Study Tips
The power of continuous studying
25 Apr 2025
It can be demanding when studying for a full professional qualification while balancing other commitments. From planning your study plan to retaining challenging concepts over multiple exams, it’s no wonder why so many people find themselves needing a break from learning.
But here’s the truth - a pause in your learning will likely delay your success and in a lot of cases, will do more harm than good.
What is continuous study?
Before we dive into it, let’s explore what we mean by continuous study.
When we encourage you to continuously study, we’re not suggesting that you should be hitting the books all day, every day. We’re suggesting that you try to avoid taking a break from your learning after you’ve passed or failed an exam and try to jump back onto the saddle.
Continuous study is a smart strategy. Whether you’re navigating practice exam questions or refining your knowledge in a particular topic, adopting a continuous study routine comes with big payoffs.
Why is continuous study important?
1. You will retain knowledge across each exam sitting
For the purpose of this article, we’ll use the ACCA qualification as an example. Several subjects within this qualification can directly link together in terms of the topics and knowledge learnt.
Of course, the strategic professional level subjects are usually the advanced versions of previous applied skills subjects. (ie. Taxation (TX) and Advanced Taxation (ATX), Performance Management (PM) and Advanced Performance Management (APM).
However, it’s not just the applied skills and their advanced subjects that link together. For example:
- Financial Accounting (FA) lays the groundwork for understanding financial statements, which is crucial when advancing to Financial Reporting (FR). FR delves deeper into the preparation and interpretation of financial reports.
- Corporate and Business Law (LW) provides insights into the legal framework that businesses operate within. This is crucial for the Strategic Business Leader (SBL) exam. SBL requires an understanding of legal implications in strategic decision-making and governance.
Essentially, the knowledge you’ve previously learnt can help with future subjects, but pausing your studies will weaken this existing knowledge. It’s beneficial to push through the qualification so that you’ll retain critical information throughout, even if you experience setbacks.
2. Continuous studying helps you build confidence
Imagine stepping into your exam room knowing that you’re thoroughly prepared. Continuous study builds your confidence and helps to avoid any last-minute panicking.
You’ll remain calm, focused, and ready to perform at your best as you also become more and more familiar with the exam structures and conditions as you work through each subject.
3. It saves time and effort
Imagine you’re training for a marathon. If you run a little every day, your stamina gradually builds. But if you stop for a couple of weeks, your fitness drops. When you start again, it can feel like you’re back at square one - your muscles are sore, your breathing’s heavy, and a lot of progress has been lost. Studying works the same way. Taking long breaks means more time catching up and less time moving forward.
Just like running, staying consistent - even with small efforts - keeps you in shape and gets you to the finish line faster. This means you’ll also be able to enjoy the perks of being qualified much sooner rather than later.
The link between subscription models and continuous studying
It’s not always easy when you’re studying to become an accountant. However, maintaining consistency shouldn’t feel like a constant uphill battle. This is where subscription services come in, making that battle a whole lot easier.
Automatically have everything you need
When you subscribe to a full course, you will gain access to all of the subjects at once. This means you’ll automatically have the tools and guidance to stay on track for your next exam each time you pass.
Plus, if you’re considering mapping out your studies long-term, a yearly subscription is a great place to start. Not only can this help you plan ahead, but you’ll save money short-term compared to alternative subscription options.
Use your subscription to help you plan
Align your study schedule with the institute’s exam sittings if they are held during specific windows. For example, the ACCA applied skills and strategic professional level exam windows are in March, June, September, and December. This can give you a good idea of how to plan your approach to the qualification.
The yearly subscription model can be used to plan your studies further. While this advice isn’t limited to the ACCA qualification, using it as an example - you can aim to sit for one or two exams during each window. This would mean setting a personal goal of completing between four and eight exams in just one year’s subscription.
If you plan ahead and utilise your resources strategically, the yearly subscription method will help you save more money as you’ll sooner reap the benefits of being fully qualified and earning more.
Even if you’re not studying for ACCA, you can still set personal goals to complete a certain number of exams each year - just make sure it’s realistic!
Perhaps you could gamify your personal targets by setting goals for how many years you want to subscribe to your studies or how you’re going to take advantage of all the available resources.
At Kaplan, we also offer expertly curated study plans that align with your personal goals, commitments, and learning requirements and needs.
Get back into your studies
Taken a break from studying? Or looking to kickstart your exciting accountancy career? Browse our courses, subscribe to your chosen qualification, and gain access to every subject you need.
