Introduction & Thoughts - Chapter 1

 (This is a brief story on my ACCA Journey)

Good Morning,

First of all, thank you for showing interest in reading this blog. Recently, I managed to pass my last ACCA paper and now I am an affiliate. Not an easy feat at all, especially for someone like me who doesn't have good academic affinity. I believe everyone share the same intelligence, so it is no excuse to say someone does well because he is a genius and whatnot. The person who does well in academic, is due to his/her passion. The passion is the drive to work harder than normal people hence resulting in exceptional result, a cut above the rest.

I have seen many people in my life, as an auditor-in-training and a part-time lecturer, I realize everyone has almost similar intelligence but what separates the good scorers and the poor performers is the level of interest towards study. For my case, the only proud academic achievement I could remember is scoring 6As and 1B in PMR but did terrible in my SPM. In ACCA, I pass most papers on my first attempt except for 3 (P7 - 2nd attempt, P6 - Never, last attempt was 49% and P5 - 2nd attempt).

Having pass most papers in the first attempt, brought along positive and negative traits. Well, of course I took full-time study for paper F7, F9, P1, P2 & P3. Becoming very confident and enhance self-esteem, I continue to get rid of P7 with a pass despite having to self-study part-time (working as an audit assistant during that session) and also one of the lowest pass rate at the time of my passing. With the new found confidence, I decided to stop taking exam for a year to partake in part-time lecturing for new challenges. Ok, here is some advice to readers ------ DO NOT POSTPONE OR DELAY YOUR STUDIES------ Because you have a time limit, old rule is 10 years but with new ruling, you have 7 years to complete all your P-level papers commencing from the first P-level paper you pass. If you exceed 7 years, you need to retake the whole P-level course despite you may have pass some papers before. Please do not underestimate the P-level papers because it took me years to complete just 1 final paper.

Having pass my P7, I decided to take up P6 (MYS) with confident. During the time, I was working for Dayang Enterprise Holdings Berhad as an Internal Audit Assistant. I couldnt exactly remember how many sittings but I guess it was around 2 years with most attempt scoring around 40ish. The last straw I have for this paper was when I decided to go for a 3 months full-time course in KL, leaving the exam hall with high confidence that I would definite pass with ease because most topics examined were within expectation ( I do some spotting just for thrill, do not rely solely on topic spotting).  2 months passed, open email and result read 49%, it was one of the worst day of my life. My heart skipped a beat literally.  That was probably the turning point where my self-confidence and self-esteem was completely shattered. You wont believe how much hatred I have for the P6 (MYS) examiner, cursing and all that : P (we are human after all). 

Now, for people who decide to take up P6. Be reminded, do not look at the ACCA pass rate for P6 because P6 Advanced Taxation is localized, meaning there are various stream (UK, MYS, SG...etc) the pass rate would then be aggregated and will not reflect the pass rate for the Malaysian stream. Few points I would like to share regarding P6 (MYS) is that, I believe the marking is under the purview of MIA because the last examiner (I couldn't remember her name) is working for MIA. Another point, the pass rate in Malaysia is super low that Sunway College removed Ms.Lee in one semester to be replaced by Choong Kwai Fatt (but Ms. Lee remained as the tax lecturer after that) and Sunway College actually did plan to introduce P6 (UK) because the (MYS) stream is just not realistic maybe MIA wanted a quota, who knows ? I understand they want quality accountants but if markings are deliberately distorted to fail students, where is the ethical value and professionalism in that ? So, keep that in mind. If calculation is your thing, try P4.  

Normally, people who scored 49% will try to reattempt the same subject like most others would advise you because its just too close, only 1% to a pass but for my case, it was an exceptional case. That session, I believe I did not deserve to fail since I managed to answer all questions and for the most part with good amount of content written. It felt like the examiner was pulling my leg and laughing at my effort, sweat and money spent on this bloody paper. So, I took the most extreme path which is to abandon P6 (MYS) and take up P5. P5 used to be a decent paper with good pass rate if not the best under examiner Nick Ryan, most of the time is around 35 - 42% pass rate. However, examiner change under certain intervals (5 years i think) and so does the pass rate and difficulty of those papers. P5 under the current examiner is one of the toughest paper with an average pass rate of not more than 35% and at the time of my failing (1st attempt) was 29% pass rate. However, thank God, the Divine, Family members (awesome support), Friends..etc managed to pass the December 2014 session and now an affiliate. 

Imagine, 6 months to prepare for an exam, 2 months wait for results. That is a total of 8 months of effort and waiting game, ACCA is not solely academic but a mental & psychological challenge especially for people who aren't fond of academic exams. 

P/S; I am not trying to brag or anything because there are people who scored better than me and also completed earlier than me. The purpose I did this sharing was because when I was lost, trying to pass ACCA. I was searching up and down for resources, personal tips and etc. So, I said to myself if I pass my final paper I will share my experience as well as tips. Thank You.

Please proceed or skip to Chapter 2 for the study and exam tips