exam advice PQ
How we can overcome failure Neil Da Costa explains how you can bounce back from exam disappointment
aplan recently launched an initiative that looks at the painful subject of failure, calling it #FailFast. Overcoming failure forms part of the journey towards becoming a qualified accountant, and the initiative provides a useful resource for students who experience it. Failure is unavoidable. In the recent ACCA exams, the average pass rate for the strategic professional exams was 42% – which means that 58% failed. In this article, I will be looking at why students fail their exams and what they can do about it.
experiences and feel they are poor at maths, or their writing skills are inadequate. Instead of practising and improving their skills, they selfactualise their deficiencies so that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, leading to failure of their professional exams. Winning Strategy: Start believing in yourself and allow that self-belief and determination to carry you through. Tell yourself that you will pass your exams and visualise yourself in the exam staying calm and producing quality solutions.
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Five reasons why we fail exams 1. Leaving all the work until the end Students are studying while working, so time is limited. Many students neglect their studies and try to squeeze all the work in at the end. Unfortunately, due to their work commitments they end up leaving out big parts of the syllabus and failing their exams. Winning Strategy: Give yourself enough time to cover the material and spread out the study over several months. Prioritize your time. 2. Assuming all the subjects are the same The professional accountancy qualification covers a broad range of subjects from company law, tax, audit and assurance to financial reporting and performance management. While some subjects might appeal to you, it is highly probable that due to the broad spectrum of subjects covered, some areas may be more challenging. I find many students enjoy the more computational logical subjects like financial reporting and tax, but struggle with the case study or ‘dry’ subjects like audit. This means they have to put in more effort than expected at times, and they often underestimate the effort required. Winning Strategy: Allocate extra time to give yourself a fighting chance with the subjects that you find challenging. I did not have a natural affinity for management accounting so had to put in a lot more effort. 3. Lack of exam question practice The professional accountancy exams are incredibly time pressured. Even well-prepared students find they have inadequate time to interpret the question and write up a comprehensive answer. It’s important to bear in mind that you only need to pass the exam and you don’t need to get everything perfectly correct. Students who don’t practice enough
PQ Magazine August 2022
exam questions find they cannot cope with the pressure. Winning Strategy: In the final month before the exam, spend 70% of all your preparation time attempting previous exam conditions simulating the actual exam conditions. 4. Misapprehension about the syllabus Many students don’t actually understand the syllabus and the key learning outcomes of the paper, as interpreted by the examining panel. They stumble through the paper and end up being surprised by the exam questions. It is important to use accredited materials such as the Kaplan study texts and exam kits and to select a course that suits your learning needs such as online or face-to-face classes. Winning Strategy: Carefully read through the examining panel articles before starting your tuition courses, as well as looking at the last three exam papers from ACCA student resources to form a framework to underpin your technical knowledge. The exam questions also show you the key areas that are examined. For example, in the financial reporting papers, one of the questions will usually be on groups. 5. Lack of self belief Many students carry labels from their childhood
Final thoughts: redefining failure According to Ex-Navy Seal David Goggins, in his incredible book ‘Can’t Hurt Me’, you need to develop a calloused mind. This strength of will only comes from confronting our weaknesses, instead of trying to run away from them. By accepting your failures honestly you stop viewing failure as a painful experience but instead as part of the learning journey. In times of extreme stress, such as an exam environment, people do not rise to the level of their expectations; instead they fall to the level of their training. Don’t feel you have any less value because you have failed an exam. Instead, learn from it. It is tempting to fantasize about the ideal exam questions coming up on the areas you are prepared for instead of being honest with yourself. Objectively analyse what went wrong once you get your results. Did you misinterpret the examiner’s requirements? Was your technical knowledge inadequate? Did you leave out some of the questions because you did not have enough time to attempt them? This is why at Kaplan, we believe in rigorous exam question practice. By conditioning our students to attempt exam questions under timed conditions, they are able to perform successfully in the exam. Once you know what went wrong, come up with an action plan to overcome your deficiencies. If you then follow your action plan, you will find that you will pass the exam at the next attempt. • Neil Da Costa is a Senior Tax Lecturer with Kaplan. He is the author of two tax books: Advanced Tax Condensed, and Tax Condensed. These innovative books feature memory-joggers enabling students to learn the vast tax syllabus using accelerated learning techniques. https://neildacosta.co.uk/advanced-taxcondensed/ https://neildacosta.co.uk/tax-condensed/
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