General ACCAYour easiest / hardest paper so far!!

I thought F8,F7 and F9 and P2 altough the two times I failed it I was trying to much to apply models that my lecturer gave us to answer questions, the third time I didnt do this and did the practice questions without them and passed.

F7 was next, took me three times to get this also, the volume of information and steep learning curve under immense time contrainsts in the exam.

F9 was very hard with unpredictable questions on the exam paper, but i got this the second time due to knowledge of the whole paper.

Sat p2 in June and did the most study for any paper I have sat so far, made a mess of timings, we will see when results come out, altough i dont think its too hard if you have knowledge of F7 still clear in your head, its more practice and speed.

P1 was the easiest paper, the only one I home studied for and passed it first time with one month study

I thought P1 was the easiest ever paper I've done, but I scraped off a pass at 52. I thought P2 was the hardest paper I've ever done, but I got a 70.

listed in order of difficulty;
P6 (UK Version) The syllabus is huge. very difficult exam but interesting.
P2 Tough but enjoyable
P1
P3
P4/P5/P7 ( I have not studied yet)

I think it depends on whether you are better with numbers or letters (reasoning and discussion type exams).

I my case I had no problems with P1, P3 and P5 (passed on first attempt with good grades).

However, I struggled with F7 (tried 4 times before passing: 35% 40% 32% and finally 56%).

I have tried P2 once so far and failed but I don't think it is as difficult as F7 eventhough the workload is greater.

My hardest has been P5 & F5! I passed easily F7, F9, P1, P3 in one exam session (Dec 2011) and then P2, P7 in June 2012 and since then I am trying to pass the P5!!! I think it's high time I've chosen another paper... F5 it took me 4 times to pass it!! I hate performance management!! haha What about P6?

Easiest - F9 (maybe because i had prepared well) Toughest - F7 ... I havent passed F8 but it looks very tough !!

easiest F4/F5 hardest to pass F8/P7

P1+P3 are relatively easy:with bit common sense in applying models; and with above average English, one should not have problem in these P4 is relatively tough- plenty reason for that, time pressure is one of them.

It is difficult for me to tell which one of the ACCA exams was toug, trust me. I am confused. The fun Began in 2010 when I was preparing for F-05 eaxams. I read a lot of positngs by students in this forum that they found the toughest of all F level papers was F-5. I studied hard not because I was at sea on any area of the syllabus, but the fear that this is the toughest and terefore I might fail. You can say in one way that I was clean bowled, before a single ball was bowled. This fear weakened my confidence and luckily I got through with 59 marks in first attempt. The next attempt was F-04 and F-09, (God knows how did I chose my exam sequence then. This time I learnt a lesson from the earlier session and gained abundance of confidence (later turned out to be overconfidence) and told to myself that there is no such thing as exam fear and pressure and no paper is tough. And I found F-09 questions in that session quiet easy. In the F-09 exam hall I took time to smile at the invigilator and streched myself at every opportunity and took enough time to answer the qestion. Result-??? F-09-36 and F-04-50. Craps!!! I found the whole advice of experts useless and slowly the first exam session of F-05 thing started gripping me. So next session I did not dare to attempt other than F-09. A turbulant period in my personal life, had very quality time to study due to death in the family etc. I dismissed myself as fail and even started studying for the next session, a time I lost completely lost confidence in myself. Result came , passed -51. Oh dear!!! I am stuck what am I to do??? Now I found myself at sea for want of answers on assessing myself as it was becoming difficult for me to plan my studies. Next session!! I thought I would take up F6 (UK) and f8. I was completely new to the taxation of UK as I reside in India and worked many companies and handled India taxation. (Ofcourse there is a stricking similarity on the tax laws and rules with UK, thanks to colonial rules of British). I found , (read as pre-concieved by the very look at the size of the study text arrived)F-06 is tough and if not prepared well I would fail. F-08 being discursive and have experience can clear without any problem. This time I completely ignored my age ( I was 45 then) and found stuck in the middle of F-08 exam with the pen in holding in my right hand unable to move an inch forward after one hour of exam. I cursed myself on not being given enough practice in uninterrupted writing. I was at pain and it was the turn of the invigilator now and he gave me smile whenever I kept the pen down and started massaging my arms. Result- F-06- 65 F-08- 48. I am devastated!!! or anybody could have for that matter. I have decided (read as forced) not to tune myself to a pattern and started studying for F-07 and F-08 passed at first attempt both. 73 and 51 respectively. Then came June 13, I have appeared for p-01 and P-02 amidst lot of work pressure as I had to take up new job in a senior postion and was in travel most of the time. Took 10 days leave just before the exams and prepared just to give a try as the exam fees was already paid. I had no hope that I would have passed, although I wrote the exam fearlessely as I had no baggage in my mind that I have to pass these exams. result--P-01- 60 and P-02- 56. I decided to complete ACCA at one sitting in the following session and left my job and sat at home to study for 3 papers. Studied hard as I got ample of time. I took things for granted with a belief that now that I have plenty of time and in no way I can fail. Result:- P-03-53, P04- 42 and P-05-56. Lost salary of 6 months and could not complete ACCA as well. Now Ijoined a firm and reappearing for my last exam in June-14, The moral of my story for me is, I have no clue till date that which one of the ACCA exam is tough??

