Chartered Accountants Flexible Route

haro124

Has anyone done the flexible route? I'm trying to decide whether I should do 2 or all the CAP2s in 1 sitting (which I know would be tough). If anyone has any insight it would be great!

ace_irl

I'm doing them in two sittings!

It will 100% make them more manageable and give you a bit more time. The downside is it will take an extra year to qualify but if you are starting your training at Cap 2 then time wise it wont matter.

I think it depends on yourself at the end of the day, I would always suggest spliting them and doing two at a time unless you're someone who works best under pressure and would find it easier with 4 exams.

haro124

My manager at work is happy for me to do either- but says the worst thing about doing 4 is what if I fail all 4. 2+2 would be a lot more manageable but I think its the extra year that I'd rather not do

tanit

haro124 wrote: »

My manager at work is happy for me to do either- but says the worst thing about doing 4 is what if I fail all 4. 2+2 would be a lot more manageable but I think its the extra year that I'd rather not do

I've done CAP2 on the flexible route. No training contract no study leave. If you have no time during the year to study and no study leave and you depend on your holidays or unpaid leave and you are going to be pretty stressed out. There's a lot of material to study and the time to study has to come out from somewhere.

Think about the amount of time you are going to have to study and just consider that the Institute recommends 6 weeks study leave for people on training contracts if taking all the subjects at the same time. I ended up with 3.5 weeks to study and it was very stressful and very tight for the exams. And best of luck :)

haro124

tanit wrote: »

I've done CAP2 on the flexible route. No training contract no study leave. If you have no time during the year to study and no study leave and you depend on your holidays or unpaid leave and you are going to be pretty stressed out. There's a lot of material to study and the time to study has to come out from somewhere.

Think about the amount of time you are going to have to study and just consider that the Institute recommends 6 weeks study leave for people on training contracts if taking all the subjects at the same time. I ended up with 3.5 weeks to study and it was very stressful and very tight for the exams. And best of luck :)

I'd get 8 working days study leave from my employer and can take annual leave to.

tanit

haro124 wrote: »

I'd get 8 working days study leave from my employer and can take annual leave to.

If that includes the days of the exams it's going to be very tight to be honest. You will have to do a lot during the year and the problem is going to be if you have the time during the week to do it.

In any case it's a very personal decision. There is no point in doing 4 exams if you don't have time to study and fail any of them. You need to remember that you won't be allowed into FAE without passing everything from CAP2.

If you went through CAP1 just make numbers with the number of subjects you had and how much study leave you took to pass them and consider that there is a lot more material to study at CAP2 level and FR is quite big. Also most people that come from college seem to also find Tax a bit challenging as it seems to be covering material they are not very familiar with. So Tax would be a bit more difficult than audit if you come from college.

haro124

tanit wrote: »

If that includes the days of the exams it's going to be very tight to be honest. You will have to do a lot during the year and the problem is going to be if you have the time during the week to do it.

In any case it's a very personal decision. There is no point in doing 4 exams if you don't have time to study and fail any of them. You need to remember that you won't be allowed into FAE without passing everything from CAP2.

If you went through CAP1 just make numbers with the number of subjects you had and how much study leave you took to pass them and consider that there is a lot more material to study at CAP2 level and FR is quite big. Also most people that come from college seem to also find Tax a bit challenging as it seems to be covering material they are not very familiar with. So Tax would be a bit more difficult than audit if you come from college.

I averaged at 80 in the cap1s with three weeks kf study without going to any lectures or any study beforehand. I work in corporate tax so hopefully tax will be my stronger one. If I do them all, I'm finished by 24.

tanit

haro124 wrote: »

I averaged at 80 in the cap1s with three weeks kf study without going to any lectures or any study beforehand. I work in corporate tax so hopefully tax will be my stronger one. If I do them all, I'm finished by 24.

Like I said it's a very personal decision. You have quite a bit of margin for the exams but I wasn't the only thinking that the recommended study leave of 6 weeks is spot on and in fact the big 4 offer 2 more weeks to their trainees via overtime they do during the year.

Tax is usually a subject that people coming from Accounting Technicians don't have a problem with. But Audit we all have issues, it's usually the other way around for people from college: they have much less issues with Audit and more problems with Tax. Also consider that if you don't work in Audit it's going to be a subject you are going to be very unfamiliar with.

And in any case Financial Reporting this year is massive, there is a huge amount to study: I spent almost 2 of my 3.5 weeks studying FR and you will definitely need to go to class for that one or be incredibly disciplined and watch all the online lectures and work through the material during the year.

All that said every one is different, you might find things differently. I did pass all my exams in June but it was touch and go until the end. You might find it easier than me. I found CAP2 much harder than CAP1 or Accounting Technicians. If you don't have the exam leave but have the time during the year to study and the discipline that will also work out quite well. It's not all about the study leave.

Think about how you organised yourself during last year and that the workload it's going to increase significantly compared to CAP1 and make numbers. That's the only thing I can advise you. Best of luck

AtticusFinch86

I did all 4 CAP 2 last year via flexible route. Only really had my annual leave days to study. CAP 2 exams are tricky, harder than FAES I'd say, but managebe. Start studying early, be disciplined, take the time to write up some good summary notes for each topic (I think this is vital, they will come in very handy I'm the last week when you're scanning through each subject) and start to practice exam papers a few months before the ecams start.

Some people find the mocks useful, personally I was much happier to skip them as I felt I'd be more productive at home. I also skipped the bulk of the lectures for the same reason, I just watched the online lectures at home (if you live a couple of hours away from the lecture centres, I wold suggest you go to a few early ones and decide whether you think you'd get more done at home)