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What software did you use during your degree?

I used Sage, a Bloomberg room, SAP and Xero, all of which were very useful in different contexts and to different ends. Most employers will teach you whichever software they're using (and the larger employers are likely to have software that has been tweaked or written for them specifically). Bloomberg is a useful one if you're going into analytics; Sage is quite limited nowadays and isn't really used by large organisations. SAP and Xero are both great and pretty up-to-date.

Reply 21

Roottokill

Joining A&F in September. Very insightful thread, thank you @ROC10

Reply 22

ROC10

Original post by Roottokill

Joining A&F in September. Very insightful thread, thank you @ROC10

Glad it's helpful and congrats on your offer!

Reply 23

ROC10

Original post by BjjAaaaaa

Hello, I have a few questions as I am currently preparing to begin studying accounting and finance in September.
1) What is the general structure? Eg- how much free time you have in a week, what do lectures and seminars consist of?
2) Do you use any programmes like Excel? If so what laptop would you recommend and do you get taught on how to. Paper or E-Notes?
3) How do you manage to revise the content?
4) What is the structure of exams ? - eg more writing or calculations
5) Do you use a lot of textbooks?

General structure
In first and second year, I typically had 2-3 x 1hr lectures for each course (average of 3 courses per semester). Each course usually had 1 x 1hr tutorial each week, plus occasional computer lab sessions etc. First year was around 12-14 hours per week and second year an average of around 9-10 hours per week of contact time, typically spread over 3-4 days. Lectures are generally large (approx 150-300) while tutorials are smaller (approx 10-20). In third year, this reduced to 1 x 2hr lecture/seminar per course, meaning a total of 6 hours per week, again with other occasional sessions here and there. In fourth year, the dissertation is equivalent to two courses so I'm only doing two courses per semester, so contact time was 4 hours, with occasional dissertation support sessions.

Software/laptops
It is unlikely you'll need much in the way of specialised software for A&F. Microsoft Office 365 will likely be provided by your university so you'll have this and it's generally needed. Word for assignments etc, PowerPoint for making presentations and opening lecture slides (if not in PDF format), Excel will probably come in handy at times but I haven't had to use it too often.

I'm not going to get into laptop recommendations here as there's a forum for discussing those matters. I'd always recommend purchasing a good (or at least decent) laptop that is likely to last the entire length of your degree and that will be comfortable to do lots of work on unless you have a desktop in your house/room, use external monitors or work from uni computers (although who knows when unis will reopen at this point so I wouldn't bank on those).

The method I have generally used for note-taking is to print the lecture slides and annotate these with additional info given in the lectures. Then I would write up notes of any further reading etc and add these in. Generally I find that the process of writing notes is helpful for memory purposes, although the focus this year is not on memorisation so I'll be going more with trying to create comprehensive (but also concise) documents of lecture and reading notes combined.

Textbooks
In my first two years, most courses had an assigned textbook, although frankly these are not always needed to do well. In the later years, reading largely shifts from textbooks to academic journal articles (available freely online through through uni library) as the focus of the learning shifts from being about learning content objectively to a more subjective and critical approach.

Reply 24

etienne26

Hi. Basically I have offers for A+F at Aston and Sheffield and am deciding between the two to firm. Both universities have well regarded business schools. Aston has an integrated placement year for all students but Sheffield is Russell Group (has optional placement year). How would you go about choosing? Thanks.

Reply 25

not2friedplz

Thanks for your time doing this, I'd like to ask anyone what your weekly timetable consisted of, specifically how many hours of lectures/seminars/tutorials did you average and on which days? How many hours of indipendent study were you averaging each week? Many thanks

Reply 26

ROC10

Original post by etienne26

I'd be tempted to say go for the more well-regarded uni (i.e. Sheffield), however, my true advice would be to go for the programme you prefer (based on looking at the info) at the uni you prefer (based on what info you've been able to access on this, including which location you prefer). I have found that, in reality, employers don't tend to care much about which uni you went to (i.e. RG/non-RG) and experience is more valuable. Since Sheffield offer an optional placement year, I'd probably recommend that, but again, go with what you prefer.

