How to remember a lot of different treatment and exceptions in tax paper .

@maheracca1 said:
every body has his own option for memorizing thing my request is to share your best views to cop with such a big syllabus.
thanks

In my opinion, memorizing topics for the TX examination (at least for the UK variant) will not benefit you. The syllabus is so vast and to be honest, there is nothing to memorize such as rules or pros and cons (except for a few things such as why March and not April year-end or maybe some tax planning elements which you can find at the end of each chapter if you are using Kaplan’s study text).

I think the best approach for this exam is not to memorize the topics but to familiarize yourself with the Finance Act as much as possible through revision and practice. I know it sounds like a “duh” answer but there is nothing else you can do. Even memorizing the most basic thing such as tax computation for individuals or corporations is pointless cause after so many past exam questions, you know it by heart.

The more time you spend on past exam questions, the more likely you are to understand how each topic works such as Inheritance Tax, tax reliefs (b/f, current period, etc). I passed TX-UK in June 2019 and I prepared for it for 3 months and it was the first exam I sat for, that I didn’t memorize anything except for a few things such as penalties, fines and filing deadlines (Tax administration in other words) and maybe some minor details from pensions which I had a hard time understanding cause of all the different adjusted incomes that we need take into account.

Other than that, you are provided with some tax rates in the exam (I included the link below – again most of them you will probably know by heart if you practiced enough; I still used it in the exam despite the fact that I prepared for the exam for 3 months).

https://www.accaglobal.com/uk/en/student/exam-support-resources/fundamentals-exams-study-resources/f6/examinable-documents/uk.html#

One advice I could offer is for you to include topics and rates you find hard remembering and make an “updated examinable document” to help you remember some topics better. That could resident or non-resident tests, % surcharge for not filing your VAT return on time, additional filing penalties, etc. This can be of great help if you want to better understand and solve exam questions.

Other than that, practice, practice, practice my friend!

Good luck!

@yas555 said:
preparing my exam for TA exam for Sept and I have not finished the lectures – currently on lecture 14. Do you think I should go straight to practice questions and revision kit? I can probably complete the lecture videos by end of the week but that will leave me with 3 weeks revision and practice. Do you think that would be enough? It is my first acca exam and I am already freaking out!!

I am not sure about this… Assuming you are already familiar with the tax legislation in the UK (assuming you are sitting the UK variant – I don’t know the structure and the volume of other country variants), then and only then I would personally give it a shot. However, having just checked my book, you are about to finish Capital Gains: Special rules (Kaplan).

After that, you have to go through very important topics such as Inheritance Tax, Corporation Tax, and VAT, some of which will probably appear as Section C questions. Corporation Tax is very similar to Tax for individuals (with a few differences here and there such as capital allowances) but there are also group reliefs which you need to take into account and then you have Inheritance Tax which is a massive chapter itself. VAT is not so big but can be very confusing when it goes to purchases and sales to/from EU and non-EU countries (this appeared to me on a section B question but a much more simplified version with zero rate and 0% rate invoices) as well as tax points.

Regarding your situation, personally, I don’t think I would continue given the fact that I prepared 3 months for TX and I tend to be very strict with my study schedule when it comes to ACCA exams (for example, I just finished my PM study kit and I am 3 days late on PM revision and I am freaking out…I even requested 2 days off work next week to patch that 3 day hole!).

However, it would not hurt preparing as much as you can and just sit for the exam. I think the plan should be for you to cover whatever’s left from the syllabus (through Opetuition lectures, your book or by any other means) and then practice as much as you can and give it a go. You honestly have nothing to lose…if the worst happens, at least you will know first hand how the exam is structured and you can be much more prepared in the next sitting.

Let me know if you need anything else!