0:05 How to pass your ACCA SPL exam with 80%
0:07 first time. Well, get your pen and paper
0:09 at the ready because I'm delighted to be
0:11 joined by Nation today who's going to
0:13 walk and talk us through how he got that
0:16 results in his exam. But Nation, feel
0:19 free to introduce yourself, my friend.
0:21 So, hi everyone. My name is Nation. I'm
0:24 now ACCA affiliate. I just passed my SPL
0:27 exam in the March city and scoring 80%.
0:29 So now I'm affiliate and I'm working as
0:32 an accountant. Uh so yeah, that's a
0:34 little bit about me. Fantastic. Well,
0:37 let's get straight into it. Think back
0:40 to your SPL journey to get that 80%.
0:42 What would be your first major tip to
0:44 help a student who's maybe completely
0:47 starting SPL from scratch? So I think
0:50 that the first thing to do before even
0:53 touching the ACC study hub about your
0:57 actual content is just maybe do the um
0:59 ethics professional skills module
1:01 because I really think that that really
1:02 helps with the strategic business
1:04 leadership exam. I think the statistics
1:07 even prove that. So, I would definitely
1:09 recommend making some time to try and
1:11 get that done before because it
1:13 definitely helps with um attaining the
1:16 professional skills marks in the SPL
1:19 exam and there there's 20 of them marks.
1:21 So, even getting half of them just means
1:23 that you need 40 more marks to pass in
1:25 the exam. So, really nailing down and
1:28 try and getting that done. It's not too
1:30 time consuming, but it's actually really
1:33 good for the rest of your um even for
1:35 the rest of your ACCA exams, but
1:37 particularly the SPL exam. Exactly. And
1:39 you've got to do it anyway to get
1:41 qualified. So, ethics and professional
1:44 skills module. Completely agree. Get
1:46 that down as the first point guys on
1:48 there. Now, nation, where are we going
1:50 to next? When you're thinking back to
1:52 that 80%,
1:53 what really helped you to get the big
1:56 marks in the exam? I think um after I
1:58 did that I thought I want to do the
2:01 technical articles. So then the first
2:02 thing that I did I opened up all the
2:05 technical articles and I read over them
2:06 and I tried to make some notes about
2:09 them and I also used the chat GBT which
2:12 I know so that a lot of people use to
2:15 help like condense it down and get the
2:16 key points from it because some of the
2:18 technical articles can be really long.
2:21 So I do think that maybe using AI for it
2:23 can help you and then rewarding it in a
2:25 way that when you look back on it you
2:27 understand it because in the technical
2:30 articles it it can help you get a lot of
2:32 marks that you wouldn't really think
2:34 about. It just becomes like natural to
2:37 you. For example, you can pick out when
2:40 to use the pesto model as fire forces
2:42 these kind of models by looking at the
2:44 technical article. can really help when
2:47 you're in a question and trying to link
2:49 the models to the scenario and which one
2:51 relates to the question. Yeah, that's
2:54 that's a great tip. And the use of AI to
2:56 help condense it down, especially were
2:58 you working at the same time when you
3:00 were doing your SPL exam limited for
3:02 time? When I was doing the SPL exam, I
3:04 was actually just full-time studying.
