Achieving the ACCA qualification will open many doors in your career within the accounting, tax, and financial industries. The process can be gruelling, but you can make it through to the other side with the right study resources and training provider.
What is ACCA?
ACCA stands for Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and is a globally recognised qualification. It is a tough but rewarding qualification, and great to have on your CV when trying to attract the bigger names in accounting and finance, but what do you actually learn?
Depending on what you choose to focus on, it can provide a broad understanding of international financial systems, as well as technical knowledge in areas such as taxation, audit, and corporate finance.
ACCA: an overview
When studying for the full ACCA qualification, you will gather your knowledge through the compulsory modules in the ACCA Foundations or Applied Knowledge, and Applied Skills levels. The level you start at will depend on your prior knowledge and experience.
The compulsory modules provide you with the foundation knowledge to kickstart your career, where you will then focus on specific areas through the Strategic Professional level by choosing two out of four advanced modules - Advanced Financial Management, Advanced Performance Management, Advanced Taxation UK, and Advanced Audit and Assurance.
Have a look at a full overview of each module and level of the ACCA qualification.
Who can study ACCA?
If you have two A Levels and three GCSEs, in five separate subjects including English and Maths, you can start studying ACCA. If you’re already AAT qualified, you can start ACCA at the Applied Skills level, and if you’ve graduated with a degree accredited by ACCA, you may be eligible for exemptions from both Applied Knowledge and Applied Skills.
You can check whether you're eligible and apply for any exemptions on the ACCA website before you apply for a course.
Why Kaplan?
So what do we do at Kaplan to ensure that you are successful?
Study methods that suit how you learn
We have four study methods, all designed by learning experts, to fit the way you prefer to learn. We offer:
- Classroom - face-to-face learning, in a classroom with a tutor. Backed up with online resources for when you do self-study at home.
- Live Online - scheduled online sessions with a tutor - like Classroom but without having to go to one of our locations. Again, backed up with amazing online resources.
- OnDemand - access online recordings and sessions at times that suit you. It is a flexible, online study method, that uses a variety of learning formats such as bite-sized tutor-led videos and tasks to link topics together.
- Distance Learning - if you don’t need any guidance and just want to study in your own way, in your own time, this is the one for you. You will still get the materials you need, and access to tutor support, but it’s all about independent study.
Have a look at our study methods to determine which one will suit you best.
Pass Guarantee
If you don't get the results you were expecting, have enrolled on an eligible course, and meet the specific requirements, you can take advantage of our pass guarantee. Get extended course access, tutor support, a new mock exam, and guidance, for free, until you pass your exam.
Learn more about our ACCA Pass Guarantee
MyKaplan resources and exam preparation
We have a wealth of materials to help you revise for and pass your exams. All study options come with the following:
- Knowledge checks. As you work through the course, knowledge checks help assess your understanding of a topic before you move on to the next one.
- Consolidation test. A short test of written questions you complete part way through tuition. If you’re studying Strategic Business Leader (SBL) you’ll take two consolidation tests.
- Progress tests. An exam-style assessment with a deadline at the end of the tuition phase. The tests are human marked with feedback provided directly to you. SBL does not have a progress test, but extra mock exams instead.
- Mock exam. Practice your exam technique with a mock exam, which replicates the format of the final exam, so you can check your progress. Mock exams are human marked with feedback provided directly to you. For SBL there are two mock exams for Distance Learning, and four for all other study options. All but Distance Learning SBL courses provide an online debrief so you can understand the answer and improve your own.
- Revision Question Debriefs. Videos that walk you through an answer to an exam-standard question highlighting the correct approach to the question and how you could score marks.
- Question-based mock exams (soon to be replaced by pre-exam workshops). The question-based course provides you with additional questions in the computer-based exam format.
Pre-exam workshop
Available from September 2023, our pre-exam workshop offers the opportunity for focused guidance from expert tutors to get you exam ready. The workshops will be tailored to those learners who attend to make sure everyone gets the most benefit from the session, but will include:
- the essentials of exam technique such as presentation, time management, and computer-based exam software
- question debriefs with marked feedback
- suggestions of additional questions to attempt based on common weak areas
- additional tuition on tricky topic areas
- the opportunity to discuss any final questions with your tutor and peers.
We’re determined to give you everything you need to succeed, so the pre-exam workshops are designed to help you do the absolute best you can in your exams.
Interested in ACCA?
If ACCA sounds like the right qualification for you, check out our qualification page to find out more.