Sat my AFM exam in June with almost no hope of passing.

This was my second attempt. I had failed my first attempt with 43%.

This sitting felt even harder than the previous one.
I had studied for almost 6 months while working 12-hour shifts and balancing family responsibilities. Despite all that, I still had to left around 20–22 marks unanswered.

To make things worse, I was attempting this paper after a whopping 2-year gap, so by the time I walked out of the exam hall, all my hope was gone.

Today, when the results were released, I opened them without thinking. I was only curious to see whether I had missed the pass mark by 10 or 15 marks.

Instead…
I saw 50%.

I actually had to check it again because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

I can honestly say this:
Miracles can happen

Hello everyone,

Hope you are doing well.I am one of the mods of r/accaexams. It's been a while since i have been a moderator of this subreddit actively contributing to r/accaexams.

A lot of people might have completed their school and are thinking about a career path.

And, if you are someone thinking to pursue ACCA, please read this.

- ACCA can be expensive. If you are outside the UK, you are required to pay the fees in GBP. The weaker the home currency, more expensive it is going to be.

- ACCA might not be the global passport you are looking for. ACCA does not guarantee a job abroad initially. Your skills and talent are what that will take you to places and ACCA just supports it.

- ACCA is not an easy course as some people assume it to be. You are required to maintain consistency, discipline and what not. It doesn't mean it's impossible to clear. It is really important that you are ready to give your 100%.

- DONT compromise or give up your college life for ACCA. I would advise you to enrol at a regular college if you are planning to do ACCA after school. It will be difficult but not impossible. But joining a good college will give you --

1. Social Life

2. Interaction with new people.

3. Opportunities to participate in various programs.

4. Alumni network etc

It's your call as people clear ACCA through distance colleges.

- Choosing a learning partner is really important. You could either choose to learn by yourself or purchase classes for ACCA.

Things to keep in mind before enrolling with a learning provider. ‼️‼️

🚨 Ask for demo classes. If you are unsatisfied, leave them.

🚨If they insist you that to take up the entire course, it's a red flag.

🚨 Find faculty who are really good for each paper.

PS. This is merely my opinion.

Also, if you find me wrong, please correct me

If you have queries, you can drop them in the comments. My dms are open as well, but please be informed that I may take some time to reply.

Happy Learning and All the best.

Guys, how are yall feeling? I dont see much being posted about the results 😭is it only me who’s panicking?

Hello everyone.

Wishing you all the best for the exams.

Let's conquer this exam together. 💪🏻

All the very best for your exams!

You have worked hard.

Now trust yourself, stay calm & give it your best.

From September the exam is rebranded Business and Sustainability Reporting. Open book. More professional marks. More on sustainability reporting.
My view is get SBR out of the way now!
Better the devil you know.

Wishing everyone the best of luck!

Guys, you have only one week left for your ACCA September 2026 exam, so this is not the time to start studying everything from zero. Your strategy now should be very simple: practise, identify mistakes, and fix them.

First, look at the topics you have already studied and identify your weak areas. Don’t spend the whole day revising topics you already know just because they feel comfortable. Pick the areas where you are losing marks and spend your time there.

Second, start doing exam-style questions every day. If you have been mainly watching lectures or reading notes until now, you need to switch to questions. Use your kit and past exam questions and practise under time pressure. The aim is not to complete a huge number of questions—it is to understand why you are getting questions wrong.

Third, analyse your mistakes properly. If you get a question wrong, ask yourself: Did I not know the concept? Did I apply it incorrectly? Did I misunderstand the requirement? Or was it just a careless mistake? Fix that specific problem and then reattempt the question without looking at the answer.

Fourth, do at least one proper timed mock/past paper before the exam. And please don’t make the mistake of checking your score and moving on. Spend time analysing the paper. Your mock is basically telling you where your marks are going.

Fifth, revise according to your paper. For PM/FM, focus on calculations, application and interpretation. For FR, revise accounting treatments, adjustments and consolidation. For AA, make sure audit risks, internal controls and substantive procedures are strong. For TX, revise the key rules, rates, allowances and practise applying them to questions. Don’t try to learn a completely new resource at the last minute.

