IAMA trainee accountant & auditor (ICAEW ACA) training in a non-big 4 firm. AMA!

Back in the day when I used this website religiously I always used to see people from the big 4 doing AMAs and never really anyone to explain what happens outside the big 4.

Well, I won't reveal the firm I work for but I can tell you it's not in the top 10. I followed the AAT route, moving on to ACA and am now doing my final exams before I qualify.

Feel free to ask me any questions!

Hi, do you have 3 more exams until you finish the AAT or ACA?

Hey, I have 3 more exams until I finish ACA.

Wow that's so good! How did you find the ACA exams, r they doable? Are they harder than a levels? Sorry for all the q's 😁 Also, did u pass them all first time

They're certainly doable, given thousands of people qualify each year! As with all exams, you have to put the effort in to get the rewards out. Revision should start a good 3 - 4 months before the exam and the month before the exam is almost solid revision (read: say goodbye to any social life!). But that feeling of results day when you've passed another exam makes it worth it.

I can't comment on the A Levels as I didn't go that route. I have, so far, passed all exams first time.

They're certainly doable, given thousands of people qualify each year! As with all exams, you have to put the effort in to get the rewards out. Revision should start a good 3 - 4 months before the exam and the month before the exam is almost solid revision (read: say goodbye to any social life!). But that feeling of results day when you've passed another exam makes it worth it.

I can't comment on the A Levels as I didn't go that route. I have, so far, passed all exams first time.

I just started my ACA study 1 month ago so I have a few questions.

How long did you spend studying for the first 6 certificate level exams of the ACA?

How many papers did you study for and sit at the same time?

Trainees at my workplace from the summer intake do the first 6 exams in 3 months with 3-7days of classroom tuition for each module and then like 2/3 weeks revision before they sit the exams! I have more time though as I joined midway through the year and studying through online tuition.

So how were the certificate level exams for you and how long should I be spending before sitting my exam?

Wow that's so good congratulations!! If u don't mind me asking, what route did you take? Also, do u recommend any specific revision ways/ books? Also, how did u self study and do u think working alongside with doing exams helps understand things better? Sorry again for bombarding you with questions 😁

Whats a day in the life like, and how has it changed and the responsibility your given changed from your 1st year to now, as your about to qualify

As I did AAT I was exempt from the majority of the certificate level. I did 2 or 3 of them though, so from my limited experience 3 - 7 days of tuition and a few weeks of revision should be plenty. It's not until the professional level that it gets intense!

You'll be in a good position as you'll have the experience from work to take into your studies, and in my opinion there's a clear difference between those that have just joined the firm and started ACA, to those who have been with the firm for a few months before starting.

Thanks for that.

At the moment I am just studying the first Accounting paper and some of the chapters have been quite hefty, taking some time to get my head round them.
I'm on chapter 10 out of 14 after 1 month so I find it quite crazy how typically it's 7 days tuition then 3 weeks of revision before sitting an exam. Like how do you even get through the whole syllabus in that short space? I can't help but feel like I'm being too slow now. My firm are allowing me 1 year for the first 6 but I wan't to get them done in time for the classroom sessions starting in September for the professional level exams. I will need to start studying 2 at a time after this one.

As I did AAT I was exempt from the majority of the certificate level. I did 2 or 3 of them though, so from my limited experience 3 - 7 days of tuition and a few weeks of revision should be plenty. It's not until the professional level that it gets intense!

You'll be in a good position as you'll have the experience from work to take into your studies, and in my opinion there's a clear difference between those that have just joined the firm and started ACA, to those who have been with the firm for a few months before starting.



Thank you I went to college for two years, then joined my firm and did AAT for two years, before starting ACA. I study with Kaplan so use their workbook along with the ICAEW study materials - haven't found that I needed any additional books yet. When not at tuition I generally just go over what was taught and do some questions. Then when it comes to within a month of the exam I try to do as many questions as possible.

Working along side exams can be tough but it definitely helps - you may not be learning the same things that you do at work, but you get used to working with numbers and get used to the terminology which really helps in exams.



At my firm I do a mix of accounts and audit so my normal day would be working on the preparation of a set of accounts or the audit of a set of accounts. Tax work does happen but it's not that frequent. During a busy audit season I am normally out of the office at clients.

When I started, I did the junior "tick and check" work on audits, but now I am involved from the planning stage to the completion stage and I perform the majority of the work in all areas, with a junior to assist. I think this is where small firms vary from the big 4 - we work on smaller clients so I get experience in completing the whole audit file, rather than just parts. There's a lot more responsibility on me to get audits complete within the time frame, fee level and to maintain a good quality audit file. I believe the role I have now is akin to an 'Audit Supervisor' within a big 4.

Accounts jobs haven't changed much, although I am now just left to get a set of accounts complete (liaising with the client when necessary) before the assignment manager reviews the file. Previously I would have been guided much more by the manager.

Sorry to just chip in but given that Runninground was exempt from some Cert Level exams I thought a different perspective might be useful.

ACC, ASS, PTX sat in 1.5 days with about 2-3 weeks between tuition and exam days
-> ACC 3 days in college
-> ASS 2 days in college
-> PTX 3 days self-study

MI sat on it's own about two weeks after passing ACC/ASS/PTX with 5 days of self-study

BF, LAW sat in one day with about 2-3 weeks after passing MI
-> BF 2 days self-study
-> LAW 3 days self-study

This means Cert Level is done before Christmas if you don't fail any or very many exams with a Sept(ish) start date

Safe to say the self-study time my firm gives is nowhere near enough, especially if you've not done accounting at uni. I find exams quite a stressful experience overall anyway so it just doesn't help. In fact it only gets worse once you get to the next stage and tutors seem to expect you to remember all sorts of things we were supposedly meant to learn at Cert Level. Fave thing of the whole experience is by far when all bar a couple people just look at each other being like "wtf is (s)he talking about" in such cases.

