Wow, you guys real overkill lol. 4 marks at most I write... half a page?

For P4, it's important to have a big picture view of the entire subject, and your general knowledge need to be strong.

Finance is extremely logic-driven, so you should have a good idea of how the flow of things, and the concepts behind everything. Ultimately everything must be connected to some other thing, and ultimately it should lead to some form of assistance in making a decision. So with that in mind, every calculation should help in making a decision. (aka by arriving at a valuation, or a comparison against an alternative)

And get your basics and theoretical understanding strong (i definitely suggest just revisiting F5, F9 and CAT just for the theoretical idea and get the mindset right).. This isn't accounts or some other where every financial statement line items are governed by one or two standards only.

Just like how accounts are ultimately debit and credits, for finance, the underlying concept is OPPORTUNITY COST and RISK. Everything else is just a buildup from opportunity cost concept and risk-return tradeoff.

Now, so once you have the mindset, next is to build in the key steps and concepts.

So first of all, try to understand all the concepts and you should aim to identify all the factors. Finance is designed to be practical, so you should be too, so let's say the P4 question is about methods of financing on acquisition, and whether you should proceed with the acquisition (aka a combined question involving valuation of a foreign entity, and probably a 2nd half on financing), you should aim to be able to segregate what's relevant to the valuation, what's relevant on the financing, and what's important to both.

So you should aim to know WHY things are the way they are. Ultimately if you don't understand the logic behind it, P4 will just be another paper that you'll forget some time later.

As for how you study, erm.. for me.. i had a knack for understanding the logic and rationale, so I didn't study too much, but i generally tutor ppl by asking them to do a question, and revisit them, and make them explain why they did what they did, and highlight out flaws in their thought process.

My intern is one. 19 y/o. -_____-

Gahaha don't lanci. I start work at 20.

Glad to see my favourite P4 paper still only has 33% pass rate (waahhahaha)

Yes. I intend to do a masters / MBA to come across as a more well-rounded individual (you may disagree, but first impression counts. When you introduce yourself as an MBA grad compared to an ACCA grad, the perception is different), instead of being a pure-finance executive. Right now I intend to get a few years more work experience, and more varied work exposure (instead of pure audit) before pursuing an MBA



Also popular is CFA which I may also do someday.

have confidence, it's a piece of cake, i did p1,p2,p4,p7 and passed all of them in the ame sitting *lanci kao kao*

jokes aside, it's definitely doable.

HBR is a good choice, I only found out about it after I graduated, and felt alot of it are relevant to P3 and P5

At F level, the idea is the give you knowledge, at P level, the shift moves towards application and the ability to connect and grasp how the big picture ideas and the details interact. Primarily, for HBR magazines, every magazine generally has a case study (3-4 pages) and then they will get experts to comment what is the best course of action in their opinion. In P1, P3 and P5, your ability to come up with a good, well-reasoned argument is very similar to the matter presented to these 'experts' and we can learn much on what kind of factors they've considered.

Why I say HBR overall is relevant, because in ACCA, we often take a touch and go approach into learning theory, and often skip the details on why they arrived at such theories, and how these theories are often demonstrated. HBR, though not the best, still at the very least, brings u a good idea what is their basis, why people think the way they do, and why people often don't act the way we think they should.

Lastly, I like HBR because it contains alot of how these theories are used, to guide our thought processes on how real world processes should be designed, and how people should be managed. Often our ACCA classes lack on how we 'transpose' this framework onto situations and how we deal with occasions when the theory breaks down.

That said, you're already at F4/F6, start reading more, and start imagining/visualising how the things you learn can be used in real life, and whether will they actually work in real life. You'd realize that more often than not, although it sounds right and theoretical sound, in reality, a lot of these ideas dont work as well as it should

(Damn I sound preachy)

I make a living conning ppl to do the things i want them to do, naturally promotional skills come along

whole heartedly agree.