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So Im 33 and basically i was working in accountancy a few years ago and I took the MA (F2). I got a terrible mark, like 30% in 2015 and I left the industry thinking I could never pass these exams. And then I came back into the industry last year and was hoping I could try again. I have been studying for ages over last two or 3 months and I just took a mock exam for MA again and I got a pitiful 38%. I mean I read the books and write stuff down and it seems to make sense but then I think I struggle applying the knowledge in the exam. Am I destined not to pass?
My background is I did Economics degree and got BBC in Alevels. Also I got A at GCSE maths and yet I can’t seem to pass this damn exam. I mean my parents tell me that I can do it but I dont know if they’re just saying it, I feel so deflated.
I struggle with the variable and fixed cost stuff, I dont know why. There was this questions about ‘contribution’ and I just dont know what this is, thanks
I think you should consider what you mean when you say “studying” – have you actually followed a course of study? For example if you use our notes and work through them with the lectures (everything is available here: https://opentuition.com/acca/ma) you could not not know what is meant by contribution. If you have the right resources you should not be struggling with the basics and if you want to succeed you need to find ways to relate concepts to things that you know you know (!) For example, if you have a mobile phone contract – there will be a fixed monthly cost (which you can budget for because, by definition, it doesn’t change) but you may have to pay an extra variable element if your data usage/mobile minutes (or whatever) exceeds the tariff in your contract. Ok – so maybe you don’t have a mobile phone – but find something/anything that you can relate to the concept and you will understand it.
Thank you Kim, much appreciated, I have been using the open tuition notes and watching the lectures. Maybe my memory just isnt very good or something. I think I find it difficult to apply the concepts in the questions as I did the BPP mock exam in their textbook. Maybe I’m not understanding it as much as I think I am as its all phrased differently in the exams. Is it normal for people to fail the mocks and then potentially pass the exam? I’m really desparate to pass this, thanks again.
Have you “sat” the MA Specimen Exam? https://www.accaglobal.com/gb/en/student/exam-support-resources/fundamentals-exams-study-resources/f2/past-pilot-papers.html
If not, or looked at it a while ago, when you are ready I suggest you attempt this when you have a genuine 2 hours of undisturbed time to attempt it without interruptions or distractions.Don’t rush it – and practice good exam technique – read requirements carefully twice (if you read only once and get the answer quickly because it seems so obviously easy – it could be because you didn’t read it carefully enough – distractors are not called distractors for nothing :-)). And don’t get too stuck on any one question – use the navigation tools to “flag” it and come back to if you have time at the end of the exam – you can (and should) always guess at the end if necessary to answer all questions.
Answers are available when you have finished it and you should work through every items you got wrong – why did you get it wrong? Were you just careless? Or did you not know something? Or did you think you knew but not understanding something? These are different reasons which need to be addressed differently.
Also at the bottom of each lecture you will find “leave a reply” comments section. A lot of these just say thank you, etc, but on the trickier topics you will find a lot of posts on trickier topics. This should reassure you that you are not alone (!) Also – if you have any questions – which John hasn’t answered there – take a look at the ask the tutor forum https://opentuition.com/forum/ask-acca-tutor-forums/ask-the-tutor-acca-ma/ If you can’t easily find your question answered there – post a new thread.
You could also think about finding a study buddy so you’re not doing this on your own https://opentuition.com/studybuddy/
Many thanks Kim, thats really useful, maybe I’m just out of practice with these things. I will try the specimen paper in week or two when I’ve gone over the paper I failed on. I did try replying to someone yesterday re the study buddy thing for MA but maybe it didn’t work so will try again.
Have you tried using a revision kit? For me I learn best by practicing the questions rather than reading the textbooks. I also failed F2 originally…but then re-took it and passed all the rest first time. I always focussed more on questions and learning from seeing the answers which seemed to help personally.
Wow, well done, you passed all the other ACCA exams first time? As in you focused more on the way questions were asked or something? Please could I check where you got them from? I only have BPP passcard things which is all so summarised that its not really enough I find, would the below be ok? Many thanks
Hi yeah I have passed them all except the final one I’ll do in Sept or Dec, was all first time except F2 which I found surprisingly hard considering it is earliest level. However practicing lots of questions seemed to help me personally rather than just reading it, it was a lot of work though and stressful at times.
