Top Tips for Balancing Work with Your ACCA Studies

Balancing work and study can seem hard at first, but like learning to walk, with repeated practice, you can become an expert at balancing work and ACCA studies.

5 Tips to Balance Work and Study

Create Clear Goals:

• This will help you focus your energy on each task like a laser.

Set Realistic Expectations:

• Realistic expectations help you balance work and study by preventing burnout and mental exhaustion.

Eat Organic and Healthy Food:

• You can even consider investing in probiotics and cleansing your gut, this can help you maintain your energy levels through work and study.

Reward Yourself:

• Balancing work and study can be positive for your mind if you learn to reward yourself for all the micro goals you accomplish every day. This is one of the most important ACCA exam tips to remember.

Rest:

• Always ensure that you rest for at least eight hours a day. This is essential to maintaining your study momentum as a working professional. Having a strict eight-hour sleep schedule every day is one of the top time management strategies.

The ACCA exams are very respected in the accounting realm. Passing this exam can elevate your career immensely.

ACCA disclosed that nearly 61% of ACCA graduates and members received a substantial salary and compensation boost compared to their former CTCs. (Source: TSoM)

That’s not all!

Passing the ACCA exams can open great employment opportunities for you across 178 countries worldwide. However, passing this accounting course is no walk in the park.

Is the ACCA exam difficult? Yes. The ACCA is known for being challenging. You may think that’s a disadvantage, but industry employers feel otherwise.

Singapore, the thriving city-state of Asia, is a power hub for business and trade, generating massive revenue and value each year. This metropolis is known for its hunger for competent ACCA graduates.

Top companies in Singapore, like EY, Randstad, Schnieder, TMF Group, and PagePersonnel, are currently looking for ACCA graduates. (Source: Acca Employers Directory)

Becoming an ACCA member can bring numerous other advantages to you as well.

With all this said, you might be wondering how to manage the ACCA exams while studying and working and if study strategies for the ACCA can help a working professional like you.

We’ve got you covered!

This blog post will discuss how you can motivate yourself to study for the ACCA exams while being a working professional. You will find valuable tips shared by seasoned ACCA faculty, ACCA graduates, and part-time ACCA students like yourself who have cracked the code.

How to Study for your ACCA Exams While Working

If you are a working professional, you will know that work tends to consume your energy. You get home, you feel tired, and you would rather do anything else than concentrate or study.

And this is completely fair! The mind, after all, is working its best to prevent burnout.

Luckily, there’s a way out of this vicious cycle.

You can trick your mind into pumping extra energy for you once you get home. Here are some of the most effective tips and tricks you can use on your mind to get studying.

How to Study for ACCA Exams when you Feel Tired after Work

• Tip 1: Hydrate yourself. Drink enough water during the day and avoid drugs and other nervous stimulants.
• Tip 2: Eat a balanced and healthy diet full of green vegetables and organic produce. This can help you boost your energy levels.
• Tip 3: Pair up with a study buddy who can sit with you for one hour each day after work. This can help you feel motivated to study.
• Tip 4: Invest in noise-cancelling headphones or other ways to block out the noise of your environment. This will increase your focus.
• Tip 5: Remember your end goal and make a vision board. Construct a picture of yourself achieving your goals, practice positive affirmations, and train your mind to find humour during your battles.

How do you Finish ACCA While Working?

Finishing the ACCA exams requires strong willpower, motivation, and perseverance. Now, if you are a highly motivated individual, then with a little bit of smart work, you can push yourself past the finish line and complete your ACCA exams on your own.

However, life is not always the same for everyone. Different people may vary in their willpower and energy levels. The story for most working professionals is the story of fatigue and tiredness after work. Some may even complain of depression and numbness.

Effective time management strategies can help you cover the ACCA syllabus quickly.

But what is the secret to avoiding tiredness altogether?

This is the Secret:

Studying the ACCA can be an example of deep work.

Deep work is anything that requires your complete concentration. In the book Deep Work by Cal Newport, it is found that human beings obtain great satisfaction by concentrating on a task deeply and remaining in that state of concentration until their goal is achieved.

They were also able to learn things very quickly when they concentrated on that one specific task with their full mental power.

After you get home, studying for the ACCA exams can be your personal deep work assignment.

• Get comfortable, put on some noise-cancelling headphones, play ambient music, and concentrate on that one tiny bit of information you wish to learn from the ACCA syllabus that day.
• Once you have completely understood that one small bit of information, Cal Newport states that happy hormones are released into the body. This can help uplift your mood after work like magic!
• The rush of dopamine and other endorphins is the perfect excuse to reward yourself after your studies.

What are the best Study Strategies for ACCA?

Based on advice from a verified ACCA faculty member and other resources, we have coined the following study strategies for ACCA for you. Balancing work and ACCA studies can be effortless if you follow these:

Eagle-like Focus:

In one episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, Andrew Huberman, a neurobiologist at Standford Medical School, said the following words on how working professionals and adults can learn a new skill or subject while working.

“If you want to learn and change your brain as an adult, focus and engagement must be high. There’s no way around this…you have to lean in and focus extremely hard.” — Andrew Huberman (Source: Cal Newport)

Never take on Stress:

Stressing about the ACCA exams will rarely help you finish it. Take it one day at a time and try to achieve your daily ACCA targets according to your ACCA study timetable.

Also, when attempting the ACCA exams, remember to allocate time to each question. Never spend more time than what you have allotted to each question. This is one of the best time management strategies you can use to beat the exam stress.

Keep Practicing:  

Never neglect ACCA past papers, mock exams, and ACCA revision groups. If you find it hard to keep up with the study independently, consider an ACCA revision course or a preparation course for ACCA exams.

If you want the burden of studying while working lifted once and for all, consider enrolling on a proven and reputed ACCA course that can help you with effective time management strategies, ACCA study tips, ACCA subject revision, mock papers, study buddies, and more.

The London School of Business and Finance, in Singapore is one of the best options for your ACCA exam preparation.

This ACCA course, offered by LSBF Singapore Campus, has a proven success rate and is suited for working professionals.

Consider enrolling today!

A blog written by Rebecca Paulraj and edited by Candice McDowell

FAQ's

1. How can I balance studying for the ACCA exams with a full-time job?

You can sign up for a part-time ACCA support course, which can help you keep track of your ACCA preparation. LSBF offers ACCA courses for working professionals. If you would like to study on your own, then it is recommended that you make a study schedule and dedicate your weekends to ACCA preparation.

2. How many hours per week should I dedicate to studying for the ACCA exams?

Ideally, a minimum of one hour a day can help you cover the vast syllabus. ACCA support courses can help you keep track of your study schedule and help you finish the ACCA course quickly.

3. What are some effective study techniques for ACCA exams?

One of the most effective study techniques for the ACCA exams is pairing up with a study buddy. This person is going to study with you and keep track of your progress on the course. Some of the best ACCA support courses adopt this method of assigning study partners.

4. Should I take time off work before the exam?

It is highly recommended that you take time off work before your ACCA exams, just enough to complete the revision for the ACCA paper you will be attempting. ACCA revision courses can help you try each of the 13 ACCA papers with confidence.