ACCA Financial Management (FM, was ACCA F9) is usually considered a paper with very wide coverage and technical. A well planned study is required especially you have a full time job and study it at your limited after work hours. Study hard is always true but with limited time, study smart is also very important. Here are some ideas on how to plan your ACCA FM study.
ACCA FM syllabus contains 7 topics. As you can read from the table above, other than A & B, the other 5 topics cover the syllabus on a very even basis. It ranges from 15% to 24%. On technical side, students should spend their time according to each topics weighting in examination. It means about one fourth of your time is on investment appraisal and about 16% on working capital management, business finance, business valuation and risk management respectively. The remaining should be for financial management function and financial management environment.
But, the approaches to questions are very different if they appear in different sections, namely Section A, Section B or Section C. It implies students should be aware of different exam techniques applied.
Section A includes 15 objective test questions covering the whole syllabus. Basic knowledge is required in order to test students’ concepts. Students are better to understand definitions and basic knowledge to answer the questions.
Section B contains 3 scenarios in which each scenario has 5 objective test questions. To me, it sounds 3 10-mark questions and each divided into 5 parts. It includes concept and calculation in each scenario. When students do the past papers on those topics in Section B, remember they have to understand clear on both concepts and calculations.
Section C provides 2 constructed response questions to candidates to answer. The requirements are a complete understanding of concepts, calculations, forming opinion or suggestions based on their answers provided. It is the hardest part in exam, especially asking candidates to evaluate or suggest.
When you practice past papers, don’t forget my ideas above which help you to focus the exam technique on which topics you work on. If you have any question, we are more than happy to answer you and feel free to send your questions to our email box (info@gotitpass.com).
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