Sophie Macon 
Fixed income accounts for 11-14% of the CFA Level 1 exam (20-25 questions), making it the third-largest topic after financial statement analysis and ethics. This cheat sheet covers all 19 learning modules from the 2026 curriculum with formulas, key concepts, and calculation shortcuts. ☕ Use this as a quick reference during practice questions or final …
Before you commit to ACCA, it’s worth knowing exactly what you need to get started and what the full qualification actually requires from entry to membership. ACCA requirements: A quick summaryThe standard ACCA entry route needs two A-Levels and three GCSEs (or equivalent) across five subjects, including English and Maths. If you don’t meet this, …
If you already hold a relevant qualification, you may not need to sit all 13 ACCA exams. Exemptions let you skip papers ACCA recognises as already covered by your prior learning. ACCA exemptions: Quick summaryACCA awards a maximum of 9 exemptions, and only for Applied Knowledge and Applied Skills papers. Strategic Professional is never exempted, …
Every ACCA paper has a different format, and treating them all the same is one of the fastest ways to walk into an exam unprepared. Before the 15 tips below, it helps to know exactly what you’re facing on each paper, and where to find the paper-specific breakdown once you do. What’s the format of …
Exam day nerves are hard enough without wondering whether you’ve forgotten something you needed. Here’s exactly what ACCA requires, and what tends to trip candidates up. ACCA exam day checklist: A quick summaryFor a centre-based ACCA exam, bring valid original photo ID, your printed exam attendance docket, and an approved calculator, and arrive around 30 …
Performance Management (PM) is where ACCA shifts from testing whether you can calculate to testing whether you can advise. It’s the first paper in the qualification with written, constructed response questions. It’s also available quarterly rather than on-demand, so you’re working to a fixed exam date. We summarised ACCA’s PM examiner’s reports (Sep 2024-Jun 2026) …
Corporate and Business Law (LW) is the first Applied Skills paper, and it’s the odd one out: no calculations, no numbers to balance, just legal principles applied to scenarios. It’s the only fully non-numerical paper in the ACCA qualification, which makes it feel different to sit despite it being 100% Objective test (OT) questions. By …
Many candidates find Management Accounting (MA) the toughest of the three Applied Knowledge papers. It’s a calculation-heavy exam where a single rushed step can land you on a wrong-but-plausible answer. It’s 100% objective test (OT), meaning every question has one demonstrably correct answer marked automatically by computer. For example: multiple choice, multiple response and number …
Business and Technology is usually the first paper ACCA candidates sit, and it plays by different rules to almost every paper that follows: 100% objective test (OT), entirely on-demand, and marked in a way that rewards attempting every question rather than leaving anything blank. We have summarised ACCA’s own BT examiner’s reports (Sep 2022-Aug 2025) …
Audit and Assurance (AA) shifts the balance further toward writing than any Applied Skills paper before it. Only 30% of the marks come from objective test (OT) questions. 3 constructed response (CR) questions forms the majority (70%), focusing on applying audit judgement to a scenario, not recalling audit theory. We went through ACCA’s own AA …