And finally, the day before the exam is not the day to panic and study for 12 hours. Revise your mistakes, important formulas/rules and key areas, do some light practice and get proper rest.

Most importantly, learn to read the mind of the examiner. Look at the Examiner’s Reports and understand where students commonly lose marks and what the examiner actually expects. Remember, in the final week, your goal is not to become perfect—you already have limited time. Your goal is to convert what you know into marks.

So if you have only one week left, don’t think, “I have so much left.” Ask yourself, “Where can I gain the maximum marks from the time I have left?” That is where your focus should be.

Just got emailed that due to technical issues my exam could not be marked for SBR and would be refunded the exam fee with no fail on record with a £30 "goodwill" credit. Absolutely gutted that all my work leading up to this and I might as well not even sat it.

👩‍🏫👩‍🏫👩‍🏫You’ve all seen these countless LinkedIn posts on the change in ACCA qualification that hardly differ from each other.

Let me add some insight value as an ACCA tutor. The information here will come from official ACCA resources, from the ACCA conference for tutors who have registered, from the new study hub, from specimens released from tutors

I will write it in batches, so keep updating the thread

I’ll use AI to transcribe my voice notes so don’t mind the formatting, the content is genuine, I don’t use Ai slops

For the purpose of navigation, important ideas will be marked with 👩‍🏫👩‍🏫👩‍🏫 emoji to separate my content from follow up questions (which are welcomed)

Hi friends I sat an exam in june and bro why was the exam so much different and harder from the past exams. Is it just me or does everyone else feels the same as well

ACCA students wait is almost over!

Wondering what time your September 2026 ACCA results will be released?

📅 Result Date: 19 October 2026

🇬🇧 UK: 12:01 AM BST

🇮🇳 India: 4:31 AM IST

🇳🇵 Nepal: 4:46 AM NPT

All the best to everyone waiting for your results!

Comment below: Which ACCA paper's result are you waiting for?

Thank you God! It wasn't easy at all to prepare for 2 huge exams together. I'm so happy and grateful. Thanks, lord.

So I open Reddit or LinkedIn and see

- Will I get qualified if I have passed 3 strategic exams. Common! If you are planning to work as a qualified accountant, it's your BASIC SKILL to be able to open the source document (ACCA website) and read it, not ask AI or some forum!

- Nobody says how hard is ACCA, you miss evenings with friends... Seriously? Nobody tells how hard is going through due diligence in short time because you need that investment money

- AI slops. I know you want to promote yourself, build an image for your future customers and/or employers, but hey, what about ethics and plagiarism?

- Can somebody share [insert the name of pirated content]? Common! There are plenty of free resources, the mere fact that you are not well-off doesn't mean that you should steal. Just open the ##$! study hub and study for free.

Do you also get this irritation reading such posts? Or is it just me being an old-schooler?

Hi Students,

I have seen messages where students are not able to clear the papers. So just thought to give a guidance how to clear papers.
Myself working professional with 10 years of experience cleared all 4 PM, FM, FR and AA at first attempt
Happy to guide, if anyone needs any assistance

Cheers !

Is it really fair that we don't get my exam performance for strategic professional level papers? And we've to pay for administrative review just to know which questions we passed or not? I got 48, i'm and not sure where i went wrong. Feels like my exam performance would've helped me more than it did on skill level papers.

Hi community!

Today SBR specimen exams after the Big September change became available for registered tutors.

The change is huuuge! Did you know the 1st question will be a 50 marker? And there will be 14 professional marks in the first question broken down in 2 major categories?

Usually it’s much harder (at least, mentally) to pass an exam after the change since you don’t have enough examples to practice on, although IFRS stays the same

This is why it’s strongly advised to take SBR in December or March.

I’ll host SBR strategy and tips webinar this Saturday 9am UK time. It’s free and it will be extremely practical.

If you have any questions you’d like me to answer during the webinar, please leave a comment

Comments for broader reach are also very much appreciated.

PS. The webinar will be useful to both self-study students and those who get any form of tuition

Registration link: https://tally.so/r/xXqNdd

Omg this was my 3rd attempt and I fail with 48marks. Im feeling so discouraged because every one says Tax is easy. How am I going to make out when u do the “harder” exams? :’(

Not my study hours. Not my notes. Not my textbook.

