Basic essence of ACCA for ACCA Asirants

Hello ACCA aspirant, hope you are doing well. Here at Career Compass, we are not just lecturers but we are here to mentor students to support them in every manner. In this space, we have highlighted ACCA subject structure. But first, let us give you a brief of what is ACCA subject structure.

ACCA subject structure

The ACCA subjects are broadly categorized into 3 parts:

1. Applied Knowledge: This level gives an introduction to the students to the world of finance and accounting, providing them with a broad understanding of essential accounting techniques.

• Accountant in Business (AB)
• Management Accounting (MA)
• Financial Accounting (FA)

2. Applied Skills: This level is aimed at building up on the existing knowledge and understanding by developing strong and practical finance qualities required in any finance sector.

• Corporate and Business Law (LW)
• Performance management (PM)
• Taxation (TX)
• Financial Reporting (FR)
• Audit and Assurance (AA)
• Financial management (FM)

3. Strategic Professional: This level is aimed at preparing students for leadership positions, by developing strategic visions. Here, the student gets a choice to choose the subjects where he/she would like to specialize further.

          Essentials (both subjects compulsory)

• Strategic Business leadership (SBL)
• Strategic Business Reporting (SBR)

         Optional (any 2 out of 4 subjects)

• Advanced Financial Management (AFM)
• Advanced Performance management (APM)
• Advanced Taxation (ATX)
• Advanced Audit and Assurance (AAA)

Few subjects are further available in variants,i.e. having a slight modified syllabus based on National tax and law regulations. Variant subjects include: 

• Corporate and Business Law
• Taxation/ Advance Taxation
• Financial Reporting/ Strategic Business Leadership
• Audit and Assurance/ Advance Audit and Assurance

ACCA Examination structure

• ACCA Examinations are held as computer-based examination (CBE) ‘on-demand’ or ‘session’ based.
• ACCA session-based exams are held quarterly, i.e. in the first week of March, June, September and December. The exam time-table can be checked in the following link: ACCA Exam time-table
• Students can opt for a maximum of 4 subjects per exam session and a maximum of 8 different exams in each calendar year. 
• Pass percentage is 50% out of 100 marks. And the best part is every subject’s pass result is calculated on an individual basis, without any requirement to match up with the average or aggregate marks as combined with other subjects.
• The Applied knowledge is a total ‘on-demand’ examination, which gives the students the flexibility to book and sit for ACCA exams during any time of the year. Results are immediately shown and updated on the MyACCA portal within 72 hours. The paper pattern is 100 marker MCQs with no negative marking.
• With the changing times, the Applied Skills level has recently been converted to session-based CBE (except Corporate and Business law, still available ‘on-demand’). This level examinations are a combination of MCQs and Subjective areas, proportions varying as per the various subjects. 
• Strategic professional level, again a session-based CBE, is fully subjective. However, the paper pattern is totally in the form of case studies unlike many other body professional exams, reducing the efforts of the students to memorize needless theory. 
• ACCA exams being held digitally makes the use of Word processing, Excel Spreadsheet and slide presentation tools which polishes the technical competency of the aspirants and increases their employability skills.