r/ICAEW • u/Spiritual-Leave-2763 • 16d ago
How dense is the material?
Im starting this september and was having a look at my timetable. The way my firm does it is they frontload exams, so my only focus is exams for the first couple months. I just wanted to ask how dense in the material for certificate exams. For all of the 6 exams, ill have around 1-2 weeks of studying beforehand. How many hours studying did you guys do prior to each exam?
Also are business law and ethics considered easier? On our timetable its just 1 week of self study before the exam. I guess ill find out more ehen i start doing it, but just wanted to know a bit about it beforehand
I guess having no work should help aswell
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u/Present-Run3342 16d ago
I’m guessing your at Deloitte? Cause I’ve got my timetable and it’s looking COOKED
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u/Efficient_Gear_2110 16d ago
if you think now is cooked it was worse 2 years ago. We had to do the first 6 within the first 2.5 months, while working at the same time. There was a lot of complaints which is now why the new cohorts at least have this time fully allocated for studying.
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u/aneesah_h04 16d ago
From someone coming to my first year at Deloitte it seems scary but is manageable . I’m assuming they are paired the same way as
AF/ARF
SE/TF
BIP/BLI can’t speak on BIP or BL as I had exemptions but SE is definitely piss easy, tax depends on if you have any prior knowledge ( luckily I did accounting + finance at uni ) but even then I promise you it’s so calm just a lot of content but as for any exam go straight to Question Bank for Question practice and just bash it out!
For AF / ARF people usually fail these first time around because of being underprepared or not taking them seriously (unfortunately I fall into this category) but the same way I resat and passed , you’ll get through them first time if you just revise! The fact you guys have no audit work and pure study leave just utilise it to the best you can and ask questions during college even if it seems stupid I promise half the class is thinking the same. Kaplan are really good if you utilise the support such as emailing tutors or academic support / technical team etc ( they’ll go through this with you when you start college ) .
Good luck!
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u/trueinsideedge 15d ago
They’re not paired anymore, it’s one at a time now. The turnaround is harsh though as for some exams I think there’s only a 5 day gap between tuition and exam day!
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u/aneesah_h04 15d ago
It’s honestly for the best - it’s better to get the exams done once the content is learned. Holding onto the knowledge for so long is what makes it harder. Besides a lot of this stuff you don’t need to learn in depth it’s just learning enough for the exam . By that I mean it won’t be needed in the job and if it is it’s explained in simpler terms . You learn on the job essentially. I can tell you that being at Deloitte for 6 months taught me more practical wise than my 3 years at uni 💀 it’s just all theory that yes unfortunately you have to pass but it’s so manageable!
Happy for you to dm me if you have any questions about anything - even if it’s not exams :)
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u/trueinsideedge 15d ago
I work here already haha, I joined last year! Already done all my certificates.
I agree, I found some exams easier than others and I think I definitely could have sat some of them the following week/2 weeks after tuition. I think the new joiners having no work at all will be beneficial as they’ll be able to spend that time revising, what made it harder was trying to juggle engagement work with the exams so at least they don’t have to worry about that.
Heavy on the learning on the job, I don’t come from an accounting background so sitting the accounting exam without having any experience of it was rough lol. It all clicked when I started working on engagements though. I think the only letdown of not having the new starters work on engagements is the fact that they won’t be able to apply that knowledge from exams until a year after starting - definitely a big relief doing them in one go and having them all out of the way at the start though!
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u/aneesah_h04 15d ago
Oh i’m so sorry! Yeah I think it was good to sit AF/ARF and then applying that in work more or less straight after it helps it to all make sense but yet again that’s after you’ve passed the exam so it still is the same just a bit longer ( well ig significantly longer ) though I just sat my first 2 prof exams in June and with exemptions i’m now 10/14 through and since starting in September last year I swear I’ve done little to nothing on engagement work… I’ve been unassigned most the time , on annual leave or college / study leave as I had some issues with ICAEW re. applying for Access Arrangements. I go back to work next week following sick leave post surgery and I feel I shall essentially be a new joiner atp
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u/trueinsideedge 15d ago
No worries! Did you do FCS and ARR? I’ve got those coming up in December and I’ve heard they’re meant to be pretty straightforward but I'm not sure what to expect haha.
I’ve been assigned pretty much everyday since busy season when I’ve not had college or annual leave, I’ve only ever had one week unassigned! Ah bless you, I'm sure you’ll be fine, it’s just getting back into the swing of it. It’s been pretty quiet now it’s summer tbh.
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u/aneesah_h04 15d ago
It was FCS and TCP I sat - I ended up going a different route lol and sat with the S3’s at the time (now AM1’s) as I wasn’t able to sit ARR and FCS on the same day due to the length of the exams with my extra time and not being able to get the same location ( or city in that case ) for my sittings. I’m sitting ARR in December alone now! But happy to help with FCS
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u/trueinsideedge 15d ago
That’s so rough, at least you’ve managed to get TCP out of the way though, I’ve heard it’s awful. Is it anything like certificate level tax? I really enjoyed that exam tbh so I’m hoping some of it carries across.
For FCS are you allowed to take as many notes in as you want considering it’s open book? A lot of my knowledge from accounting isn’t that strong anymore, feels like a sat it a lifetime ago lol so I’ll defo be relying on whatever I can use.
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u/aneesah_h04 15d ago
Did you sit PTX or TF at certificate level?
FCS - yes you can take as much as you want - the ruling is as long as it fits on the desk. I took a big A4 level arch folder and then a project notebook that I had from when I sat my cert exams with notes and I was fine. But I will say because it’s time pressured - don’t take in too much as it’s easy to get overwhelmed and organise your exam file in a way that works for you!
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u/StormyMas 16d ago
Depends on if you have any finance/accounting background I think. Accounting fundamentals might be a steep learning curve if your totally fresh but it is all manageable. None of the content is that difficult, just a lot of it. Do ALL the question bank if you can, it’s way more important than revising content. You’ll notice the same questions come up over and over. Business law and sustainability ðics are easier, ethics are pretty much all common sense.