, bear in mind that there are numerous factors to take into account regarding curriculum volume & structure and time restrictions. In addition, in terms of difficulty for each paper, I like to take into account how easy it is to create a blueprint of the curriculum itself.

Financial Reporting (FR)

The paper itself has a rather big curriculum but it can be straight forward. The main key here is to learn the rules for each IAS and IFRS in the curriculum. It’s easier to say than done as you might have to spend some extra time on topics such as consolidations in order to grasp the concepts better. In terms of difficulty level, I must admit that FR was slightly easier as I was able to map most of the accounting treatments mentioned in the IAS/IFRS and methods in general. For FR, I used both Kaplan and BPP (Kaplan for Study text, and BPP for the revision kit). Whatever study source you choose, I would strongly advise you to at least buy a revision kit.

Financial Management (FM)

This was the first paper I ever sat for and probably the most enjoyable one for me so far. The issue with this paper is that you have a long and diverse curriculum ranging from economics (not too much numerical, mostly theoretical), working capital, WACC and finally, investment appraisals (investment appraisals will almost certainly be a section C question). For me, this paper was tougher as there are also theoretical questions (i.e. describe 5 ways of collecting receivables or explain the MM propositions). So, in addition to the practical questions, you will have to take into account the theoretical ones too (in a section C question, the question is usually split into 10-12 marks for the calculation part and 3-5 marks for theory). Arguably, a harder paper than FR in my opinion. Again, I used both Kaplan and BPP (Kaplan for Study text, and BPP for the revision kit) as well as some of the OpenTuition lectures (I remember they helped me a lot in understanding the convertible bonds).

Regarding the time I took to prepare, I started studying for FM at around end of November and sat the exam in March 2017, passing it with 54. It was my first paper and I didn’t have knowledge as to how to plan my study time and I must admit that I overstudied and eventually burned out, working on 25% capacity on the last 2 weeks as I had exhausted all of the past exam questions. Thankfully, however, I passed it.

For FR, it’s a whole different story so please bear with me… I actually had decided to sit for both FR and AA in June 2018. I managed to finish both study texts for AA and FR within a month, studying 4 weekday 4-hour sessions after work for FR and 2 8-hour weekend sessions for AA. However, I burned out again and as I didn’t want to risk failing both papers, I didn’t even bother with revision for FR and focused entirely on AA. After I cleared it, I just went straight to FR revision starting late July and sitting for the paper in September 2018, without going through the study text again (I strongly recommend not to do that, however!).

I am tempted to advise you to sit for FM as I have a special thing for Finance but in terms of difficulty, I believe FR will be more straight forward. (My apologies, I don’t actually like putting difficulty markers on the exams – the more QUALITY time and resources you invest in your study sessions, the easier the exam will be, that’s a golden rule for me as far as difficulty goes).

I hope this will help you 🙂

I wish you good luck!