Returning to ACCA after a long break — is it still realistic?

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping to get some encouragement and hear from others who may have been in a similar position.

I started my ACCA journey back in 2018 after completing a postgraduate diploma, which gave me exemptions from the first nine exams. I then moved into a graduate role at a large multinational consultancy. At the time, I fully intended to continue with ACCA, but in reality long hours and exam sittings clashing with quarter-ends made studying hard to sustain, and I never actually started the Strategic Professional exams.

After a few years, my contract ended and my focus shifted away from accountancy for a while. I took on less career-focused roles, travelled, and spent a lot of time working on my health and fitness. It was a good and important period in many ways, but ACCA and finance definitely took a back seat.

More recently, some of the work I’ve been doing has dried up, and I’ve found myself coming back to a long-standing goal: completing ACCA. I’m now looking at part-time accounts assistant roles, partly for extra income but mainly to give myself the structure and headspace to study properly and finally tackle the Strategic level.

What I’d really like to hear is from anyone who’s come back to ACCA after a long gap, or who felt behind, older, or unsure whether it was “too late”, and still managed to push through and pass the Strategic exams. A lot of my doubts feel more about fear of failure than actual ability, so hearing how others dealt with that mentally would really help.

I’d also welcome insight on any major changes to the ACCA qualification since I last studied. I understand there are changes coming to the Strategic Professional level, including a move to only one optional exam in the future. For those returning now, is the general approach to just crack on with the current syllabus and reassess closer to 2027, or are there things you’d recommend being aware of from the outset?

Any experiences, reassurance, or lessons learned would be very much appreciated.