Hi guys, long time away and I am finally back. There is an open day going on for J Pro Training tomorrow, so for those that are interested in finding out options available for F4 - P7, do drop by Kemuning Utama from 11.30 am to 6.30 pm.

I would be around to chat up with some. It would be good to meet up with some of the forum providers here.

If you need to re-cover the whole F7, just use the F7 Online lectures for RM230 from J Pro training. It covers the whole F7 material and valid for one year, which means it will be there to support your needs for at least 2 sittings.

Alternatively you can attend the P2 classes at J Pro, which caters for universities students who are working in Klang, Shah Alam and Subang, which uses blended learning strategy.
The time table is available at http://acca-p2.blogspot.com/

Those planning for alternative for ACCA from Sunway, check out timetable for Inti at http://my-acca-news.blogspot.com/

Actually theory is quite important for F9 and it will build the foundation for P4 and also P3. P3 now has questions that come from F9.

On that note, lecturer that I would recommend for P4 - Oviyan. Why? - I talked to the student that got world prize for P4 and her comment was that she just followed what Mr.Oviyan had provided and got the highest score in the world. Given that he is lecturing P4 in 4 locations - FTMS, Inti, KDU and Sunway JB, his experience curve would be reasonable high. In lecturing, it is the cumulative exposure to a subject that increases the lecturer efficiency, higher exposure, more effective in delivering the subject matter.

It is the same with surgeons and mechanics I suppose.

P4 is a hard paper. Your friend may be purely unlucky or just failed due to situation but it is easier to blame the lecturer. I know about P4 and P5 papers - the examiner is a bit mad sometimes. They ask questions in a very odd way and even the most prepared can come out badly. I knew of a P4 student that had jumped around all the lecturer and came back to the lecturer that he hated at the first attempt (recommending to others not to attend).

This papers require the students to take a finance director view (P4) of the situation or performance management consultant view (P5). This view is not easy for students to develop, they tend to discuss matters at managerial level only. At P1, your view is that of FD / NED or RM.

On that note the point that ACCA papers at P level require a lot of theoretical understanding and ability to discuss matters. If a lecturer does discussion in Malaysia, it is usually one way( lecturer discuss and student listen) - most of the students would not be able to tolerate too long if they cannot discuss (most ACCA students are the silent types)

So I suppose in Malaysia, the trend is for most of the lecturers to practice the questions more and reduce the discussion. Not sure whether you have noticed this trend.

Those interested in studying evening classes @ Shah Alam for P1 / P2 and weekend classes for P3 can come to J Pro to sign up tomorrow, the classes will be starting on 6th Jan Evening for P1 and P2 on the 7th of Jan. Those interested in doing OBU should also consider dropping by tomorrow to get more information about it.

This post has been edited by frodo baggin: Jan 3 2014, 02:58 PM

Sazali

The material for ACCA is either BPP text and kit or MAPIT online materials - you have a choice of materials.

On the other matter, P5 is easy for some - the pass it without issues but some get stuck with the requirements and always misunderstand them - therefore can get stuck with the paper. I knew one student that had studied the whole P5 text book 3 times and new every thing about the paper but still did not get through the paper. Trust me I have been with this paper for the last 5 years, and many students come to the paper with the wrong expectation.

If you are interested to know about career options - check out CAREERPLAYER, this is a great site for career understanding. You get to hear all the professional's view about the job.

The hardest part about students is that they hate to talk. I know that marketing students are very talkative and like discussion, whereas accounting students are the worst - silent types, like watching a Rambo movie (all action no talk)

It is hard to talk in a large class - I think you will naturally be restricted to talk.

Donizback, I remember that feeling since I also liked to ask a lot of questions and the some students would not be happy with that. Obviously if there is a small class you can ask a lot of questions, but the questions itself has to be meaningful and add value to the class as a whole. If you keep asking questions about past areas that should already be known - that would be irritating for most and even the lecturer

This post has been edited by frodo baggin: Jan 4 2014, 03:01 PM

All this discussion on which optional papers that you want to do. Here is the feedback I got from a few people about the papers.

Once they passed the paper - they will recommend that paper.
Students that don't pass the paper after 3 attempts will be cursing the paper and "inception" to others to go for another paper.

You will have an average of 50% of each, but those that pass will tend to keep quite and those that fail tend to make more noise (and blame everyone around them as usual)

On average P5, P4 and P7 is the same in difficulty.

Common reason for failing - do not read the question and answering their own questions + not studying all the areas (spotting) + not having adequate background knowledge (prior paper knowledge)

P7 has a higher failure rate when the student lacks a good P2 understanding.
P5 has a higher failure rate when the student lacks a good English understanding
P4 has a higher failure rate when the student has studied everything in the text book but failed to read financial times / business news

Now about P6 (M) it can be said to be easier for the following reasons:
The examiner produces articles that are examined (this is true for most of the other papers too)
The exam questions are written for Malaysian English - easier to interpret

I talked a lecturer who saw the new P6 paper and his comments - not up to ACCA Standard anymore , worse than AIA standards . I reviewed the papers and agree with this comment.

Now I have talked to those that did the paper and failed it and their response is:
Not my cup of tea
Hated to memorize so much
Cannot memorize

If you plan to be in tax, this really is a push in the right direction.

On that note, doing P7 is not for audit only. I knew a student from investment banking side who did P7 and the remark given - "I see things that other analyst miss because they cannot read the financial statement and policies like I do after doing P7"

So P7 is not only audit, since it has forensic / due diligence / prospective financial information, which are interesting specialist areas.

