Should I give up doing ACCA?

Let’s be honest here, ACCA is not easy… In fact it is no near easy… It is really hard and challenging. A complete struggle! And we all are struggling here to at least get that 50% so that we can move on.

I know it is easier said than done but I will advise you to give it a try and don’t give up yet.
There are many ACCA students who are striving to pass their papers and even after multiple attempts.

How many ACCA students have you come across you have passed all their papers in the first attempt? Very few!
If a person fails that doesn’t mean he is dumb. There must a reason for the failure… Wrong method of studying… Incorrect planning… Work/Family/Financial pressure etc… But it certainly doesn’t mean that he is dumb.

So now I will advise you to ignore everything (what your friends are saying or doing) and just focus on your goal… Which should be to become ACCA Qualified. Don’t compare your journey with anyone else’s… Everyone face issues and so everyone’s journey is unique.

Sit down with a note pad… List down all the papers who have not passed with their scores.
If you have scoresd somewhere below 40 – 45% that means you may need to work on your concepts.
If you have scored above that it means you just need to focus on practising questions.

Get your concepts sorted. Watch the free videos and used the free notes of Opentuition for doing so.
Once your concepts are cleared then it should be just you and an exam kit! (from an ACCA Approved Content Provider)
Practise as many questions as you can!

And mostly importantly analyse your mistakes!

-you do a set of questions(without peeking at the answers!) …

-preferably under timed conditions…

-Then check your answers…

-Analyse your mistakes (as in why did you get the answers wrong, what did they do in the solution etc)

-Make note of your mistakes in the sense which topic area you are making more mistakes (you may would want to mark yourself to know that) so that you can go back to the topic and revise it then go back to solving questions under that topic.

-Also make note of questions you may find extremely challenging and different as compared to others and look at their solutions carefully.

-Moreover, complete the question then come back go to the solution… Complete it even if you don’t know how to do it… Make a guess and then see whether you go it right or wrong…
If you got it right, why?
If you got it wrong, why?

So the idea of doing all this is *Learning from your mistakes*

There must be something that you may be going wrong with… You need to just find that and fix it.

Use the free resources provided by ACCA on their website( examiner’s report, past papers, technical articles, and many more)

Finally, I personally advice people to give 1 paper per exam sitting… This helps secure a better pass as we can focus better and give the appropriate time to prepare and practice for each paper. Will advise you the same!

And if you have any queries you can certainly post it in the relevant forum.

Hope that helps.

Nothing worth having in life is easy. Just buy kaplan revision kit (very simple compared to BPP in my humble opinion), print off open tuition notes, watch the lectures and practice the questions over and over and over again. Learn from the answers and i promise you, you will pass and i will happily share a meal with you (would say drink but ive quit that lol) when we’ve both got there as i’ve got a long way to go as well mate. Keep your head up, you’re a champion.

Practice, practice, practice questions!! just do it, it’ll be hard at the start but slowly it’ll get better i promise.

@amelia69 said:
You are not alone, I have the same feeling – give up ACCA, I enrolled ACCA since December 2015, I take one paper each time, I passed F9 first time, but F5 is not an easy paper for me, I’ve got 45 % this time, it is the fifth time, I still have F7 and F8 to pass in order to study profession level papers. I work full time and self- funded, I am in my early 50’s, is it worth to do ACCA in my age? Please advise me, thanks.

At it’s most basic level, yes it’s worth it, age is irrelevant.

F5 is a difficult paper, particularly if you are not of the Management Accounting mindset. I would suggest that your repeated failure is not due to lack of skill, but the result of apathy and having a psychological impact during your exams.

My advice would be to set this paper aside for the time being and do F7 & F8. All being well you can return to F5 refreshed.

You shouldn’t give up, but clearly you need to change your approach as what you are doing right now isn’t working. Don’t continue to do the same thing, or you’ll get the same results.

Certainly I would agree with other posters that if you are taking multiple papers at a time and failing them all narrowly, then don’t continue to do that. Do one paper at a time and give all your focus to that. You might think taking 1 paper at a time is slow but doing 1 at a time and passing it is quicker than doing 2 or 3 at a time and failing them all!

You also need to look at how you are studying and revising. Jetavi has made a comprehensive post on this above and you should listen to this advice.

There are other professional qualifications that are of the same level and status based on European Qualification Framework such as CPA Ireland. It is a globally recognised qualification with mutual recognition agreements with CPA Australia, CPA Canada, and MOU with CIMA. I am now a member of CPA and I must say, being both CPA and about to become ACCA too, CPA Ireland has a very high level educational standards and you get brilliant support to pass exams. They’re not easy either though.

As ACCA student, you will get paper by paper exemptions.