3:06 So, it meant that I had a lot more time
3:08 to really focus on it. So, I guess
3:10 there's two ways that you can go about
3:13 doing SPL. If you're a full-time student
3:14 and you've got a lot of time, you can
3:16 really go more into depth in everything
3:19 and spend a lot more time in it. Whereas
3:23 I know a lot of people that do it are um
3:26 not not students, they're working. So
3:27 when you're working, I know it can be
3:29 really hard when you come back. So I
3:32 think trying to be disciplined in your
3:34 approach is very important. for example,
3:36 setting aside two hours a day, making
3:38 sure that I'm going to do two hours of
3:40 this and trying to get it done every
3:42 day. So, staying disciplined and having
3:44 a schedule can really help with
3:47 preparing for the exam. Absolutely spot
3:50 on. And with with it being the SPL exam,
3:52 we've got to talk about the precine
3:54 information as well. How did you get on
3:56 with that? How did you tackle it? What
3:58 springs to mind that could help an ACCA
4:01 student to pass? So before the uh
4:03 pre-cenes released, correct me if I'm
4:04 wrong, I think it comes out maybe two
4:07 two weeks before is it? Yeah, two weeks
4:09 before. So that's towards the the end of
4:11 when you come to the end of your SPL
4:13 journey preparing for the exam. But
4:16 prior to that, I tried to cover as much
4:18 content as I could because before
4:20 looking at the case study, I think it's
4:21 by that time you should have covered the
4:23 majority of the content. So what I did,
4:25 I used the ACCA study hub. I did it
4:27 completely. Um I prepared for this exam
4:31 completely with no paid tuition or any
4:34 fees. I just did the free resources like
4:36 YouTube and the ACCA study hub and open
4:39 tuition notes. I opened the ACCA study
4:41 hub and I worked through chapter one all
4:44 the way to the end. Yes, it was time
4:46 consuming. Yes, it is a lot. But I do
4:48 think doing that and then at the end of
4:51 every chapter doing the quizzes really
4:54 helped my understanding of them topics.
4:55 So I would really recommend to any
4:58 full-time students out there to maybe
5:00 take the same approach that I had. Do a
5:03 chapter qu do some questions on it. Try
5:05 to find past papers or past questions
5:08 that relate to that specific topic. So
5:10 then you know that you have a good
5:12 understanding um of that topic and then
5:14 move on to the next one and keep doing
5:16 doing that. And then when you get to the
5:18 end then hopefully it's time for the
5:20 precine. And when the preceding comes,
5:22 get your pen and paper out, print the
5:24 preceding out, and really get ready to
5:28 annotate it. I think that you um
5:30 actually released um some free YouTube
5:32 videos that people can watch, some free
5:35 resources, going through the case study
5:37 um analysis. I think you released maybe
5:39 like up to six or seven different
5:41 videos. Yeah. In the week leading up to
5:44 it, I use them to be honest with you. I
5:46 use them on a daily basis. I would do
5:48 some questions and then when you
5:51 released your video, I would spend some
5:53 time to go over your video and make the
5:54 same annotations and see if it would
5:56 trigger my mind to create any more
5:59 ideas. I do think not just copying
6:01 someone else's notes, but also using
6:04 your using your what you've studied and
6:06 the concepts that you understand and
6:08 your research to try and make some more
6:10 analysis of the case study. I think
6:12 that's very very important for this
6:15 exam. Yeah, exactly. Well, if if anyone
6:16 watching this is interested in those
6:18 videos, I can put a link into the
6:20 description and you can check out all
6:22 the resources down there. There's a bit
6:24 of work that goes into those videos,
6:26 some late nights. So, I'm so pleased
6:28 they helped nation to get you get you
6:30 over the line and with such a uh such a
6:33 good mark. I mean, what else springs to
6:35 mind that were sort of the big
6:38 challenges with the SPL exam? Was it
6:40 some of the theories? Was it maybe that
6:42 it's a bit more of a written exam? How
6:44 did you get on with time management?