Study Tips
The power of continuous studying
25 Apr 2025
It can be demanding when studying for a full professional qualification while balancing other commitments. From planning your study plan to retaining challenging concepts over multiple exams, it’s no wonder why so many people find themselves needing a break from learning.
But here’s the truth - a pause in your learning will likely delay your success and in a lot of cases, will do more harm than good.
What is continuous study?
Before we dive into it, let’s explore what we mean by continuous study.
When we encourage you to continuously study, we’re not suggesting that you should be hitting the books all day, every day. We’re suggesting that you try to avoid taking a break from your learning after you’ve passed or failed an exam and try to jump back onto the saddle.
Continuous study is a smart strategy. Whether you’re navigating practice exam questions or refining your knowledge in a particular topic, adopting a continuous study routine comes with big payoffs.
Why is continuous study important?
1. You will retain knowledge across each exam sitting
For the purpose of this article, we’ll use the ACCA qualification as an example. Several subjects within this qualification can directly link together in terms of the topics and knowledge learnt.
Of course, the strategic professional level subjects are usually the advanced versions of previous applied skills subjects. (ie. Taxation (TX) and Advanced Taxation (ATX), Performance Management (PM) and Advanced Performance Management (APM).
However, it’s not just the applied skills and their advanced subjects that link together. For example:
- Financial Accounting (FA) lays the groundwork for understanding financial statements, which is crucial when advancing to Financial Reporting (FR). FR delves deeper into the preparation and interpretation of financial reports.
- Corporate and Business Law (LW) provides insights into the legal framework that businesses operate within. This is crucial for the Strategic Business Leader (SBL) exam. SBL requires an understanding of legal implications in strategic decision-making and governance.
Essentially, the knowledge you’ve previously learnt can help with future subjects, but pausing your studies will weaken this existing knowledge. It’s beneficial to push through the qualification so that you’ll retain critical information throughout, even if you experience setbacks.
2. Continuous studying helps you build confidence
Imagine stepping into your exam room knowing that you’re thoroughly prepared. Continuous study builds your confidence and helps to avoid any last-minute panicking.
You’ll remain calm, focused, and ready to perform at your best as you also become more and more familiar with the exam structures and conditions as you work through each subject.
3. It saves time and effort
Imagine you’re training for a marathon. If you run a little every day, your stamina gradually builds. But if you stop for a couple of weeks, your fitness drops. When you start again, it can feel like you’re back at square one - your muscles are sore, your breathing’s heavy, and a lot of progress has been lost. Studying works the same way. Taking long breaks means more time catching up and less time moving forward.
Just like running, staying consistent - even with small efforts - keeps you in shape and gets you to the finish line faster. This means you’ll also be able to enjoy the perks of being qualified much sooner rather than later.
The link between subscription models and continuous studying
It’s not always easy when you’re studying to become an accountant. However, maintaining consistency shouldn’t feel like a constant uphill battle. This is where subscription services come in, making that battle a whole lot easier.
Automatically have everything you need
When you subscribe to a full course, you will gain access to all of the subjects at once. This means you’ll automatically have the tools and guidance to stay on track for your next exam each time you pass.
Plus, if you’re considering mapping out your studies long-term, a yearly subscription is a great place to start. Not only can this help you plan ahead, but you’ll save money short-term compared to alternative subscription options.
Use your subscription to help you plan
Align your study schedule with the institute’s exam sittings if they are held during specific windows. For example, the ACCA applied skills and strategic professional level exam windows are in March, June, September, and December. This can give you a good idea of how to plan your approach to the qualification.
The yearly subscription model can be used to plan your studies further. While this advice isn’t limited to the ACCA qualification, using it as an example - you can aim to sit for one or two exams during each window. This would mean setting a personal goal of completing between four and eight exams in just one year’s subscription.
If you plan ahead and utilise your resources strategically, the yearly subscription method will help you save more money as you’ll sooner reap the benefits of being fully qualified and earning more.
Even if you’re not studying for ACCA, you can still set personal goals to complete a certain number of exams each year - just make sure it’s realistic!
Perhaps you could gamify your personal targets by setting goals for how many years you want to subscribe to your studies or how you’re going to take advantage of all the available resources.
At Kaplan, we also offer expertly curated study plans that align with your personal goals, commitments, and learning requirements and needs.
Get back into your studies
Taken a break from studying? Or looking to kickstart your exciting accountancy career? Browse our courses, subscribe to your chosen qualification, and gain access to every subject you need.
