As the holder of an Honours degree in Commerce, Masters in Accounting and being an Associate member of Chartered Accountants Ireland for nearly 10 years, I think I have some advice to offer accountancy students on exam preparation and success. Most of the advice to follow was gained by me whilst studying for my professional accountancy exams, and it must have worked, as I managed to pass all 3 sets of exams (11 subjects in total) at the first attempt. So here are my 3 tips to help pass your exam first time!
1) Information Gathering:
By attending your lectures (in class or online) you will begin to put together the key pieces of the syllabus which will be examinable. I had a very high attendance at lectures, and whilst I may not have taken in everything that was said in the lecture, by not missing lectures regularly, I felt more up to date with the course.
Also, I found doing the homework exercises set by the lecturer to be vital. Is there any better feeling than solving all by yourself, a homework question set to you (well yes, there are better feelings but I won’t go into that right now!). Solving such a question and then having the lecturer verify this at the next class, is a classic example of what I call, “making the hard yards” (to borrow a phrase from rugby) in terms of your progression within a course.
Also, reading the lecture notes within 24 hours of the lecture is proven to aid retention of information. So, if you have a day where you don’t feel motivated to do” a full on study session”, then perhaps just read the notes, as this on its own will help. So, in conclusion, in the early part of a course (say for the first half of the course), you will be focusing your efforts on gathering information and trying to understand and grasp key concepts.
2) Past Exam Paper Practice:
As you move into the second half of the course, and as you move closer to the day of the exam, your study sessions should comprise of more time spent doing the past exam papers and less time spent learning material from your lecture notes/textbook.
When I was preparing for my accountancy exams, I used to tell myself that if I could complete and understand the solution to a past exam paper question, then that proved that I knew what was in the textbook/lecture notes. Additionally, practicing the past exam paper questions, under timed conditions is vital, so that on the day of the exam, you are used to complete questions under time a time constraint.
3) The importance of Time Management in the Exam Hall:
One of the most common remarks from students, who failed a professional accountancy exam, is that they ran out of time. That they spent too long on one particular question, and hence, did not have enough time to complete the other required questions on the paper. In this regard, you must be “ruthless” with your timing in the exam hall. For example, if you are sitting a 3 hour paper which has 100 marks available, then that means each mark is worth 1.8 minutes. If you are attempting a 5 mark question, then that is worth 9 minutes (5 marks * 1.8 minutes) of your time and not a minute more.
My advice from my own experience is to write down on the exam paper, the time that you need to leave a particular question by. So if you start a 5 mark question at 10.00am, you need to leave it at 10.09am. If 10.09am arrives and you still are not finishing answering the question, write “COME BACK HERE”, and if you have even a small amount of time to spare at the end of the exam, you can return to the question which you have more points to make on. This habit of being ruthless with your timing is as important as having the required level of knowledge. So, make it a habit.
Colm Foley, B.Comm, ACA, Msc Accounting.
Colm tutors for studyonline.ie in the areas of Financial Accounting and Auditing on CPA and ACCA courses.
