It will (hopefully) come as no surprise that exams feature prominently in your first three years with us! You may have passed all your exams to date with flying colours but this is no guarantee of success at the chartered accountancy exams.
Trainees with Moore Stephens study towards membership of either the ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales - leading to ACA after your name) or ICAS (Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland - leading to the letters CA after your name). If you have a relevant degree and are based in the London office, we recommend the ICAS exams since you qualify for exemptions and therefore sit fewer exams.
There is certainly no difference in terms of content and reputation between these two qualifications.
Regardless of which firm you train with, you will study for the exams at external colleges. The way you study is in blocks of one or two weeks separated by periods back in the office. Each week of study is extremely intensive since each day is as long as a working day and you will spend much of each evening working through questions, whether at college or back home.
For our part we provide the best financial and moral support we can to help you pass first time. Your tutors will be on hand to deliver the training and iron out any problems on a one to one basis. Even the other trainees in your year will provide support in and out of the classroom.
There are plenty of estimates around of the time you should spend each week studying. Whilst you are attending college (amounting to about twenty weeks over the course of your three years), it is not unreasonable to spend a further 15 hours a week revising, doing test questions and previewing new material. Whilst you are not at college, we would still expect you to spend at least 5 hours a week doing the same.
Some people spread this out across the entire week, others prefer weighting it towards the weekend. You will quickly find your own pattern of when and how you study best, based largely on your experience to date.