Low pass percentages: Accounting students brace for nerve-rattling results

ACCA papers are notoriously difficult to pass, the students need to score at least 50% to pass.

KARACHI: The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) global website saw an exceptionally high number of visitors on Monday as students apprehensively logged on to check the results of the skilled and professional module exams.

The June 2011 exam results are accessed on each student’s ‘myACCA’ page. There are about 13 papers in the skilled and professional modules out of which 11 are compulsory. The answer sheets for the exams are filled and checked by hand and the exam itself is held twice a year, in June and December. ACCA Pakistan told The Express Tribune that the processed results are sent to the country from the head office in the UK and will not be available for a few days.

Most colleges offering the ACCA courses announce a holiday when results are announced. According to students, they do this because of the immense strain and shock that accompanies the announcement. The ACCA papers are notoriously difficult to pass with a student needing to scoare at least 50% to pass.

A student of Tabani’s School of Accountancy, Shayaan Khan, was as happy as a lark because he had cleared all three of his fundamental level papers. “The papers were easy except for the fundamental level 6 exam which had new calculations,” he said. He added that devoting two hours to each subject per day was a tried and tested formula for success.

Not everyone did as well. A student of the fundamental module who took his classes at Abeel School of Accountancy and KNS Institute of Business Studies, was distraught with confusion. He couldn’t understand why he did so badly given that he went to the “best teachers in the city and was attending classes at two different institutes”.

For each ACCA subject there are just a few good teachers, students told The Express Tribune. These teachers are scattered across Karachi at various ACCA institutions and thus students often end up taking classes at more than one of these schools to maximise on their chances. For instance, many of them said that Barrister Khurram Rasheed and Khalid Fareed Abbasi are known as the best teachers for the fundamental level-4, KNS’s Sir Sajid and Subhan Mirchawala are known for their knowledge in fundamental level-8 and Abeel’s School of Accountancy’s Sir Adeel is known as the best fundamental level-7 preparation.

Seven to eight institutes offer these classes, including Tabani’s School of Accountancy, College of Accounting and Management, Al-Hamd Academy, The Centre for Management Studies, Mirchewala, Abeel’s School of Accountancy, KNS Institute of Business Studies and Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd,  2011.