To all my friends who are struggling for your exam,I wish to share this article with you,maybe you can get some idea on how to deal with your exam pressure or study method from the experience of the prizewinners.Even though they are not the prizewinners of ACCA,but i think the other professional exams are dealt with similar ways.So again,all the best to your life and studies.ChingTop trainees let you know how they did it
ICAEW
Caroline Luff, KPMG
Business Management, first place (equal) and the Railton Prize
Preparation
• Begin working steadily from the beginning of your college course. This allows you to consolidate your knowledge over the course and prevents having to cram towards the end.
• Ensure that you take time off studying regularly. For example, reward yourself for working hard during the week by taking the weekend off. Obviously, as you approach your exams, this becomes harder.
• Use progress tests and mocks as practice for the real exams. This makes sitting your exams far less stressful as you know what to expect.
• Do not worry if completing all practice questions prior to sitting the exams appears daunting. Ensure you have covered all topics and that you have focused on any areas you find hard.
• Writing notes as you go along is an effective way of preparing for revision. You will probably not have time to write notes later and the learning texts are too detailed for revision.
• Speak to tutors or more senior members of your firm about any areas you struggle with. People are always happy to help as they have been through the same experience.
• Never compare your style of working to your peers, it will only cause you to panic. Remember that everyone works differently.
• If you have an open text exam, such as, FR or tax, ensure that you are really familiar with the text – use it for all your practice questions and progress tests and highlight the important areas.
• Ensure by the time you sit the exam, that you have completed several past papers and timed questions. These are the best form of practice and get you used to the time pressure.
• If you are sitting several exams at once, be careful not to focus on the one or two that you find harder at the expense of the other subjects. Plan your time so as to spread your work over all subjects.
• OTs are very useful for quickly testing your knowledge. Questions in the exams never vary greatly from the practice questions. Ensure that you practise OTs regularly throughout your study period.
• Make sure you stay positive. It is really easy to get stressed by the volume of work and the pressure of these exams. Just remember that it will be worth it in the end.
Exam technique
• Don’t try to change your approach or technique in the real exam. Stick with what you know works for you.
• It sounds obvious, but get a good night’s sleep before the exam. ICAEW exams are always time pressured, you need to be alert as you won’t have time to go back and correct mistakes.
• Try to stay calm in the exam. Remember that as long as you are prepared, it is likely that if you find something hard, everyone else will be in the same position.
• At the start of the paper, work out how much time you have available for each question and stick to this.
CIMA
Emily Tyler, AstraZeneca
Final level, first place
Preparation
• Experiment with different revision techniques. There is plenty of advice available, but in the end you need to identify what works for you.
• Using your holiday as revision time may not sound that attractive, but if you can get through your exams as early as possible then studying won’t take up the whole of your life. You also need to stay positive and be determined to succeed.
• Keep practising questions and review them afterwards, focusing on the areas that you find the hardest. Go back to the difficult questions and do them again, trying to improve on previous efforts.
• Try and pace your revision and don’t leave it too late. Take regular breaks and plan some nice diversions to break up the work.
Exam technique
• Make sure you understand the format of each exam. You should go into the exam hall with a clear understanding of what form the questions will take and a strategy for tackling them. Go in with a plan in terms of the order in which you’ll be answering questions – and try and stick to it.
• Keep a watch in sight on the desk
AAT
Anne Hardy, Monahans
AAT Top up – Audit Unit first place (equal) candidate and Carter Prize winner
• Make a timetable and stick to it. Spread the chapters to be revised over the weeks up to the exam, leaving a few weeks at the end for exam question practice.
• Practise OTs and short form questions until you can get every single one right and they become familiar. Quite often, similar questions come up in the exam and the quicker you can do these, the more time you will have left for the longer questions.
• I made my own short questions and answers for each chapter and used these as a revision tool. It quickly highlights any areas you have not understood and need to revisit.
• Practise as many exam style questions as you can and read the marking guide to see how many marks you would have obtained and how you could have been given more marks.• Make sure revision doesn’t take over your whole life!
AAT
Dawn Black, GT Grant and Co
AAT Top up – Tax Units first place candidate and Carter Prize winner
Preparation
• I prepared a timetable of three hours worth of exact questions from the revision guides to answer each night after work and stuck to it.
• I ensured I stopped everything by around 8.30pm and either watched TV or read a book to unwind before bedtime.
• I attempted every revision question then marked it and then repeated the question about a week later to ensure I understood the question and could improve upon the answer.
• I gave myself one weekend every month off to go out and see friends and to relax.
• I had lots of little breaks, say every two questions, and walked into a different room from that I was studying in.
• I made sure that the food I had in the house was easy to make and convenient so that I could snack without wasting valuable revision time.
Exam technique
• On the morning of the exam, I read through some notes I had made earlier on particularly troublesome areas. I read the notes through once and then put them away.
• I ensured I had a light breakfast.
• I packed bag the night before for all exam materials.
• I met up with friends before the exam so we could all support each other.
• Once in the exam hall I carefully read through each question at a time and calculated how much time I had. I then did not go over this time.
• At the end I came to the conclusion that there was nothing more I could do and did not dwell on any difficult areas but moved on to revision for the next exam.
