ACCA: I’m done
By: Daniel Adeyemi
Tags: Education, Acca, Accounting, Exam, Nigeria

ACCA: I’m done

My journey and all the advice I can give before I forget

This came 2 weeks later

Update: On 21st January 2019, I published a follow-up article

On the 15th of January 2018, It’s 1 am-ish and I’m still waiting for my final result — P2 — Corporate reporting, P3 — Business Analysis, P4 — Advanced Financial Management, were the last set of exams I wrote in December 2017.

ACCA — Founded in 1904, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants is the global professional accounting body offering the Chartered Certified Accountant qualification. ICAN — The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) is a professional accountancy body in Nigeria. It was formed on 1 September 1965.

My result usually comes shortly after Midnight via email but this time it lingered, I’m not sure why but I wasn’t feeling good due to cold so I was drowsy but because I had slept in the afternoon I couldn’t sleep. I was looking out for a mail and then a text message comes in, I was doing something else on my phone but I saw the notification and it stayed long enough for me to read the message, I had seen my result. I didn’t really see it well but then I saw 3 passes and some figures. So I opened my text message app and walah! I’m done!

Truecaller messenger app won me over, and Wow two 50s Yikes! Praise God!

I had always known I would write this article because, for the last two years, ACCA has been a major part of my life, just like any other professional exam, constant reading and attending classes and writing exams. It was like I was in school again but with more freedom and focus perhaps. I’m glad that when I started in June 2016, I had set the date to finish as December 2017, based on my calculation it was fair time span I had given myself. Some people tried to talk me into finishing earlier but naah I didn’t want pressure on my life. I wouldn’t really have mattered if I didn’t finish in December, I’d still be glad because things don’t always go the way we plan, actually, they didn’t but somehow I still finished when I wanted to.

I decided to take ACCA professional exam after considering a number of factors.

It was ideal step to take since my first degree was in Accounting and I found it fairly convenient understanding the concepts and passing exams, It was a better option compared to ICAN for me ( I would address this later in this write-up or you can just scroll to the end if you just want to read that now), I had time — I started during NYSC, I wasn’t going to pay for it (Parents).

Yes, that’s what the syllabus looked like, it has changed slightly now.

Fundamental knowledge

I didn’t have to do these because my Bsc. in Accounting exempts me — assumed knowledge. I would have been exempted from two more if the Accounting department of my school had signed an MOU with ACCA but there was some push back from the department which pledged it’s loyalty to ICAN. I’m glad the MOU has been signed now.

Fundamental Skills

F5 — Performance Management

While I liked the flexibility F5 offers, that same flexibility and maybe the way it was taught was why I didn’t like the course. The fact that you could see a question and not even know the topic it was from was disturbing, It also was part of the first two papers I wrote so let’s just say my preparation technique was still crude. I had to write it twice.

Thank You to Mr. Abel for teaching me.

F6 — Taxation

I wrote this paper 4 times, December 2016 to September 2017. I had to repeatedly write this course till I could pass it. To be honest, I already didn’t like tax from school, the seeming complexities just didn’t appeal to me. Upon doing UK tax I found myself saying this isn’t even relevant to what I want to do and UK tax is more complex than Nigerian Tax. For example, In UK tax, tax is paid on a person’s death, there’s tax Co2 emission from cars…

An inheritance or estate tax is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property or a levy on the estate (money and property) of a person who has died.

I remember the first time I wrote I had 48 (pass mark is 50) it was too painful and annoying that I didn’t open anything related to course for the next 2 weeks after the result came out. I wrote again and had 30 something. Lol, I knew I needed help so I took classes for it and really I was all hyped up and I learnt a lot of new things but then when the result came I had 47. Argh, I was slightly pained but also indifferent as I couldn’t do more than that- I cannot come and kill myself. I knew there was something I was missing. I hadn’t convinced myself that I was going to use this so a part of me wasn’t interested.

This course was a tough nut to crack for two reasons: There are many tax rates and rules to remember that it most times got mixed up in my head and I had no plan of utilizing this knowledge. A drawback about being pragmatic is that I couldn’t make myself like the course, it just didn’t come naturally to me, at times the joy of learning helped but after a while as I got into more details I got reminded of the fact that I didn’t need all these crammed up in my head to succeed in life — I could always ask google or consult my textbook in real-life scenario. Somehow, somehow, in the end I passed this.

Caveat: Now I think I’ve painted a bad image of the course but the truth is everything can’t appeal to everyone. My friend Amara loves tax and did well in it in one sitting, so it’s different strokes for different folks.

Thank You to Mr. Udoh, Miss Dami and Mr Yinka for teaching me.

F7 — Financial Reporting

A good understanding of Debit and Credit principles helped here, it was an introduction to learning the accounting standards, for me one of the best ways to know the standards is by understanding what each is about and not just memorizing them. Also looking back Group accounts was quite straightforward, the adjustments have always been where the problems came from but oh well-knowing everything isn’t necessary to pass.

Thank you to Mr. Etienne and Dr. Umoren for teaching me.

F8 — Audit and Assurance

I find theoretical courses easy to read and pass. There’s the flexibility and room to understand it your own way and write it in your own words. I didn’t take classes for this course because it was majorly theoretical and people said I could read on my own and pass so I said why not? It was a struggle at times because there was much to read and at times I wished I had attended classes. I was in Uyo, Akwa Ibom then so I didn’t have the links for tutorial videos, having those would have fulfilled my craving for someone to put the knowledge in my head. I passed this in one sitting tho.

