Last weekend, I did a 54km ultra-marathon. Well truth be told. I did day 1 of a 2 day 107km ultra-marathon.
Saturday was a long, gruelling day of putting one foot in front of the other for hours on end. I was supposed to back it up with another 53km on Sunday. I didn't.
Why? Because life, and my body, had other plans.
First, my left Achilles tendon decided to stage a protest in the months leading up to the race. Second, my house decided to start leaking through a balcony directly into the bedroom, and I have spent many hours removing the old, and rebuilding (still a work-in-progress) a new one.
Now, the important bit isn't really race day itself. The real issue was what happened before it. The Achilles problem and the leaking balcony got in the way of my training. The deliberate practice. The bit that actually would prepare me.
And that's true in real life, isn't it? Things get in the way. Work gets busy. Family stuff kicks off. Your body complains. Your house tries to drown itself. The problem is not the event. The problem is the preparation.
How is this linked to ACCA?
Because a lot of students think they are preparing when actually they are just hovering near the material. They watch videos. Read notes. Highlight things enthusiastically. Maybe even nod along like everything makes perfect sense.
But watching isn't training.
The Science Has Already Been Done
Do any of these sound familiar?
- Casually listening to lectures while doing the washing up.
- Watching videos while checking social media.
- Re-reading notes for the fifth time.
- Highlighting textbooks until they look like a neon crime scene.
Then the exam comes along……
The research behind real improvement has already been done. We don't need to guess. Anders Ericsson's work on deliberate practice is the key.
It’s not just exposure. It’s not just repetition. It’s not just "time served".
It is deliberate, focused practice designed to improve performance.
A useful analogy here is driving. When people start to learn to drive, it typically feels impossible. There is so much to remember and so much to co-ordinate.
But with practice, they reach a basic level of competence. Hopefully pass their test and over the next few years they continue to improve – faced with different challenges, and a high level of motivation to avoid an accident,
but…
then they stop improving. They can get to work, they can reverse into a parking space, and that’s good enough. They reach a plateau where they are "competent" but they are no longer improving.
F1 drivers are different
They never stop looking for improvement. They chase an extra 1/100th of a second in a corner, in a braking point, or in a racing line. That doesn't happen by casually watching other people drive or just "putting in the miles" on the motorway. It happens through relentless, uncomfortable deliberate practice.
Students watch and think they are learning, but often they are just reaching a plateau of familiarity. They recognise the topic. They like the explanation. They feel comfortable. Just like the comfortable driver.
Comfort is nice. But it doesn't pass exams.
Passive exposure to ACCA content leaves many students "basically familiar" with the syllabus, but nowhere near ready to perform under pressure.
The Illusion of Competence
Have you ever said this?
"I totally understood it when I watched the video…"
If so, keep reading
This is the "illusion of competence." Passive learning creates familiarity. You watch a tutor like me solve a tricky Variance Analysis or work through a Linear Programming problem and it all feels clear. The steps make sense. You recognise what is happening. You feel like you have accomplished understanding.
But recognition is not retrieval.
In the exam, you are not being asked to recognise a nice answer when someone else presents it neatly on screen. You are being asked to produce the answer yourself, under time pressure, with no safety net.
That is why students fall apart. They "know" the topic right up until the moment they actually have to do it.
Passive vs. Active: What’s the Difference?
Let’s be fair. Passive learning has a place. It is useful for first exposure. It can reduce the initial fear of a complex topic like Transfer Pricing. It can help you understand what a topic is actually about.
But it is a terrible place to stop.
Passive Learning
- Information flows into you.
- You are not forced to make decisions.
- Examples include reading notes, highlighting, or watching a video.
Good for: Initial exposure.
Bad for: Proving you can actually perform under pressure.
Active Learning
- You have to retrieve, apply, and analyse.
- You must make decisions without being spoon-fed the next step.
- Examples include:
- attempting a Section C question under timed conditions
- doing questions without looking at notes
- active recall (explaining a concept to an empty room or another student or your pet dog)
Good for: Retention, exam performance, and thinking on your feet.
Also: Annoyingly, much harder.
One Hour of Pain Beats Five Hours of Comfort
If you have one hour to study tonight, what should you do?
It's easy to choose the comfortable option: "I'll read the chapter on Throughput Accounting." Spend an hour feeling productive and end the evening thinking you've done something useful.
The better option is usually the painful one: "Spend one hour struggling through a proper Section C question from a past paper without my notes."
What happens if you choose the better option:
- You will get stuck.
- You will get things wrong.
- You will check your answer against the model answer and realise you made a mess of something
- You will discover that you did not, in fact, understand Return per Factory Hour nearly as well as you thought
Good.
That's training.
One hour of that kind of pain develops more exam skill than five hours of comfortable reading.
It is the equivalent of me getting out there and doing the miles on the road versus sitting on the sofa nursing my Achilles.
One develops performance. The other doesn't.
When Life Gets in the Way
This is where the balcony comes back in.
Life will interrupt your training. Your balcony will leak. Work will explode. The kids won't sleep. Something always happens.
And when that happens, the temptation is to default to passive study because it feels easier and takes less mental energy. "I'll just watch a video tonight because I'm tired." And yes, that is better than absolutely nothing.
But don't let that become your strategy.
Even if you only have 5 minutes because you’re dealing with a literal flood in your bedroom, you can still do something active. One Section A objective test question. One short written requirement. A few sentences recall on Target Costing. Something that forces your brain to do some actual work.
Keep the reps going, even when they are small.
Why the ACCA PM Platinum Course is Different
This is exactly why I designed my Platinum Course the way I did. I don't just give a library of videos and wish students good luck. That would just be encouraging more passive consumption.
Instead, the Platinum Course is built around forced active retrieval.
- Direct Feedback: You do the work, and you get feedback on your specific errors. Not a generic marking key, but a look at where your logic failed.
- Section C Focus: We don't just talk about Section C; we live in it. We tackle the blank spreadsheet until it stops being a source of panic.
- Deliberate Practice: We stretch you beyond your comfort zone. We find the gaps in your knowledge and expose them before the exam day, not during it.
The Bottom Line
Modern education has accidentally optimised for consumption. We have endless videos, summaries, explainers, and shortcuts. It has never been easier to feel like you are learning without actually training your brain to do the work.
Don't fall for it.
If you want to pass ACCA PM, you have to embrace the struggle. Put down the highlighter. Pick up the calculator. Stop watching and start doing.
One hour of proper timed practice is worth more than a week of cosy "review".
Now stop reading this blog post and go do a Section C question. That's where passing starts.
Ready to stop "watching" and start passing? Join the ACCA PM Platinum Course and get the expert feedback and deliberate practice you need to conquer the exam.