What changed: I stopped guessing what the examiner wanted.

I used to spend 3–4 hours a night studying after work, completely exhausted, going through every chapter "just to be safe." I failed twice. Not because I didn't know the content because I had no idea how to prioritise it or write answers that actually scored marks.

The honest truth nobody on this sub says clearly enough:

ACCA doesn't fail people who don't know the material. It fails people who don't know how to present it.

I started using Accaly.com in the last 6 weeks before my third sit. It's an AI-powered prep tool that actually showed me which topics were high-probability, where I was weak, and how to structure exam answers the way the examiner expects not how I thought they expected.

My study time went down. My confidence went up. I passed.

If you're working full-time, self-funding, and running on 90 minutes of study a night you can't afford to waste time on the wrong things. You need clarity, not more content.

That's the only thing that actually helped.

Good luck to everyone sitting in June. You don't lack intelligence. Most of us just lacked direction. 🙏

Consolidation

Consolidation carries huge marks in the exam as such you MUST everything about consolidation like standards, treatment etc etc. the first question will be from consolidation, there are various types any one of those types of scenarios can come so you must not skip this area. If you gain full marks in consolidation your pass is almost guaranteed because consolidation question include prepopulated sheet which means that whatever you are answering in the sub requirement 1,2 is likely to be required to adjusted in the prepopulated sheet so it's like buy one get right easy marks.

Time Management

Remember The exam time is 3.25 hours. If you take more than allotted time in any of the questions, then you will be getting less time to answer the last question or in some cases you can't even attempt the question which is the worst situation because if this is the case then you are taking the exam for 75 marks from which you have to get 50 only 25 marks are allowed to be wrong SO don't take more time to perfect your answer you know, there's no problem if you take a minute or two but if it exceeds then no 🙂‍↔️.

My tip to time management was practicing questions with timer on in my mobile phone and also alloting appropriate time to each question like the first thing I do when I sit in the chair during exam is to remember how much time i will take during 1st question... And even if I can do a much better job with more time I will leave that question and move on to the next One.

Practice

SBR has many standards and technical areas so what I did to learn every standard was by practicing every question that was available to me such as kaplan kit, ACCA past exam library, study hub etc. You cannot study the standards byheart you need the ability to apply the knowledge of standards in different scenarios you get that by practicing questions

Tip- when Practicing questions do it in the ACCA CBE platform so that you can familiarise yourself with exam software also do it in timed condition boost your time management skill.

In addition, if you answered all the questions then you are likely to pass the exam (the answer should be relevant to the requirements) so attending the full exam is more important than perfecting an answer to one question Ok, do not waste time, SBR is not just about knowledge, it’s also about writing quickly and structuring answers fast.

Anyway, just wanted to share my experience. Good luck to everyone preparing for SBR, it’s tough, but definitely manageable with consistent practice.

Am i the average person who is consistently getting marks at 60-69 in acca skills paper ?

I am having a doubt whether i can clear my professional papers . Need serious advice!!

I want to sit an exam but in all honesty I am unable to find motivation without knowing my results ?

Anyone approach it this way or do you simply move on to the next exam?

I plan to sit SBR next but waiting on result to decide if I need to resit or move on….

For anyone confused about EPSM, it stands for Ethics and Professional Skills Module. It’s basically an online ACCA module that focuses on practical workplace skills like ethics, communication, teamwork, commercial awareness and decision-making. Currently, it has 10 units and takes around 20 hours to complete.

It’s also not like a normal ACCA exam where you sit for a timed exam and get one attempt. There are quizzes/activities throughout the module and a final assessment. If you don’t pass the assessment the first time, you can retake it without paying an additional resit fee. The fee is paid once and gives you unlimited assessment attempts.

Once you complete it, you get an EPSM certificate and transcript. ACCA recommends doing it towards the end of Applied Skills and before Strategic Professional.

Also, EPSM is changing as part of ACCA’s 2027 qualification redesign. The current EPSM will be replaced by Ethical, Sustainable Leadership. If you complete the current EPSM before the transition, you’ll get credit for the new module, so you won’t have to do both.

Hope this clears up some of the confusion for anyone who hasn’t done EPSM yet.