Those in audit will definitely appreciate learning P7 a bit more compared to those outside it. Doing P7 while being an auditor always makes more sense than doing full time though.

Syllabus changes in the future - ACCA adopted the evolutionary change strategy, gradual updates rather than big bang style done in 2007. This way students will no longer get extensions for the 10 year rule. A students that signed up in 2000 still has to 2017 to complete ACCA but a student that signed up on 2008 has up to 2018 to complete ACCA .

On that note : the syllabus will still be the same. It is not MCQ since there is also Fill in the blank and other types of questions which uses the computer

Hope that helps

If you have read the examiners report and articles - he seemed to be very worried that students don't understand the verbs asked and answering questions the wrong way.

In this English was the main culprit.

Obviously there is the still the knowledge and understanding of subject matter - which is the same for all papers. If you don't understand or do not have subject matter knowledge - you will still fail.

Don't worry, the pass rate will be the same.

It is harder with computer based. The first session for this will be for F4 in Dec 2014 (probable). It will be implemented fully by Dec 2015. So this will only really affect those that join CAT in current year.

Those who did CAT, do you think T8 (FAU) helped you or not, since this is only a condition for Sunway. The rest of them do FFM or T10.

If not mistaken with advance learning centre @ pj, near hilton.

This post has been edited by frodo baggin: Jan 13 2014, 12:36 AM

ACCA has 95% confirmed the change in exam format in Dec 2014. With F4 having 45 MCQ questions worth 70 marks and others are very similar to FTX / FFM / FAU type papers.

It is a mix exam, which is commonly used at Universities around Malaysia and UK.

Nick don't worry. I saw the sample papers, it is about the same difficulty. In fact IASB uses MCQ and so does mot of the US professional bodies, only British uses ACCA. You know that AICPA uses MCQ too. There is still preparing financial statements in F7. They have just included 40 marks at MCQ which better than now. People just pass F7 using 3 questions only.


Seriously this will be better since it test the syllabus overall. I have tested students with MCQ, it is harder to pass them than written - no spotting. So my guess is that more people may do ACCA but not everyone can pass the professional levels. There are many out there that are just stuck

I doubt they are moving to cbe yet, only change in format.

No changes in professional, changed in 2011 already. Oh yeah for those that are not really aware, PYQ after 2011 is more reliable than before since there was a change implemented at that point. This is for all the P papers. No more serious changes for P papers after that.

This post has been edited by frodo baggin: Jan 14 2014, 11:33 PM

Isn't college sinar and Stamford college Melaka offering ACCA? I used to be involved with Sinar in 2009

P4 is easier if your basic financial management is strong. If you have weak F9, suggest a quick review of F9 past year answers and questions to get yourself up to speed. Unlike P2, there was no catch up for that paper in Sunway.

Computations can make sense if you can understand the formulae

Good luck.

If you want, sign up with jpro online course or just attend the crash course for it. You can check out the timetable at jprotraining.blogspot.com.

Depends on what you want.

If you are doing just one / two papers, it should be OK.

11 days more for the results to be published
Good luck for those that are waiting for the results

This post has been edited by frodo baggin: Jan 27 2014, 10:28 AM

Timetable for Inti ACCA is available at http://i-acca.blogspot.com/2013/11/acca-timetable-2014.html

Congrats

Welcome onboard. It is well deserved given that you self studied. enjoy the success

Congrats

Those planning to take OBU / Resit / Additional papers can consider visiting jpro @kemuning utama this Sunday 10.00 am to 4.00pm for more information

This post has been edited by frodo baggin: Feb 8 2014, 11:59 AM

Pass is 50%

If you want to get World prize - get the highest mark in the world (usually 80 - 100 marks) So far only one student got 100 marks for F4 - p7 level. This was for F7 paper in Dec 2012 sitting in think.

You can get the highest in Malaysia which may be lower 70 - 100 marks.

I remember once a student got the Malaysian prize for Audit with 68 marks only.

Anyway ACCA has now designed their exams to match Degree's - since they have included MCQ's inside it. The argument for doing degree vs ACCA is diminishing very fast (since ACCA already has a degree patched in). You will see this papers in Dec 2014 sitting for F4 (70 marks MCQ) to F9 (30 marks MCQ).

I have reviewed those papers which are now available in ACCA website - it is much more doable and more in line with the degree standard. In the past, ACCA was testing at above the degree level for F level, which caused the need for many to jump to degree to get the 9 papers exempted.

Plus those that have done degree's usually claim that they have not learnt much since most of the classes are based around class room discussion and assignments + well tipped exam papers. (This is feedback from about 40 degree students that are doing ACCA now)


This post has been edited by frodo baggin: Feb 8 2014, 12:11 PM

Those planning to start P2, P5, P7 next week, sign up for J pro training classes is available this Saturday 15/2/2014 from 9am to 5pm. All the classes will start from zero and cover the whole syllabus and also includes revision.

Classes for the June 2014 sitting will be starting on 17/2/2014 for P2 ACCA, 22/2/2014 for P5 ACCA and 23/2/2014 for P7 ACCA.

P1 and P3 are available on crash course mode. Those will start later. Call 016-263-0649.

If you are planning to start ACCA for the first time after your degree and need to get advice, drop by on 22/2/2014 after 6.30 pm. I can probably give you advice on the matter.

Those looking for text books and kits from BPP - place your order with me, I can get you 2nd hand copies for a reasonable price.

Those thinking of getting OBU completed can also get in touch for details.

This post has been edited by frodo baggin: Feb 14 2014, 12:08 AM