You can get lots past papers on the acca website, atleast you can for all the skills and professional papers which is very useful aswell as technical articles. But the main thing I used was BPP revision kits. I used e online kits, this was slightly easier as you can open in up in 2 tabs and have the questions as one tab then the answers that you can flick to in the other tab as opposed to the hard copy book where I imagine you’d have to keep flicking to and from the beginning and end of the book. You can buy them all from BPP site this site gives you a discount too.
I would say if you go through the exam kit twice dong every question than you would pass it.HI Kim, thanks for the specimen paper, I have the exam in a week (next Wed) and am going to do this specimen paper in 2 or 3 days. Is this a past paper or exactly the sort of thing I should expect in the exam? I feel like I know a lot more than a few weeks ago as have looked again at contribution etc. Thanks
Thanks a lot and well done for passing them all 1st time, are you really intelligent? Which degree did you do? have been going back over some of the stuff and seems to make more sense, feel like i know bit more than I did when I took the mock and got 38! Really hope I can pass, have got the BPP ‘revision kit’, do you think I need online one aswell as bit skint at the moment? Thanks
The Specimen exam is a full exam that is indicative of the style and standard of the real exam. Many of the MCQs in this are recognisable as past published exam questions. You will also find with the specimen some additional MTQ (section B) questions. If you read the examiner’s reports you will also find that it is usual for the examiner to reproduce two or three past exam questions which candidates found most difficult. What is particularly interesting about these is that many of them are on exactly the same syllabus area – it is just the examiner can examine the same topic in a variety of ways – it is therefore essential to understand these topics, in particular, to ensure success.
Thanks Kim, I think Im going to just try and learn standard costing, budgeting and performance as much as possible as they are all supposed to come up? I have tried learning everything else as well but there’s too much to know everything. Are the examiner reports in there after you take the exam? Going to try and have a look, really appreciate the help
This is the link to all MA resources https://www.accaglobal.com/gb/en/student/exam-support-resources/fundamentals-exams-study-resources/f2.html In the section “Examining team guidance” you will find:
– a 5 minute video;
– a link to the article “Examiner’s guidance: Structure of the exam” – this spells out that “Budgeting, Standard Costing and Performance Measurement” are the topics relevant to Section B – this is ONLY 30% of the exam
– a list of examiner’s reports – you must read the “key themes” report and I recommend the most recent report (September 2018-August 2019) also.Many thanks, looks useful, will look through. Woops, I must have mis read before the it was for 30 out of 65 but actually only 30% like you say. It looks as though they include Budgeting, Standard Costing and Performance Measurement questions in the main Multiple choice questions as well right?
Hi Kim, I just sat the specimen paper and got 67 so quite pleased but have exam in couple of days. It just said the mark and not which questions I got wrong, do you know if there’s any way I can check? I know I missed up the absorption MTQ question, thanks
The link to the answers is here at the CBE for knowledge exams “portal” https://specimen.accaglobal.com/flk.html
As this post has gone well beyond the original subject line please start a new thread and use an MA forum if you have further questions specific to MA.
@xanpech said:
Hi yeah I have passed them all except the final one I’ll do in Sept or Dec, was all first time except F2 which I found surprisingly hard considering it is earliest level. However practicing lots of questions seemed to help me personally rather than just reading it, it was a lot of work though and stressful at times.
You can get lots past papers on the acca website, atleast you can for all the skills and professional papers which is very useful aswell as technical articles. But the main thing I used was BPP revision kits. I used e online kits, this was slightly easier as you can open in up in 2 tabs and have the questions as one tab then the answers that you can flick to in the other tab as opposed to the hard copy book where I imagine you’d have to keep flicking to and from the beginning and end of the book. You can buy them all from BPP site this site gives you a discount too.
I would say if you go through the exam kit twice dong every question than you would pass it.Hiya I just failed the MA (F2) exam, I got 45%, did you fail it by much when you took it? Feeling pretty gutted as worked really hard,
45% isn’t bad at all. You are quite close to passing. Just re-watch the lectures and do all the questions in the revision kit. Let me know if you need help with anything. I don’t have an accounting degree and I passed first time so you will definitely be able to do it. You are close to passing so don’t give up.
Its good you got 45%. This means you know some of the information. You can do it. Push yourself a little bit more. I am older than you and also struggling as I got exemptions for first three papers. I did F5 and had to read for F2 to pass F5. Took me 5 attempts and on 6th attempt passed. Don’t be demotivated. Continue.
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