6:47 What sort of springs to mind as a big
6:49 standout that you want to say to help a
6:51 student? I think that maybe a lot of
6:53 people that are doing the SPL exam might
6:54 have been in a similar position to me
6:57 where maybe they're better at the
7:01 numerical side of um the exams rather
7:04 than the essay style questions. And this
7:08 SPL exam is majority essay based and a
7:10 lot of written um a lot of written
7:13 questions. So I think trying to get
7:15 familiar with the questions with the way
7:18 that the exam is is very important. Um
7:20 one month before you should be
7:22 definitely doing some past papers um
7:25 some mocks mock questions to time. I
7:26 think that really helped me making sure
7:29 that I was doing some timed mock papers
7:31 because it gave me an understanding
7:34 firstly of how quick I need to write,
7:35 how much of what I was writing was
7:38 relevant to the question and how much of
7:40 that what I was writing would actually
7:42 get me marks because in the first time
7:44 when I did a mock paper I realized I was
7:48 writing so much points that wouldn't get
7:50 me any marks and you realize that. So by
7:53 doing past papers especially for SPL it
7:56 helps you to understand for each
7:58 sentence that you're writing would I get
8:01 a mark or maybe two marks for it. So I
8:03 think that is very important um in the
8:07 leadup to the SPL exam. Exactly. Lots of
8:09 students write paragraphs and paragraphs
8:11 and they probably come out the exam and
8:13 go feel like I've written a lot there or
8:14 like you're saying when you're doing
8:16 mock papers and then you actually read
8:18 it back and you go there's a lot of qual
8:20 a lot of quantity but not a lot of
8:22 quality in there that maybe didn't
8:24 answer the requirements and it sort of
8:26 nicely leads on to the to the next
8:28 question as to will you any did you make
8:30 any mistakes like when you look back
8:32 would you have changed anything in your
8:34 approach or what sort of springs to mind
8:38 that could could help someone Yeah,
8:41 I think that well in my approach
8:43 anything that I could improve maybe I
8:46 could have improved doing a few more
8:49 mock papers um especially the ones that
8:52 are on the CBE platform. Um, and while
8:54 doing that for SPL, I think reading the
8:56 case studies as well as doing the
8:58 questions because I think that that
9:00 would have really helped me to read the
9:02 actual full case study before because
9:04 for some of them I decided not to read
9:06 the case because they're so lengthy.
9:09 Yeah. That and it's hard to take it in
9:10 at the same time to make sure you
9:13 understand it all. It but I do think it
9:15 would help if I have done that. But I
9:16 think there's one more thing that just
9:19 came to my mind that I did do was read
9:20 the examiner's report and I think that
9:22 really really helped me. I took a lot of
9:25 time to go through that the examiner's
9:26 report because it's a very lengthy
9:29 document actually but it really can help
9:31 you understand the marker's way of
9:34 thinking and I think that really helped
9:35 me. That's one thing that I did for all
9:38 my ACCA exams but in specific this exam.
9:41 It helped me to understand the points
9:43 that would get me marks and what the
9:45 examiners don't want to see because a
9:47 lot of written things that you can write
9:48 the examiners just don't want to see it.
9:50 They've seen it too many times and
9:51 you're not going to get a mark for it
9:53 and in your head you might think it's a
9:55 good point but to the examiners they
9:57 might have just not wanted to see that.
9:59 Yeah, it's a great point especially if
10:01 you've got a student watching this who's
10:03 maybe sadly failed the SPL exam because
10:06 that examiner's report in a nutshell
10:08 tells you how not to fail it. A second
10:11 time round, it it says if you don't
10:13 apply your answers back to the scenario,
10:15 you're probably going to fail. If you
10:17 don't read the requirement properly,
10:18 you're probably going to fail. And it
10:21 gives a good examples as well as to what
10:24 would constitute a really good answer
10:26 versus one that's going to get one mark
10:29 or maybe even none on there, I would
10:30 say. So, abs absolutely fantastic on
10:32 there, nation. Really good point. But
10:35 are there any other fundamental things
10:37 that you've got to get on record that
10:41 could help an ACCA SPL student get that
10:43 50 plus that they could get down in
10:45 their notes, put it into practice and
10:47 help them out from this recording? I
10:49 think one thing that I would say
10:50 especially in the week or maybe two
10:52 weeks leading up to the exam once you've
10:54 seen the case study is try not to
10:57 question spot. Now I know how difficult
11:00 it might be but trying to question uh to
11:03 question spot can really put you in a in
11:05 a different mindset because if you go
11:07 into the exam and the questions that you
11:09 wanted or predicted to come up are not
11:13 there you it might really cause you some
11:15 problems in the exam. So I think trying
11:17 not to question spot is an important
11:19 thing to not do even though with this
11:20 exam because you feel like you've been
11:22 given the case study which is the exam's
11:24 going to be about you feel like you can
11:27 however for example in the March attempt
11:30 when I sat it for historical places in
11:33 my variant of the exam there actually
11:35 was no models used for any of the
11:38 questions. So if I tried to question
11:41 spot, I would have probably predicted a
11:43 model or two to come up, but in mine
11:46 there was none. So it just shows how how
11:49 much the the exam is about application
11:50 of knowledge of the real world
11:53 situations that are going on. So really
11:55 just try not to question spot no matter
11:57 how tempting it is, just try to just go
12:00 in with the knowledge that you have and
12:02 analyze the case study to the best of
12:03 your ability.
