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ACCA study time frame

Hi there guys, I was wondering if there was someone out there if they could help me with some ACCA advice????

I've just completed my AAT level 4 (whilst working full time/ distance learning) in 11 months. Level 2 took me 3 months and level 3 took me around 6 months. I was studying 12-15 hours a week. The reason I mention this : I would like to roughly know how long it takes to do f4 to f9 the applied skills section of the ACCA, as I'm exempt from the knowledge section (f1-f3). On the ACCA website I've found they mention 500 hours per module EG. F4= 500 hours? this seems very excessive or is it? Under that calculation roughly I would be lucky to do 2 exams per year? I was hoping to complete 3 exams a year... Is this realistic given I only have 15 hours max a week to dedicate to self study outside of work.. I know the professional exams will be even harder but i'm not thinking about them till later... one module at a time. I didn't find the AAT level 4 too challenging (not saying it was easy!) but managed to get a merit overall.

Has anyone done the AAT in similar time scale to me and then can compare that to the time taken to do the ACCA ? As I don't have a degree, I think it would be wise also to OPT in for the oxford brookes degree, so for an extra ethics module + a project I can then get a Bsc in Accounting . This may be a great option if say in ten years I might want to do something else ( primary school teacher for example) I have an actual legit degree to use in the future and can get into other areas of work easier than having no degree.

Many thanks in advance for your responses!

Martin

Reply 1

Accounting123!

I'm currently completing my ACCA after finishing AAT

It is a bit of a jump up to the ACCA papers in terms of difficulty etc however I have been doing 4 exams a year - 2 every 6 months - whilst working full time and find it completely manageable (I study through Kaplan however know people who self study). I tend to start studying around 2/3 months before the exam with around 9ish days at college then a couple hours at weekends/evenings.

Also you have to do the ethics module regardless of doing the Oxford Brookes degree.

Reply 2

kathrynjs

Hi Martin,Can I ask how you got on with this?? I'm really struggling to find enough time to feel confident with my ACCA exams but am only realistically able to study 10 hours a week and am trying to do 1 exam every 3 months.Would be great to hear from experience!Thanks,Katie