AAT results day....I PASSED! Woo!
Discussion
Apologies for using "woo", but yay me.
It was only the Foundation level, but I'm soooo surprised I have passed the exam, as I sat it 2 months into the course. To say I'm surprised is an understatement as I still feel I don't understand anything LOL - although the standard is quite low (about NVQ 2, whatever that means! )
Anyway, good luck to anyone else getting results today!
It was only the Foundation level, but I'm soooo surprised I have passed the exam, as I sat it 2 months into the course. To say I'm surprised is an understatement as I still feel I don't understand anything LOL - although the standard is quite low (about NVQ 2, whatever that means! )
Anyway, good luck to anyone else getting results today!
thewave said:
Keep up with the course, AAT is a good qualification to have 
Well, at the minute I've no interest in going down the full-fat accountancu line, but having a knowledge of accounts / bookkeeping can only be useful - and who knows, maybe my interest in CIMA might come back, but I'm in no hurry.
Although with plans for kids in 2-3 years, maybe I'd be better switching to year 2 of the CIMA course - any recommendations? I think I'm exempt from year 1 (uni degree in Maths / Stats / Economics), but is it easy enough to skip it?
tigger1 said:
thewave said:
Keep up with the course, AAT is a good qualification to have
Well, at the minute I've no interest in going down the full-fat accountancu line, but having a knowledge of accounts / bookkeeping can only be useful - and who knows, maybe my interest in CIMA might come back, but I'm in no hurry.
Although with plans for kids in 2-3 years, maybe I'd be better switching to year 2 of the CIMA course - any recommendations? I think I'm exempt from year 1 (uni degree in Maths / Stats / Economics), but is it easy enough to skip it?
No idea on CIMA, but I'd imagine you'd get some kind of exemptions from certain papers with that kind of degree which is kind of relevant. Best option is to give them a ring. Also, i'm surprised you couldn't have skipped foundation AAT with a degree like that? I started on Intermediate with just A Levels.
As a note, AAT gives you exemptions from all of part 1 of ACCA, so i'd imagine something similar for CIMA, but I stand corrected.
I had never done double -entry (quiet at the back...) so decided to start at the simplest level, and I knew I'd have to sit the exam in Dec (6 months early) as I'm away in June...that was the logic.
I'm looking at CIMA and it appears the structure has changed since I last looked. All v confusing.
I'll have a read and might come back with a new topic on it. Looks like I'm exempt from a couple of papers on the Certificate level - or I can do 2 more years of AAT and be exempt from all but one paper on the cert' level - which is probalby cheaper (as AAT tuition costs far less than CIMA by the look of it).
I'm looking at CIMA and it appears the structure has changed since I last looked. All v confusing.
I'll have a read and might come back with a new topic on it. Looks like I'm exempt from a couple of papers on the Certificate level - or I can do 2 more years of AAT and be exempt from all but one paper on the cert' level - which is probalby cheaper (as AAT tuition costs far less than CIMA by the look of it).
tigger1 said:
I had never done double -entry (quiet at the back...) so decided to start at the simplest level, and I knew I'd have to sit the exam in Dec (6 months early) as I'm away in June...that was the logic.
I'm looking at CIMA and it appears the structure has changed since I last looked. All v confusing.
I'll have a read and might come back with a new topic on it. Looks like I'm exempt from a couple of papers on the Certificate level - or I can do 2 more years of AAT and be exempt from all but one paper on the cert' level - which is probalby cheaper (as AAT tuition costs far less than CIMA by the look of it).
I'm looking at CIMA and it appears the structure has changed since I last looked. All v confusing.
I'll have a read and might come back with a new topic on it. Looks like I'm exempt from a couple of papers on the Certificate level - or I can do 2 more years of AAT and be exempt from all but one paper on the cert' level - which is probalby cheaper (as AAT tuition costs far less than CIMA by the look of it).
The certificate level CIMA exams can be done as home study, particularly as you have a bit of prior knowledge from AAT. I had exemptions from all of them but chose to do the Law one as I hadn't done it for a while and kinda slept through it at uni. I took a two days off work with the BPP homestudy pack and got 60 something %.
In hindsight it didn't do me any harm to claim the exemptions as I passed all exams bar the last first time. My only caveat to that would be that some parts of the management accounting paper kept on cropping up in further exams, that I had never seen before and weren't retaught. I never want to see process costing again! I also did a basic bookkeeping day at BPP before I did any of the financial accounting papers and it was really useful in terms of the nuts and bolts of double entry and I still use some of the principles I learnt there on a daily basis.
The maths, economics and law papers didn't feature again later on, so I would have no qualms taking exemptions on them.
eyebeebe said:
The maths, economics and law papers didn't feature again later on, so I would have no qualms taking exemptions on them.
