Building resilience

I’m taking a slightly different approach this month to the usual accounting articles that I write. Why you may ask? Every week, I hear from students finding the whole study process difficult – trying to juggle work, family and exams, and feeling stressed by the whole situation.

So, what is resilience all about? Resilience includes recovering quickly from difficulties you have or may be experiencing.

Let’s consider some examples.

In March 2020, you will remember the closure of schools and colleges due to the Covid-19 outbreak. At this time I had an onsite group of Level 4 students who were halfway through their studies. Students who wanted to be onsite learning rather than online. After the initial panic regarding how this may impact on their studies, they pulled together as a group and moved to online studies, for one of the hardest units of Level 4, and gave it their all (yes, if you were the class of 2020, I am still very proud of you).

So, why do I class this group as resilient? It is all about overcoming whatever challenges life throws at you and not allowing these challenges to stop you achieving what you have set out to achieve. It would be far too easy to use the situation as an excuse to stop studying and give up. Ironically, this group achieved the highest Level 4 results and completion rate to date.

Currently, I think we are all aware of the AAT exam issues that have been ongoing since Q2022 launched in September 2022. The impact this has had on students, especially students who have written content as part of their exams, has been significant. We have had to cancel exams, then back up with other units, to get students through. It has been the students’ resilience with coping with the difficulties faced that has got them through their exams. Students have gone into their exams expecting difficulties (and facing them), but have developed coping strategies to overcome the issues faced to ensure exam success.

Other students I speak to are often trying to juggle family, work, moving house, divorce, loss of a family member, studies and other responsibilities and find it overwhelming, and very stressful.

This article is aimed to hopefully help you identify any difficulties that you may experience, or already have, and still achieve your end study goal. So, what should you do?

• Organise your time. This is crucial. Be realistic about what you can achieve and when. I always advise students to aim for small amounts of studying and often, not block out eight hours on a Sunday for studying.

• Ask yourself when your concentration levels are at their best in the day. Ideally, target this as study time.

• Do a ‘to-do’ list. Set yourself small achievable targets and again, be realistic.

• Be firm with others (this includes family as well as work colleagues). If you need to revise for an exam, do not let others stop you or make you feel guilty for doing this.

• Take breaks and relax. It is important to reward yourself for a good study session. This could include going to the gym, going for a walk, or doing any hobby or interest, so something to look forward to at the end of your study.

• Ensure you get sufficient sleep, exercise, and have a good diet as these will all help you feel better in yourself.

All the above will help reduce stress levels and make you more resilient to any challenges faced. I still laugh when I think back to my study days and lying on the storeroom floor at Kaplan, as I had to do back exercises on a regular basis due to prolapsed discs. Funnier still, was the look on a staff member’s face when they walked in to get some books and found me there on the floor! Also, the time when I took an ACCA exam whilst on serious pain relief so I couldn’t drive (thanks Dad for playing taxi!), and again, had to lie on the floor in the back of the hall to stretch, mid exam. For those of you who have taken ACCA exams, you will understand, we do not have time to be lying around on the floor. Luckily, I passed, so it was worth it. All of this has built my own resilience and if I can do it, then so can you.

If you are feeling stressed, or would like to read further guidance notes on this topic, this link may help you: https://tinyurl.com/ wphh3yh3

• Karen Groves is an AAT tutor and Faculty Director of Accounting at e-Careers