Knowing when and where to start when it comes to revising for your accountancy exams can be tricky, especially when there are a variety of topics to cover.
Being able to compartmentalise and organise each part of your studies ensures that you don’t become overwhelmed with the feat ahead of you, whilst also providing a foundation for a strong schedule that you can use until the very end.
Having a plan is a great way to prepare yourself before your exam starts approaching as you can see the layout of everything your course covers, where you need to place the most focus and what time you would like to dedicate to each topic.
As part of my Accounting Exam Accelerator Programme I help students find an effective way to study that is tailored to their individual needs, with study plans being one of the first points of call for anyone who is starting or looking to efficiently continue their revision.
What Is A Study Plan?
Knowing what a study plan is and what the benefits of using one are is a great place to begin, as this betters your understanding of why you should be using one.
In simple terms, a study plan outlines what you aim to achieve during your revision sessions, blocking sections of your work into manageable chunks that are easy to follow and stick to.
There are a variety of ways in which you can format a study plan, so the one you opt for depends on finding the most suitable version for your needs and desired outcome – it’s no use finding a template online and picking that solely for convenience if it doesn’t achieve what you want.
From simple weekly timetables where you can write in what you want to revise each day to plans that focus on the year ahead, including deadlines, important dates and any other information relevant to your accounting exams, there will be something for everyone, even if you have to make it yourself.
I’m the type of person who allowed a lack of time to get to me and this massively hindered my performance, but forming a study plan gave me a strict set-up to follow and it helped me design my own schedule to keep me heading in the right direction.
How To Get Started?
Now that you know what a study plan is, you can get started on devising your own and it’s imperative that you start your plan as early as possible to maximise its usage and effects.
There are a range of pre-existing study plans to be found, including downloadable templates you can print off and hard-copy diaries that feature pages for every day of the week, but you can also design your own if none of the readily available ones will do the trick.
You could have a study plan per topic that tracks your progress with the subject matter or you could follow a typical timetable format that makes a note of when you want to study what – it’s whatever works best for you.
Next, think about what kind of learner you are, because this will massively impact the ways in which you learn and could even cut your study time in half if you don’t already know the ways you revise best.
My blog Pass Your Accountancy Exams By Understanding Your Learning Style covers the four main types of learner, with people often falling into at least two categories, so give that a read before you begin anything else.
How To Make It?
When you know what you want to gain from your study plan and what format you want it to follow, you can then officially get started with making or adapting it.
It sounds like an incredibly long-winded process for such a simple document as a plan, but this extra half hour of work before you start will leave you reaping the rewards later down the line.
I like to have a plan per exam paper and that way I can clearly see the topics involved and know when the deadline is, but you can choose a more general view of the whole course if that suits you.
There are a number of ordered steps to take at the start and then after that you can work away to your heart’s content creating a personalised plan with all of your chosen topics, tasks and activities.
1. Establish The Basics
See what areas of study you need to cover, whether it be for a certain exam or for the entirety of accounting, but the latter can be a pretty overwhelming task so it might be a good idea to start small and build upon each paper later.
2. Prioritise
You’re likely to have strengths and weaknesses across the content on each paper, so prioritise the ones you struggle with most and leave what you deem to be the easiest as the last of the bunch, however tempting it might be to focus on that first.
3. Divide Your Time
Block your whole day into whatever intervals suit you, even if it’s just hourly sections rather than bi-hourly or quarterly.
You can start your plan from the moment you wake up or the second you get in the door after work, just have space to write down what you want to do and when.
4. Fill In The Blanks
If you already know there is an activity you do at the same time every week, make a note of it and clear off the spaces where you won’t be available to study.
Give yourself at least 5 hours of study time a week, but try and include more if your schedule allows.
5. Plan Your Study
Possibly the most obvious step, you need to start planning when and what you want to study, so fill up all the empty spaces with topics.
Make sure to include your prioritised subjects first and then slot the others in when you have a spare space, ensuring that each one is covered every week.
6. Decorate
I’m not a particularly creative person and even I know that I’ll pay more attention to a study plan hung on my wall if it looks nice.
You could colour-code each topic or draw all over the page, just make sure it stands out and sparks joy, not dread, when you look at it.
How To Start Studying?
Once it’s written, the debate is over and you have to be strict with yourself to follow your study plan and remain disciplined.
Unplanned deviation isn’t uncommon and don’t beat yourself up if you miss a day or two of studying, but don’t use an external factor as an excuse to lose all motivation and fall off the wagon.
Let the people around you know that you can’t be disturbed and will be focusing on your studies at certain points during the day, because after going to all the effort of building a plan the last thing you need to do is be distracted and steer off-track.
Remember that your time is valuable and spending it studying for your exams is an incredibly productive thing to do, so use that as your motivation to keep going.