I'm exempt from: -
Fundamentals of business mathematics
Fundamentals of business economics
according to the website, this leaves me with: -
Fundamentals of Management Accounting
Fundamentals of Financial Accounting
Fundamentals of Ethics, Corporate Governance and Business Law
So I might look to do these as distance stuff.
What did you think of the BPP homestudy stuff? Was it reasonable (pricewise as well as the quality)? Do you think it is around 2 days learning per paper (assuming the reader is fairly quick to pick things up)?
Ok so you're exempt from the two that don't matter lol
The law syllabus has changed since I did it as it now appears to include governance and ethics. Given that it's a multi-guess exam the governance bit will be a bit of rote learning of the combined code and the like. Ethics in multi-guess format is likely to be a case of pick the least offensive, tree-hugging, don't shaft your client type stuff. Law is mainly common sense coupled with a bit of case law.
Just had a look at the syllabus for Financial and Management Accounting. I'm not sure what level AAT stage 1 is at. I assume it's pretty basic. The Financial Accounting paper looks pretty straightforward, but I'd hope it looks that way to me! Given you've got a degree in a proper subject that is related I don't see you having a problem with it. I'd say though that 5 days of solid graft would get you through it with flying colours.
Management Accounting looks straightforward but seems to cover a lot of ground. Again a lot of it should make sense from economics. If you get this one nailed first time the lower Management Accounting paper at Professional level will be quite straightforward. One thing to bear in mind with all the Management Accounting papers is that Management Accounting is what we do therefore the hardest marked papers are these! At each of my sittings my worst mark was from the MA pillar. (I'll save the debate about quotas and pass marks for when you enrol!).
As far as BPP are concerned I haven't got a bad word to say about them. I went to taught courses for all my Professional and Strategic papers. They are very expensive but they get results. If you are serious about doing CIMA (or any other professional qualification), get a job with a good employer who will support you and pay for your courses. For the certificate levelI think the home study pack was about £100. I just started learning the textbook two days before my exam and ignored them wanting me to do mocks and stuff. I can't really knock their notes but can't rate their over services as I never used them. One thing I would say is that the BPP textbooks contain maybe 40% of what the CIMA offical study systems contain. Having passed all my exams using just BPP notes and my natural wit and charm it tells me that the CIMA own brand has far too much padding in.
As for how long studying for an exam will take. I can't help you on that one. I'm a quick learner so I'm bad to use as a guide. The beauty of these first exams is that you can book them whenever you want. My advice would be to buy a home study kit and have a flick through it. See what you think of the difficulty/pace and schedule an exam accordingly.
If you have any more questions send me an email or reply on here. If you decide to go for it and are stuck with any of the concepts etc I'm happy to help.
The law syllabus has changed since I did it as it now appears to include governance and ethics. Given that it's a multi-guess exam the governance bit will be a bit of rote learning of the combined code and the like. Ethics in multi-guess format is likely to be a case of pick the least offensive, tree-hugging, don't shaft your client type stuff. Law is mainly common sense coupled with a bit of case law.
Just had a look at the syllabus for Financial and Management Accounting. I'm not sure what level AAT stage 1 is at. I assume it's pretty basic. The Financial Accounting paper looks pretty straightforward, but I'd hope it looks that way to me! Given you've got a degree in a proper subject that is related I don't see you having a problem with it. I'd say though that 5 days of solid graft would get you through it with flying colours.
Management Accounting looks straightforward but seems to cover a lot of ground. Again a lot of it should make sense from economics. If you get this one nailed first time the lower Management Accounting paper at Professional level will be quite straightforward. One thing to bear in mind with all the Management Accounting papers is that Management Accounting is what we do therefore the hardest marked papers are these! At each of my sittings my worst mark was from the MA pillar. (I'll save the debate about quotas and pass marks for when you enrol!).
As far as BPP are concerned I haven't got a bad word to say about them. I went to taught courses for all my Professional and Strategic papers. They are very expensive but they get results. If you are serious about doing CIMA (or any other professional qualification), get a job with a good employer who will support you and pay for your courses. For the certificate levelI think the home study pack was about £100. I just started learning the textbook two days before my exam and ignored them wanting me to do mocks and stuff. I can't really knock their notes but can't rate their over services as I never used them. One thing I would say is that the BPP textbooks contain maybe 40% of what the CIMA offical study systems contain. Having passed all my exams using just BPP notes and my natural wit and charm it tells me that the CIMA own brand has far too much padding in.
As for how long studying for an exam will take. I can't help you on that one. I'm a quick learner so I'm bad to use as a guide. The beauty of these first exams is that you can book them whenever you want. My advice would be to buy a home study kit and have a flick through it. See what you think of the difficulty/pace and schedule an exam accordingly.
If you have any more questions send me an email or reply on here. If you decide to go for it and are stuck with any of the concepts etc I'm happy to help.
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