Lots of interesting replies here. As seen here different people find diff papers easy/tough. I think before labeling a paper tough/easy we need to look at factors what made it that way. Preparation :- There is no point in saying a paper is tough if we have not prepared well for the exam. Preparation is mainly about covering the WHOLE syllabus at least once and practicing the past papers. Writing/Language/Handwriting :- No matter how well you have prepared your performance in the exam is what is going to help cross the 50 mark. The person checking your answer sheets should be able to understand what you have written in the paper. Good handwriting, properly presentation of answers and other exam techniques are essential. Writing in proper English is very important in papers like F4, F8, P1, P3 etc. Some students have to work on their vocabulary and grammar so that they can express what they have learnt as clearly as possible. Confidence :- Confidence matters a lot when writing exams. Whether its ACCA or CFA or whatever. Everyone has exam pressures but being able to remain cool throughout the exam really helps you to perform well. Time Management :- You have to divide time on the basis of the marks ! its very important. I have not had time issues so far because i have made sure i divide my 3 hours. Also during the reading time (15mins) its good to glance through the questions first (like within 2-3 minutes) and then start reading the first question. So these things matter too and could be the reason why the paper you wrote was tough ! I hope it helped :)

For Me, in F-series F9 is the easiest and interesting F8 is the hardest and boring In P-series P1 is the easiest but boring P4 is the hardest but interesting

@Ali I am fully agree with your last comment.

I've been exempted from all papers within the F level. As such, from the P papers, the easiest for me has been P1 and the toughest P4 !!!

Hardest: F5 Easiest: F7

You know what guys and girls, each and every paper may be considered hard for a particular individual. Sharing your insights gives a good comparison for others to compare with. I found f5 the toughest but thank god I got through with sir John moffat"s lectures. H e is the king for me, I only passed after the third attempt. And thank god i passed before the damn acca made changes after June 2014. God bless you MR Moffat, if it weren't for you I would have failed. Left out around 15 marks in my exam for f5 but passed....hmmmmmmm "the legend continues"

F9 easiest and p3 not really difficult but require right way to attempt. I passed all in first attempt except p3 so it is for me.... hard one.

I'm just about to start the final options, fortunately passed all exams 1st attempt so far, my thought on the exams I've done so far: F4 - boring but easy, just revise plenty of cases and their application. F5 - interesting but very tough, got my lowest mark on this and only just scraped a pass F6 - all calculation, so this is all about revising the formulas and rules. Found this one quite dry and tedious, but pretty easy F7 - has a fearsome reputation, and a lot to revise, but if you put the time in and revise enough, the penny eventually drops and it's quite straightforward. F8 - audit was my favourite exam and the one I found the most interesting, maybe I'm in the minority here because lots hate it, but I found it fun and quite straightforward. F9 - like F5, this one is interesting but very hard. Did this exam by itself with no others, and I'm glad I did because it demanded so much time itself. P1 - probably the easiest exam, touches on a lot of what has been learnt already. P2 - like F7, this is tough but achieveable if you make yourself put the time in. Make sure to revise impairment, disposal of assets and the 5 ethics of accountants, as these almost always come up and are easy mark. P3 - enjoyable and straightforward, just revise the models and their application and you'll be ok. Also remember a lot of this exam is common sense and not from the book - i.e. the effect of the internet, advertising, etc. Going to attempted P5 (adv Performance Management) and P7 (adv Audit) as my options. So, for me F5 and F9 have been the hardest, with P1, P3 and F4 the easiest.

It all depends from person to person I personally feel nothing is easy in ACCA.u hv to work hard in every paper

Easiest - P1 Hardest - P2 / F6 (local variant).

F1 & F6 - easiest F5 - No challenger :-) definitely the hardest! Finally passed it in December 2013. Needless to say, I'll be avoiding P5 like the plague ...

Easiest F8, hardest P2

Easiest - F6 (I work in Tax so should be) Most difficult - P2, due to the obscure nature of the questions but trade of is, its marked friendly.

frankly speaking there's no easy paper as they are all difficult in their own way. For instance the difficulty of f4 is clearly based on how much you can remember while f5 requires the candidate to have some logic and analytical skills in order to succeed; trying to remember all the theories and learning by heart the different concepts without understanding them wont help in this exam. low difficulty; f6 ( need only to remember the rules and the calculations, so pretty straightforward) highest difficulty : p2 and onwards ( the time pressure is barely inhuman + examiner uses complex english and throws a lot of info at you which will pretty much confuse you+ you need to understand what he/her is asking + structuring your answer neatly so that you can grasp the prof marks which under the time pressure can be quite difficult etc etc)

I found f4 the toughest paper out the lot. It was my first ACCA exam and it almost finished me off! I got 56 in the end which doesnt refkect the amount of work I put in. I think if I had failed this then I wouldn't have carried on. I have since passed f5,6&8 quite comfortably on the first attempt. My advice is past papers! I didn't look at any past papers for f4 but have since centred my studies around past papers. It makes the studying experience so much easier.

Ps the pass rate in dec 14 for f4 was 70%.......it wasn't like that in my day!

may sound strange but: F9 - easiest P4 - hardest

Easiest paper p1 & p6. Hardest paper p7

Very difficult to say. I studied more for number papers, F6, F7, F9, P2 and P4. With F6 and F7 I was fairly confident when leaving the exam hall, but with F9, P2 and P4 I was sure I failed. F8, P1, P3 and P5 I felt I did not study enough. They were difficult to study, as you cannot really just practice practice practice like you can with F6 or F7. I had no idea how would the results look like when leaving the exam hall after these "common sense bla bla bla"-papers as I call them. I could have scored anything between 35 and 60 marks, I thought. Only with P3 I had a feeling that I really did horrible. I spent the whole 3 hours writing, but I thought I had answered in a wrong way, or to a question that was not asked. I ended up getting my personal best score in P3, 78 marks. So I would not say any paper to be easy. I spent less effort, but I was also not confident in passing. Maybe the most difficult ones were P2 and P4. Studying those felt very overhelming and depressing, I had a feeling that I am stupid and retarded and have no chance to ever pass them.

P2 has been my hardest paper.