Common Mistakes Made by ACCA Students During Exams

Examinations are always very stressful. Due to stress the students make many mistakes. Majority of the common mistakes can be avoided if the students are aware of these mistakes and try to overcome the exam stress. We will discuss some of the common mistakes made by ACCA students during exams.

1. Being Distracted:

Many students get distracted by watching what other students in the examination hall are doing. You should keep your focus, attention and concentration solely on your own paper. Don't get bothered by what other students are doing in the exam.

2. Fail to read question requirements properly:

This is common mistake made by a lot of ACCA students. This mistake can sometimes be very costly and may result in your failure in exam. Carefully read the questions and their requirements and look for opportunities where there are easy marks. It should help you in choosing a question you can easily answer.

3. Not understanding the question requirement:

Another common mistake made by ACCA students is failing to properly understand the question requirements. A lot of students make the mistake of answering a question they would like to have been asked instead of what actually has been asked by the examiner. Be sure that you have properly understood the requirements before starting your answer.

4. Not using mark allocation as a guide:

Many students fail to use mark allocation as a guide. This results in some questions being answered in bullet points whereas a full detailed answer was required by the examiner. You should use the mark allocation as a guide for organizing your answer, choosing an appropriate answer format and allocating time to the question.

5. Poor time management:

Poor time management is perhaps the most common mistake made by ACCA students. Students make the mistake of spending too much time on questions that have very few marks and then running out of time for questions that have a lot of marks. You should properly manage your time. As a general rule, you should spend at the most 1.8 minutes for every 1 mark. Set time limits for yourself during the exam and try to stick to them.

6. Basing answer on rote knowledge:

Another common mistake that ACCA students make is that they base their answer heavily on rote knowledge. ACCA exams are not about knowledge, they are primarily about application of knowledge. Knowledge might get you a few marks but to succeed you need to apply the knowledge in the given scenario.

7. Not using the required format:

Sometimes the examiner specifically asks to answer the question in a particular format. For example the examiner might ask to answer your question in the form of a memo, report, draft or letter. You should answer the question in the particular format asked by the examiner.

These were some of the common mistakes made by the ACCA students. If you try to avoid these mistakes in the exam, you significantly increase your chances of success.