An accountancy qualification from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) is considered quite prestigious in the global accounting community. The certification can open the doors for excellent career prospects in the financial domain.
The ACCA exam syllabus covers a lot of accounting disciplines and can be quite comprehensive. Gaining an in-depth view of the syllabus and exam format can help you prepare extensively and acquire the qualification easily. You can get to know the ACCA syllabus from their website.
But here’s the catch: The ACCA qualification exam actually consists of 14 different papers catering to different financial subjects. It can be a tedious job to revise all the concepts especially if you are unfamiliar with the type of questions that appear in the ACCA exams.
Read ahead to learn more about the ACCA exam formats and the type of questions in the papers.
Paper based ACCA format
In the paper based format of the ACCA exam, you have to answer subjective theoretical questions on physical answer sheets. You might have to provide lengthy justifications for your answers and arguments. Your paper will be graded based on the accuracy and relevancy of your answers.
As expected, a paper based exam format can tend to be lengthy and hectic. In addition, you can also feel anxious about physically having to write a lot.
CBE based ACCA format
The Computer Based Examination (CBE) format allows you to enter your answers in a given computer at a designated exam centre. This format is definitely easier and hassle-free as compared to the paper based format.
In the CBE format, you just need to record your answers in the objective type questions and type out your details in the relevant section. CBEs don’t have subjective type questions that would take longer to type. You can instead use that time to comprehend the questions better.
Presently, only a handful of ACCA papers are conducted in the CBE format. However, the feasibility and convenience associated with the format can lead it to be conducted for other ACCA subjects as well in the future.
Types of questions in CBE format
The CBE format primarily has the following three different types of objective questions.
• Multiple choice questions (MCQs): This question type requires you to pick the correct answer from a list of choices provided for a single question. This question type is the most common in the CBE format.
• Multiple response matching questions: These are MCQs which might have more than one correct answer. You are supposed to select all the correct choices from a list of options for a specific question.
• Number entry questions: These are one-word objective type questions where you have to insert the correct figure in response to a particular question rather than selecting from a list of options.
An ACCA preparatory course can introduce you to these question formats and let you gain sufficient practice in them. Hence, you must enrol in an appropriate ACCA preparatory program