One key thing I learnt was that Audit was put in place to ensure that the owners of a business can trust the financial statement that the managers of the business presentation to them by having external knowledgable parties ( Auditors) inspect and give them an opinion on the state of the financial statement prepared.

F9 — Financial Management

You see what I mean

All my life I had known F9 to mean Failure until now, but then that was just my mind playing tricks with me. Mr. Faleye made me like the course because he taught it well, I was familiar with the concepts taught here because in University I took a course titled Banking & Finance for 4 semesters that introduced these concepts to me but then I never really understood what I was learning. I never got to understand the “why” like I did here. Working Capital Management, Business valuation, Risk management…It was an interesting course.

Thank you to Mr. Faleye and Mr. Udoh for thank you for teaching me.

Professional Essentials

P1 — Governance, Risks & Ethics

Corporate governance is the system of rules, practices and processes by which a company is directed and controlled

Similar to audit, structures had to be put in place to ensure that managers of a business were doing what the owners of the business wanted, structures had to be put in place to ensure that the managers of a business are not misleading the owners of a business. This course explains all the systems and processes in place to ensure that companies are compliant and we have fewer causes of

Ensuring that a company has a Board of Directors made of different people representing different stakeholders thereby creating a healthy balance of diverse interests so views are almost never one sided. Board of Directors put the management team in check.

Separation of power, ensuring the CEO is separate from the Chairman of the board of Directors. You can’t be both without a really good reason which even at that people might not care.

Ensuring that financial statements are audited annually to ensure transparency and accountability.

These principles/rules mostly apply to public companies and serve as a best practice that could be adopted by private companies. Another purely theoretical course, read for it and passed it.

P2 — Corporate Reporting

I remember the morning of the exam, It was my first paper of the last 3 papers I wrote in December, It was on a Tuesday, I hadn’t printed my docket- a document used as a pass to enter the exam hall. On that morning there was an unusual traffic delay, then I got to two shops to print in Ikeja and they wasted my time, by the time I had printed my docket it 5 mins to 10 am ( exam starts by 10 am) I was 20 minutes away from the exam hall, I was sweating and trying not to panic. I got to the exam hall 30 mins after the exam had started, I had to use 15 minutes to settle down and read through the questions, I saw somethings I didn’t know. The thought of failure started creeping in but then I was like naah there’s still time, so I started from the theoretical questions, I find it easier to answer theoretical questions so I just started writing and explaining. I actually did more writing than calculation. In the number 1 question — the calculation question, I just drew the format of the financial statement — Group Profit or Loss statement, did the basic computations put in the default figures and just kept on filling the financial statement till I was done, I was sure I was writing rubbish but then the marking guide doesn’t mark for correctness but a display of understanding so I tried to show that I understood how this statement is supposed to look like, It felt off computing wrong figures but then I knew my passing depended on displaying effort.

I was grateful I passed but I felt like without the whole docket sage I would have done better because I put in a lot of effort in learning the course. I even went as far as reading Man City and Man United’s Financial statement — I was trying to verify how players were to be treated in a financial statement.

Understanding International Financial Reporting standards is everything really, well you should know Debit and Credit too. It was interesting getting to understand the motive behind certain standards, the level of subjectivity that was still present and how imperfect many standards were because the business world is changing and humans were of course always looking for loopholes.

Thank you Mr. Jide and Mr. Ola for teaching me.

P3 — Business Analysis

The mini MBA of ACCA, pretty much the most exciting course for me, I was happy to learn this course partly because of my interest in Business. I opted for taking lessons for this as opposed to reading because I wanted to be in a class setting and get to interact with other people. A downside of liking a course and it being theoretical is that I sometimes didn’t feel the need to read more. The exams were scenario-based and I was sure having understood the course content I would be able to interpret and apply the knowledge to the scenario.

Thank you Ikenna and Nse for teaching me.

Professional Options

P4 — Advanced Financial Management

I liked F9 — Financial Management so it was a no-brainer that I would pick this as an optional. Learning about business valuation, International Investment appraisal, Capital restructuring and reconstruction and Risk Management was very enlightening. Ahhh! Segun Jimoh did a good job.

I had issues understanding Risk management especially Interest. it was partly due to the fact that I missed two classes that set me off balance and then I was gambling that it wouldn’t come out as Question 1 which is a 50 marks question. Funny thing is the 3 times I wrote it Risk management wasn’t Question 1 and it didn’t need to be before I realized that the other topics could be bloody and Risk Management was many times the simpler of the 4 questions. I finally passed and yeah it was Risk Management that most definitely saved me because I didn’t calculate anything reasonable in the Question 1.

A number of people have quipped that I do CFA because of the interest I showed in class. It’s not on the list. Stay off 😑

Thank you Segun Jimoh and Mr. Patrick for teaching me.

P7 — Advanced Audit and Assurance

Audit! I decided to not read by myself for this because I felt I was missing out on class interaction and additional lecturer knowledge. Well it was pretty interesting seeing how the emphasis was on understanding the accounting standards. I like the knowledge of audit but the practice doesn’t interest me.

P5 — Advanced Performance Management

Naah, I don’t like you 🌚

P6 — Advanced Taxation

After my experience with F6 😂😂😂

The mail came a few minutes afterwards

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