is it possible to prepare for p4 as self study ?

Yes, provided that you have a Revision/Exam Kit from one of the approved publishers.

Yes, it is possible.

But start studying now – it is not an easy exam (but it is interesting 🙂 )

Ideally you would get a Study Text and you would study every word of it.
However, for most people it is just not practical.

Our Course Notes are just that – notes to go with the lectures – and so we do not claim that they cover every single thing that could be asked.

However, a combination of our notes and lectures, together with a Revision/Exam Kit from an approved publisher, plus Googling things you are unsure about, plus asking questions here when necessary, plus going back to F9 notes and lectures if necessary – all of these together should be enough to pass comfortably.

It is difficult to advise which paper to choose – they are both difficult exams. However from what you have written I think you may be better to choose P5.

P4 is very much an advanced version of F9, requiring detailed calculations, and the fact that you struggled with F9 suggests that you will find P4 very hard indeed – especially if it is difficult to find a tutor or books where you live.

Although P5 does follow from F5, the style of the exam is very different. Rather then being required to apply all the techniques that are examined in F5, it is much more interpreting data and advising management.

I suggest that you look at a few of the recent exams on the ACCA website just to see the style of the papers before you make your decision.

Whichever one you decide to use, we will do our best to help you via our Ask the Tutor forums.

Hello Maraam,

It is obviously impossible for me to know how easy or difficult you will find the papers, but if you start studying now there is no reason why you should not be able to pass all three.

Plan to spend a few hours each day studying – work through all the lectures, and then practice questions. You must get Revision/Exam Kits for each of the papers, and practice all the questions in them. (And don’t look at the answers until you have made your best attempt at them yourself!).

F9 has a lot of arithmetic. P1 and P3 are almost all writing.

Any problems you have, ask in the relevant Ask the Tutor Forum.

And good luck 🙂

You are welcome 🙂

You need to watch my lectures and study the lecture notes. Because much of P4 is revision of F9, if you come across any areas in P4 that you are not sure about then go back and watch the relevant F9 lectures.

With regard to acquisitions and mergers, although I will record lectures at some stage, the reason there are no lectures at the moment is because there are no extra techniques needed other than those covered in the earlier chapters – the problem is more one of approach. Because of this I have recorded several lectures working through some past question 1’s from past exams. In these I do discuss the approach as well as obviously the technical aspects. You can find these by following the link to ‘Revision Kit Live’ from the main P4 page.

Finally, you must buy a Revision Kit from one of the ACCA approved publishers and work through every question. Once you have studied the techniques involved from the lectures and notes, it is practice at exam standard questions that is the only way of checking that you really understand the techniques, and getting used to the style of questions and what it is that the examiner is wanting.