Really insightful, thanks!

When you say 2 or 3 days of self-study, do you mean it took you that amount of time to get through the 14 / 15 chapters and then spent 2-3 weeks on question practice? Was self study just course notes without online lectures?

my commute to work takes 1 hour each way and by the time I'm ready to study I spend between 7pm and 10pm each evening on 2 to 3 online lectures which are about 30 minutes per video, and then I do question practice.

After my firm's HR manager booked the certificate level for me she just said she'll leave it to me now to get on with it and book the exams when I want. I wish I was doing it as part of a group with other trainess though with it properly organised.

Thanks for your reply. You mentioned travelling to clients offices quite a lot - would you describe that as possibly quite draining at times if you were to factor in doing it for at least 5 years (the duration of a school leaver contract)?

Really insightful, thanks!

When you say 2 or 3 days of self-study, do you mean it took you that amount of time to get through the 14 / 15 chapters and then spent 2-3 weeks on question practice? Was self study just course notes without online lectures?

my commute to work takes 1 hour each way and by the time I'm ready to study I spend between 7pm and 10pm each evening on 2 to 3 online lectures which are about 30 minutes per video, and then I do question practice.

After my firm's HR manager booked the certificate level for me she just said she'll leave it to me now to get on with it and book the exams when I want. I wish I was doing it as part of a group with other trainess though with it properly organised.

No worries at all!

When I say self-study it's quite literally just the time the firm gives us off work to revise at home using online lectures, however, it's nowhere near enough time to get through the material. Most of my year group including myself have spent almost every day after work revising between either starting college or once we had passed exam(s) sat in a previous sitting. Therefore for the majority of the Cert Level exams we've had about three (MI, BF/LAW) to four weeks (ACC/ASS/PTX) in total to get through the material which is enough time if you put in the time in the evenings after work.

With the first few exams it's super easy to do questions on the go, so if you have a long commute it may be worth it bringing your QB and hammering out the questions whilst you're travelling. Also I'd personally get on the QB as soon as you can. Neither at Cert or Professional Level I've spent long on just going over study manuals or college folders, but perhaps that's a personal preference thing.

100% agreed - if you've not done the whole question bank when the exam comes around, you've missed a trick. That's true for certificate and professional level, but advanced level is a different story (I don't quite have 2 hrs to do a single question then an hour to mark and update my notes each evening!)

I personally like being out of the office a lot - I find it more interesting being at a clients because you get to meet new people, try different places for lunch, focus on a single client etc ('Out of sight, out of mind'. Also varies the routine. As a smaller firm though, most of our clients are local so the additional commute isn't too long. The only problems it can cause is when you are on a big audit that's in a city around exam time - the commute is long and you know in the back of your mind you could be spending this time studying rather than travelling!



Some people at my firm go out to get dinner then head back to the office for some revision in a quite room somewhere. That's quite good as you get a break, but don't quite switch off like you do when you get home.



100% agreed - if you've not done the whole question bank when the exam comes around, you've missed a trick. That's true for certificate and professional level, but advanced level is a different story (I don't quite have 2 hrs to do a single question then an hour to mark and update my notes each evening!)

Is the ICEAW ACA's interesting? I'm planning to do it after my A levels next year
PS: I do Economics, Accounting & Maths at A Level already

Thanks again for your reply. Can i ask what the structure of your contract was? Did you do the AAt for 2 years then go onto the ACA for the next 3? Also, how would you rate the difficulty of the AAT, maybe in comparison to A levels or the ACA, and how much time/effort did u feel you had to put in for the AAT

Have you started tuition for TIs yet? If so how are you finding it/how different is it to prof stage exams and exam technique?

I'm not going back for another four weeks so in classic fashion I'm already worrying about it haha

It's quite broad covering everything from financial reporting, audit, business strategy, investment etc so if you're interested in business and finance then there is going to be bits you are interested in and bits you are not. I personally quite like the financial reporting side of things, but then business strategy bit bores me!


Yep, it's a normal training contract. 2 years AAT and 3 ACA. AAT is very easy in comparison to ACA. With AAT, doing revision a few weeks before the exam would be enough to get you through, and I would often finish the exam with half an hour to spare (they are not time pressured).

ACA on the other hand requires you to start revising a good two months in advance and you'll use every last second in the exam. They are so time pressured that you are taught to allocate the minutes available to each section of the question, and as soon as the time is up you have to move on even if you didn't finish the answer.

I did have a few months of experience, in addition to doing business at college, before I started AAT. It will of course be more difficult if you are new to the business and finance world.



Yeah I have done the tuition now. There isn't a lot of new content to learn, and most of it is easier to understand than when I did FAR (which I guess is due to my experience developing since then). The exam technique isn't too much different. The only differences really are the questions are a lot longer and there isn't a distinct requirement with marks allocated - you have to identify the requirement then estimate how many marks it will be. SBM isn't the best as the questions are 1hr 30 to 2hrs long, and it's all a bit wishy washy so you're not sure if you're on the right lines or not. I quite like CR however as it's more technical based.