If you find yourself reading this blog, there’s a high probability that you failed your exam and now face resitting it, so I’m here to guide you through the process from start to finish.
It can be frustrating to know that the hard work and effort you put into passing the exam didn’t pay off, but it’s imperative to remember that this isn’t the be-all-and-end-all.
When working with students on my Accounting Exam Accelerator Programme, I help walk you through the resit journey and how to maximise your chances of succeeding next time.
It can be easy to feel defeated after dealing with a set-back, so my blog How Forming A Growth Mindset Can Lead To Exam Success covers exactly how to move past issues you encounter in order to progress, including how to excel at an exam resit.
What To Expect From A Resit?
Whether you have extenuating circumstances as to why you didn’t perform well, you didn’t prepare enough or you simply had a bad time on the day, you are now facing a resit and need to know what you’re in for.
Whilst you won’t be tackling the same questions, you can expect to see a similar style and format when you try again, so you are entering into the exam with an advanced understanding compared to your first attempt.
The new exam paper won’t be a walk in the park by any means, but your experience in the situation the time before means you’ll know slightly more than what you did previously and you can most definitely use this to your advantage.
Your resit won’t happen immediately, so you have got plenty of time to make a plan and get ready for the next instalment.
Top Tips To Approach A Resit
When it comes to preparing for a resit, it can be quite an overwhelming task so I find sectioning it off into manageable tasks is useful.
1. Take A Step Back
The first step that you need to take is a step back – failure isn’t the end of the world and you’ll be in a better, more experienced position for next time.
Looking at the bigger picture will allow you to not be hung-up over the small matter of not succeeding on your first attempt and instead focus on the future and your long-term goals.
Taking a step-back can even include time away from the exam and revision process, but make sure you remain motivated for when you come back to it once you are ready.
2. Utilise Your Paper
One thing you have now that you didn’t have the first time around is your exam paper, so use it to analyse your answers and acknowledge the examiner’s comments.
Going over the reasons you didn’t get the marks is a valuable tool to use and you can even go through the exam as a whole to familiarise yourself with what you undertook.
3. Ask Yourself Why
It’s important that you ask yourself why you failed and properly examine the reason as to why you didn’t pass.
Whatever the reason, whether it be too little time spent studying or pressuring yourself to the point where you freaked out, take on the responsibility and adapt what you do going forwards.
4. Stay Motivated
Maintaining your enthusiasm and keeping yourself motivated is a big issue when it comes to resits, as it’s easy to fall into the trap of losing all hope and basically giving up.
A great way to stay on track is joining a study group where you can work collaboratively with other people in a similar position and each provide the support you all need.
5. Tailor Your Study Plan
Creating a study plan is a great way to jot down your goals and specifically list what you need to work on; my blog How To Create An Effective Study Plan For Your Accountancy Exams offers some helpful tips on where to start when making one.
You get the opportunity to tailor your learning to aspects of the exam which you didn’t excel at, getting behind-the-scenes access to what went wrong.
Focus your study plan on areas where you struggled or failed to remember the content, because there’s no point delegating equal amounts of time to every section if you managed to remember most of it – simply incorporate time for a refresh if you feel the need.
6. Keep A Healthy Study Balance
It can be tempting to overwork yourself as punishment for failing your exam, but you need to learn to forgive your mistakes and move past the defeat in order to progress further.
Remember to take the right number of breaks and don’t burn yourself out by pushing too hard; everything happens for a reason and you need to be kind to yourself.
My blog 7 Top Tips To Get The Right Balance Between Your Accountancy Studies, Work & Life highlights the importance of splitting your time properly and offers insights into how you can effectively do this.
7. Don’t Get Stressed
Far easier said than done, so whilst it might seem like an obvious one, not getting stressed can be a great step forwards after failing your last exam.
If stress is something you struggle with, have a read of my How To Deal With Stress When It Comes To Accountancy Exams blog for my list of ways to calm your nerves and ground yourself in overwhelming times.
It’s always difficult having to reattempt something, but you can take the pressure off yourself and it will help a lot, trust me.
Maintaining Your Wellbeing
There is nothing more important than your mental health, not even your exam resit, so it’s crucial to consider the effect the situation has on you and how to overcome it.
I have always advocated for a focus on everything non-academic relating to the exam process, and this includes a deeper understanding of wellbeing and not ignoring our emotions – it can be an emotional journey so we have to take time out for ourselves and stop every once in a while.
There are five primary ways to well-being, all of which are great steps to take to up our mood and decrease the chances of feeling burnt out.
1. Connect
You may have to prepare, but don’t shut yourself away from the world, simply take time to be with people you know.
It can be easy to become isolated when you are studying and you can neglect your health, with socialising being a big influencing factor on our mood.
2. Be Active
You don’t have to go to the gym for a 4-hour workout if that’s not your style, so try a brief walk outside and get yourself moving.
The problem with not staying active is it lowers your interest, you don’t want to exercise and then your general motivation becomes lower, which can become a domino effect that means you lose your motivation to study.
3. Keep Learning
When I say keep learning, I mean something new, something you don’t even know you’d be interested in, and it could quite literally be anything.
Take 20 minutes a day going onto Ted Talks and pick a subject you may never have thought of before, engaging your brain with something not related to accounting.
4. Help Others
We sometimes forget just how easy it can be to help others, from small acts of kindness to big gestures for our closest loved ones.
We have a tendency to minimise the effect helping others has on us, but it is very much a win/win experience as we are giving back to our own mental health.
5. Taking Notice
This one event can crush us, but when the dust settles, and we can look at the big picture we can see there are many aspects to our lives; we are not one dimensional beings and there is more to us than the exam we just failed.
When you pass the resit, it will soon be forgotten, and you will be ready to accept the next challenge.