How I passed AA first time with 85%+

Hello Everyone, I took the AA exam in March attempt along with FM. After September attempt I had plenty of time but my mind needed a break after taking PM&TX together. so I chose to appear for two in March 21. ( I didn’t study in September, Started too slow in Nov, Again few distractions in December too but studied very seriously for both exams Dec-Feb, devoted majority of my time to F8 as I was self-preparing F8 and due to its horror stories)

Materials used:
O.T lectures(notes), Kaplan book, Kaplan kit, Bpp kit (only Section A), ACCA study support videos.

My major support and help:
Mrs. Kim on the Ask the Tutor Platform.

My initial preparation stage:
Covering syllabus using O.T lectures, simultaneously taking lecture notes ( I feel like it’s completely ineffective to simply listen to the lectures without writing anything down, I could simply copy the text in the video or even from the notes, but I made sure I WRITE something)

I then read relevant Kaplan text, and did Kaplan kit TOPICALLY first.

I started with first 4 chapters (Framework), I then started doing Audit risks but for some reason I was unable to do the questions so I left Audit risk for *last* then covered TOCs, Internal Audit, Audit Reports and Subsequent events, Substantive procedures, and then Evidence.

By now I had learnt the art of drafting answers and my Kaplan section C was complete.

Throughout this stage I made sure I wrote down any substantive I learnt from the kit, any theoretical bits they’re very repetitive so I copied those down from kit to my notebook so that I had all those in one place to refer to right before the exam and I feel like I writing is the best way to retain it all ( But it’s completely normal to keep forgetting, I kept learning and forgetting, had several breakdowns throughout as I was regretting taking F9 lightly)

Stage 2: Past-exams
Of course the questions were very repetitive (Same as kit). I did 1/2 a paper a day (For older exams as it had 4-5 questions in a single paper)
For newer ones I could do 1 paper a day.

Again writing down anything new, highlighting along the way (if I had the hardcopy) and analyzing examiner comments.

Stage 3:
read the book again to retain theoretical bits, read my notes, did Section A ( got way too many mcqs wrong, it takes 2 days per kit)
Completed Mock exams on ACCA practice platform and marked myself.
Read the notes I made while solving questions ( those were simply the answers from kit/past exams)

Through out all the phases:
I made sure I approached Mrs Kim for even the tiniest of the details and concepts I struggled with.
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If you’re short of time,
Key to crack F8: EXAMINER ANSWERS from Pastexams/Kit. And the ACCA study support videos (so that you can ace 3 MAJOR AREAS.)