How I came to teach the ACCA AAA online course?
SHEILA William 
This post outlines my journey to becoming an ACCA AAA subject specialist tutor.
In my previous post, I shared some things you may not have known about preparing for the Acca AAA paper.
In this post, I want to take a step further to tell you how I came to teach ACCA AAA.
In my final year of secondary school, there was much discussion at home on the type of career I would like to have.
I did not have any particular aspirations at the time.
I somewhat struggled in school as I did not particularly like any of the subjects taught. They were “just not me”.
My dad probably knew of my struggle and suggested accountancy.
So off I was sent to do A levels with accounting-related subjects.
And I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT.
Everything seemed to make so much sense.
Having done reasonably well in the A level exams,
I left for London to study accountancy (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants).
In those days, the ACCA exams had 20 papers to clear. (Nowadays, there are only 13 papers).
I did struggle with some of the papers but on the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed the course.
A student could take as much or as little time to complete all the 20 papers.
There was tremendous pressure to pass exams.
The final year had four subjects and all four had to be taken at the same time and passed.
Failing any one of those subjects would mean re-sitting all fours.
A nightmare. In those days, the global pass rate for finalists was only around 9% (or thereabout).
I did not have the luxury of failing.
My dad financed my studies and he only had resources to allow me to stay in London for three years.
But I passed all four subjects and the joy in my soul was unspeakable.
Thank God. The hours in the library, studying, practicing questions were all worth the trouble.
I returned home from London and began working with one of the Big Four audit firms.
My manager, Maggie Gan, was a great mentor and I learned so much.
I was good at my job, and years passed. I got married.
But the hours in the audit were long and I yearned for a change to have some work-life balance.
I decided to take a break and decided to teach in an accountancy college.
Over the years, I had taught many subjects: accounting, management accounting, audit and corporate governance.
The initial months of teaching were very hard. There were many hours of preparation for just one 3-hour lecture.
Again, there wasn’t much of a work-life balance. But I enjoyed my work. I put in a lot of effort, and I quickly saw success.
The students I taught came back with good results in their exams.
I gradually became the go-to tutor for some of the ACCA papers.
I have had a long teaching career, now just over 30 years. Over the last few years,
I found many students having significant issues with the ACCA Advanced Audit & Assurance paper (AAA).
I then decided to concentrate on this one paper.
I found that the global pass rate was about 30%.
The failure rate was high.
It was then that I decided I needed to do something more than just teach.
I did a lot of research on neuroscience and learning. My favourite book was (and still is ) “Making It Stick – The Science of Successful Learning”.
I incorporated all of the research on learning science into my teaching.
If the students could learn how to learn would they not be able to face the dreadful AAA paper.
My student pass rate went up considerably to 80+% and I was thrilled each time a student passed.
I have moved on from the college and have started an online learning program for ACCA’s Advanced Audit & Assurance.
I now have students from many countries and the interactions with them have made teaching so much more interesting.
Who would have thought I’d end up teaching? But I absolutely LOVE what I do.
If you would like to know more about our AAA programs please click here or if you would like to contact our course coordinator Bosco via WhatsApp click here.