12:05 really really good advice and just
12:06 little things that spring to my mind
12:08 when you when you talk to me about that.
12:11 I go even just little things like using
12:13 the company's name that is mentioned in
12:16 the scenario, using the key words that
12:18 are in the requirement to sort of shape
12:21 your answer. All these little things are
12:23 just going to help you to pick up on
12:25 those extra few marks here and there.
12:27 And the last thing I just want to touch
12:30 on is that this is a strategic level
12:33 exam. Maybe you've got a student here
12:34 who's watching who's maybe been to a
12:36 university, maybe they've got some
12:38 exemptions. What what's your thought
12:41 process on doing an SPL exam? Is it is
12:43 it a step up? Is the expectation a lot
12:47 higher? So, as a student, as I came out
12:49 of a university, I studied accounting
12:51 and finance. And when I came to do the
12:54 professional papers, it actually is a a
12:56 big step up. It's a it's a very
12:59 different way of of studying for it
13:01 unless you go down the tuition provider.
13:04 But the syllabus is a lot more larger
13:07 than you would imagine. When I I
13:09 remember when I opened the SPL syllabus,
13:12 I was like this is really really big. So
13:14 I think it is a big step up and the way
13:17 that you need to
13:20 like practice is also very different and
13:22 also I think time management is compared
13:26 to university is is such a big factor in
13:28 the professional exams you need to be
13:30 very strict with your time management in
13:34 an exam if a question's 20 marks try not
13:37 to go over for example I can't remember
13:39 don't quote me but maybe like 20 I don't
13:42 know maybe 30 40 minutes I'm not But try
13:44 not to go over the time that you have
13:47 like prepared yourself for that question
13:49 and try to answer every question in the
13:52 exam because if you miss out for example
13:54 10 marks you're really damaging your
13:56 chance of passing the exam. So try your
13:58 best to answer everything to the best of
14:02 your ability with quality not quantity.
14:04 Fantastic notion. Really good advice
14:06 there. And yeah it depends on the marks
14:08 per minute. Some students like 1.5
14:10 minutes per mark. The maximum you can do
14:13 is 1.8 minutes per mark. So get that
14:15 down in your notes, guys. And if you
14:17 follow the tips Nation's kindly taken us
14:20 through right now, I think you're on to
14:22 a winner to get the 50 plus. So I just
14:24 want to say, Nation, thank you so much
14:28 for your time, your insights. Any final
14:29 little goodbye, wishing well to the
14:32 students? Good luck for everyone doing
14:34 your exam. Just be positive before you
14:36 go in. If you've done some mocks and you
14:38 might have failed it, it's okay. Just
14:40 try your best when you go in and I'm
14:43 sure you'll all do very very well. Mega,
14:45 thank you so much. Um, Nation and I will
14:47 be in touch. If you got any questions,
14:48 leave it in the comments. Be sure to
14:50 subscribe and good luck with your exam.
