ACCA Exam preparation series:

Part 1 Time Management
Since Year 1999 I have conducted several seminars on ACCA Exam and study techniques in various cities namely KL, Penang, Johor, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching. Al though for the past four years I have not conducted any of them but I believe it is useful for students who have attended.

It is now near to exam and I hope the creation of this series will help all ACCA students in their preparation. I would like to start off with time management as I believe this is the most important area now for student whom has yet to start their preparation and also for those part time students where they will certainly face this problem.

Now let assume that ACCA exam is on 1st December 2008. So basically you have 34 days more to go. Since you are a potential accountant let illustrate it in mathematical form.

Let assume you are a Full Time Students so no excuse you study full time!
So from tomorrow onwards you have 816 hours before you ACCA exam begin and for a full time student you should on an average basis take 3 subjects.

So do you actually have 816 hrs before the exam? The answer is obvious “No”

Why then?

You need to sleep, right! Let assume you need 6 hrs of good night sleep per day. In total it will take up 204 hours

You might attend 3 revision classes in November as part of your preparation. Each IRC will at least take you 18 hrs so it will be 54 hrs in total

You need to have your three meals per days let say half an hour for each. In total it will take up 51 hours.
You need to entertain yourself each day say 1 hour (you can’t have more than that). It total it will take up 34 hours.

Let assume miscellaneous matters will take up 1 hour per day. It will then take up another 34 hours from you.

So how many hours for actual revision that you have before your exam date? Bingo, it is 439 hours. So if I were to divide by 3 papers you will be let with approximately 146hrs for each paper.

146 hours sound a lot right! Let measure it in no of days. Bingo it is about 6 full days that you have for each paper!

For a part time student assume you are taking two subjects. You will have about 303 Hrs. divided by 2 subjects you will have 152 hours per subject and 6 full day for each subjects

It is sufficient? Answer is Yes and No. How could a student manage such constraints? Stay tune for part 2!