ACCA Study Plan: How to Plan Every Exam

How to build an ACCA study plan

Every ACCA study plan has the same four steps:

1. Fix the exam date first. Applied Skills and Strategic Professional exams are sat in four sessions a year, in March, June, September and December. BT, MA, FA and the English and Global versions of LW are on demand, so you choose the date. Check the session dates and booking deadlines in our ACCA exam dates guide.
2. Count the weeks back from that date. Write each week into a calendar, not a vague list.
3. Split the syllabus across the first two thirds. ACCA's syllabus and study guide for each paper lists the syllabus areas. Give the larger, more examinable areas more weeks.
4. Keep the last third for questions. Most students who fail ran out of time for practice, not for reading.

If you are not sure what each paper covers or how it is examined, start with our ACCA exams list .

How many hours should you plan?

ACCA does not publish a fixed number of study hours per exam in its current syllabus guides, so treat any figure you see as a rule of thumb. This is ours:

• Applied Knowledge (BT, MA, FA) and LW: about 6 to 8 weeks at 8 to 10 hours a week.
• Applied Skills (PM, TX, FR, AA, FM): about 12 weeks at 10 to 12 hours a week, so roughly 120 to 150 hours.
• Strategic Professional: at least 12 weeks at 12 to 15 hours a week. These exams reward written practice, which takes longer than reading.

Adjust for your own situation. If the paper builds on one you passed recently (PM after MA, FR after FA), you may need less. If you are working full time with a long commute, plan fewer hours a week over more weeks rather than an ambitious plan you will drop by week three.

A sample 12-week plan for ACCA PM

This is a plan for Performance Management, a three-hour session exam with 30 marks of objective tests in Section A, 30 marks of case-based objective tests in Section B and two 20-mark constructed response questions in Section C. The same shape works for TX, FR, AA and FM: swap in that paper's syllabus areas.

1. Week 1: Management information systems and data analytics (area A), and refresh the MA topics PM assumes, such as overhead absorption and basic variances.
2. Weeks 2 and 3: Specialist cost and management accounting techniques (area B). Activity-based costing, target costing, life-cycle costing, throughput accounting and accounting for environmental and sustainability factors.
3. Weeks 4 and 5: Decision-making techniques (area C). Relevant costing, cost-volume-profit analysis, limiting factors, pricing, make-or-buy, and risk and uncertainty.
4. Weeks 6 and 7: Budgeting and control (area D). Budgetary systems, forecasting techniques, standard costing, mix and yield variances and planning and operational variances.
5. Week 8: Performance measurement and control (area E). Financial and non-financial measures, divisional performance, transfer pricing and not-for-profit organisations. This is a major area, so carry it into week 9 if you need to.
6. Week 9: Objective test practice. Timed Section A and B questions across the whole syllabus. Note every topic where you are slow or wrong.
7. Week 10: Section C practice. Two 20-mark questions at a time, typed into a spreadsheet and word processor as in the real exam. Practise writing what your numbers mean, not just the numbers.
8. Week 11: Full exam under timed conditions. Sit a full specimen or past exam in ACCA's Practice Platform , mark it honestly, then go back to the lessons behind your weakest answers.
9. Week 12: Second full exam and light review. Another timed exam early in the week, then short revision of formulae and weak areas. Rest the day before.

Our guide to passing ACCA PM goes deeper on the exam itself. For general technique, read how to pass ACCA exams first time .

How to plan the whole ACCA qualification

There are 13 exams, so a plan across the whole qualification matters as much as a plan for one paper.

• Follow a sensible order. Each level builds on the one before, and several papers pair up (MA then PM, FA then FR, AA then AAA). See the best order for ACCA exams .
• Decide how many exams per session. One session exam at a time is the safe default if you work full time. Two can work if they share material or you have more time. Our guide on which ACCA exams to take together lists the pairings that work.
• Use the on-demand papers to fill gaps. You can sit BT, MA, FA and LW (English or Global) between sessions, which keeps you moving while you wait for a session result.
• Leave room for the Ethics and Professional Skills module. ACCA says it should be done before you attempt any Strategic Professional exam.
• Be realistic about the total. Our guide to how long ACCA takes covers typical timelines, and exemptions can shorten yours.

If you fail: how to adjust your plan

Session results come about six weeks after the exam. If you want to resit in the next session, that leaves roughly six weeks, so your resit plan has to be shorter and sharper than the first one.

1. Read your result properly. A near miss usually means exam technique or time management. A low score usually means gaps in the syllabus.
2. Do not restart from week 1. List the syllabus areas and question types where you lost marks and plan around those.
3. Spend most of the time on timed questions. Aim for at least three full exams under exam conditions before the resit.
4. Decide whether to resit now or later. If the gaps are large, or you have another paper booked, it can be better to resit a session later with a full plan.

If you study on your own, our ACCA self-study guide has more on staying on track without a classroom timetable.

Plan your study with VIVA

Our ACCA courses cover every paper with video lessons and an AI Tutor in every lesson, and your progress is saved lesson by lesson so you can follow your plan week by week. The ACCA PM course has 190 lessons across eight sections. See all ACCA courses and ACCA prices .

Sources: ACCA About our exams , ACCA Performance Management syllabus and study guide 2026-27 , Strategic Business Leader syllabus and study guide 2026-27 , checked 7 November 2026.