Reply 27

ROC10

Original post by not2friedplz

If you look at posts #20 and #24, @Ohnoki94 and I have provided some info on this for our particular cases. There is no real value in being overly-specific about which days etc. as all universities will differ on this. The general rule is that each course you take will have a defined number of "hours" (at my uni, most courses are 20 credits which is equivalent to "200 hours"). You subtract any contact/assessment time from it and the remainder is the number of hours you should roughly be spending on independent study. Your university will provide you more details on this when you arrive (or it will be available on the sites providing info on degree structures). The reality is that most people probably don't actually count the number of hours they spend working on a particular course in a week (I didn't); workload varies across the year depending on assignments, exams, etc.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 28

not2friedplz

Original post by ROC10

Hey! I think I had skipped your reply about it, sorry about that! Yeah I asked the question already aware of the fact that there would be a huge variance between unis etc... just wanted to kind of get a feel for it as my only way to access a maintenance loan (I'm european) and really just sustain myself throughout my studies is to work part-time alongside my course... I might have been better off asking this from the beginning I guess lol, so yeah, in hindsight do you think it could've been manageable for you to work 8 hours 3 days a week during your studies? Say your employer would also be considerate and flexible allowing you to pick which days too? Thanks

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 29

ROC10

Original post by not2friedplz

I worked part-time for the first three years of my degree (~16 hours although it was usually only on weekends). I’d say it’s definitely manageable. You have to be more disciplined, especially around deadlines as you can’t always leave it until the last minute if you’re working but it’s certainly possible. With regards to working on weekdays, you’d need to know your timetable first, of course.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 30

IdioticApple

Original post by not2friedplz

Hey, much like the others I worked part time alongside my degree, I was taking 60 credits a semester which worked out to an approximate (suggested) ten hours per credit - so e.g. 15 credit modules being expected to take 150 hours. This worked out for me at up to 14 hours of contact time per week, and then maybe double that (up to 35 hours a week in absolute total unless I was revising, especially in third year). You definitely will have time for work around the degree, especially in first year, though I know for us the work stepped up significantly in second year, and there were a lot of deadlines in third year! But my semesters are shorter - I'm already done for the year and so now am able to work three or four days a week :smile:

Reply 31

Asfa Ahmed

Original post by ROC10

Hi everyone!

I'm currently in my final (4th) year studying Accounting and Finance at The University of Edinburgh.

You can ask me any questions you may have about the subject and I will do my best to answer, although there can, of course, be many differences between different universities. I am also able to answer questions around the Business School at Edinburgh, including those around different degree programmes as there are many similarities in the early years.

These subjects are often not studied in school so it's completely understandable that you may have questions, particularly given the cancellation of many open days and offer-holder days.

Hope this helps! :smile:

This AMA uses a tag system! You can either ask a general question or tag in one of our fantastic volunteers (listed below) if you are looking for something more specific.
@ROC10 - Final year, Accounting and Finance, Edinburgh
@IdioticApple - Final year, Accounting and Finance, UWE
@Roottokill - Offer holder, Accounting and Finance, Durham
---
This AMA is part of the 'Ask a University Student 2.0' initiative. If you want to find out more about other courses or universities, please check out the main list of threads:
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6431108

hi can u plz guide me what areinp questins regarding exams from tangible assets and intangible assets accounting.thanks

Reply 32

IdioticApple

Original post by Asfa Ahmed

hi can u plz guide me what areinp questins regarding exams from tangible assets and intangible assets accounting.thanks

That's a broad question to answer, what do you need to find out about tangible and intangible assets?

Reply 33

IdioticApple

@Roottokill what are you looking forward to with starting in (hopefully) September? I remember being really excited before I started!! :smile:

Reply 34

Roottokill

Original post by IdioticApple

@Roottokill what are you looking forward to with starting in (hopefully) September? I remember being really excited before I started!! :smile:

I’ve firmed Durham University and sure of joining as I already have my grades. It’s been 7 years since I finished high school and have been working in marketing since then. Have been reading up on the prerequisites in the last few weeks. Interested to take up a career path in fintech once I finish my course. Which sector in accounting and finance are you planning on pursuing ?

Reply 35

antonia.xo

Is there anything we can do to prepare before starting an accounting and finance course in September ?

Reply 36

IdioticApple

Original post by Roottokill

Oh nice! FinTech is really big, up and coming, do you have any Fintech modules you can take? I'm moving into (if all goes well) management accounting within manufacturing, looks pretty interesting to me! We're still waiting to hear back about final grades and the grad scheme itself as well... Everything's being slightly pushed back at the moment. Any news on whether your lectures, etc. will be online?

Reply 37

U33B

So how do you avoid tax or pay little tax (legally). You can private message me if you want?. :wink:

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Reply 38

IdioticApple

Original post by U33B

So how do you avoid tax or pay little tax (legally). You can private message me if you want?. :wink:

.....

Knew we'd get one of you eventually :biggrin:

depends how much money you have, in some cases there are ways to invest it so you get decent, healthy returns (or would do in a non-covid year) and pay minimal tax; running your own company would mean you could expense more against income and pay yourself dividends, which are subject to a lower rate of income tax than normal earnings... The list goes on :wink:

Reply 39

U33B

Original post by IdioticApple

Knew we'd get one of you eventually :biggrin:

Nice one mate. I`m just going to ask you a straight up question. How do you make an offshore account. Step by step guide would be highly beneficial..... Thanks... :wink:

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