In this guide we will cover how to prepare to retake the Business Planning: Taxation exams including reviewing what went wrong and preparing for your retake.
Review what went wrong
With hindsight, could you have done anything differently?
- Did you dedicate enough time to studying Business Planning: Taxation?
- Did you rely too heavily on your open books and not have sufficient understanding of the technical content?
- Did you spend too long reviewing/making notes and not enough time on question practice?
- Did you have other things going on in your personal/work life?
- Did you run out of time?
- Did you just have a bad day?
Whatever it is, what are you now going to do differently? DO NOT make the same mistakes twice.
Use the ICAEW marks feedback to assess your weakest areas. These are the areas you now need to concentrate on (without completely neglecting the rest of the syllabus, of course).
Draw up an action plan to schedule what you are going to do through this revision period.
Prepare for your retake
The key is going to be question practise. You may or may not have done every question in the question bank but there is nothing wrong with repeating questions. Plan which questions you are going to practise and build in a good rotation of topics to keep everything as fresh as possible in your mind. Remember the “topic finder” in the question bank is a great way to pinpoint the best questions to practise a certain area. Make a note of the questions where you have struggled and go back to those areas.
Can you get hold of a new set of mock exams to practise?
If you are taking an exam later in the year you will also be able to use the real exams from earlier that year as these will be prepared using the same Finance Act rates and allowances.
On exam day go in with a plan of which order you are going to tackle the questions, stick to that plan and do not over run on time. You can only do your best but do not let yourself down by doing something silly.
Good luck!