June sessions cancelled! Now what?

 This is probably the question haunting every ACCA student, what do we do now with the June session not there anymore? Well the good news is; it’s not the end of the world.

For students who may not know this already, ACCA used to conduct only 2 sessions previously i.e. in December and June back in the day, however with the exams moving to online and MCQ based, it was easier to make the sessions more often. And not to forget, ACCA is known for its flexibility and hence it didn’t come as a surprise when additional 2 sessions were introduced.

Obviously this is all history, and now we are wondering what we will do until September when the next session is due. The answer is simple, continue to prepare for the exams that you were anyways going to sit for in June, and where possible I would strongly suggest take an additional paper. Personally I am a very strong proponent of one paper per session; however extraordinary situations require extraordinary efforts and hence pick up the paper you were anyways going to prepare for September session. This way you make best use of the time that you currently have on hand and also no delay in your plans of when you wanted to complete the qualification.

In terms of ability of doing 2 papers, I sat for 3 papers of P level in my last sitting of ACCA exams in December 2007 and thank god and the efforts cleared all the papers in first attempt. So please do put in as many efforts as possible, lot of you have come from CA or Degree college background where you are used to studying for 4 papers or more at one go. Therefore it isn’t impossible, just needs more dedication. And to be fair, any professional qualification you pursue, be it CA or ACCA, without dedication and efforts, it’s hard to get the degree.

Now getting to the technicals, if you’re on Knowledge level giving any 2 papers together is doable, though would suggest MA is given along with AB or LW, and the same for FA. As this gives you a combination of theory and practical exams, gives you bit of a breather when you get tired studying theory and vice versa. Similar concept to be used for the Skill level folks, if you’re giving PM, try and do FM or Tax. Some may wonder that PM is also practical then why FM or Tax, well if you have looked at past papers, PM papers is always more theory. It’s a very conceptual heavy paper, hence taking Tax or FM which are heavier on practical problem solving can help. Similarly you can combine FR with FM, TX and AA etc. For the Professional level, besides SBL and AAA, all the papers are combination of theory and practical therefore feel free to select the combination. You can either do SBL and SBR, or SBL and one of the APM or AFM papers. Not a big fan of AAA and ATX, purely because AAA is too subjective and difficult to pass (though I took Audit and cleared in first attempt, therefore if you’re comfortable then feel free to pursue). And ATX is not a viable option as a good chunk of you might have had tax exempted already at skill level hence becomes slightly difficult to crack at P level, plus APM and AFM will give you much more helpful knowledge and skills that can be used anywhere in the world, wherein tax has that limitation.

So to sum it up, the times are unprecedented and it will take double efforts to come out of the lethargy that you might feel sitting at home. Don’t leave your routines, get up early, have your breakfast, and instead of going to a class, start to do self-study for those many hours. If possible go for online tuitions, most of the providers have started to offer video lectures and live sessions.  The world is moving towards online, hence now is the time to move away from traditional ways of doing things.  With that I would like to sign off, wish you all the very best. Stay Safe, Say Indoors and Study hard!

 

About Author

Zaheer Sayed, is one of the oldest ACCA members in India having passed out ACCA exams in December 2007 from London. Has vast work experience of over 14 years, having worked with Ernst and Young in Stat Audits to working as Associate Director at the UBS Bank, has in-depth knowledge of finance and accounting world. On academics side, has been teaching for almost 10 years, with ACCA teaching experience of over 6 years specialising in Reporting, Tax and Audits. Has also co-authored over 20 titles for a leading publication house in Pune on varied topics like Economics, Audit, Accounting, etc.