The answer to this question, preparing for ACCA AFM Exam in just 15 days, would be that it will be difficult but not impossible, but it depends on a few factors. 

Rather than looking at the hours that we have available and how many hours should be used to study, let’s look at the factors that we need to cover in order to be fully prepared for ACCA AFM Exam. The following things must be covered –

• Understand the entire syllabus of AFM
• Practice as many questions as possible
• Practice the Past papers and
• Attend a mock exam if possible

Now let’s think about how to do all this in 15 days.

When it comes to the Syllabus of AFM, it is vast compared to the other optional papers like AAA, or APM. Question practice can take some time considering the weightage of marks available for one exam standard question in a past paper. It is always advised to take at least 2 mock exams. 

Assuming that you are a full-time student, you can take days 1 to 3 to study the syllabus as much as possible. You should be able to start practicing around 3 to 4 questions from Day 4 and take the rest of the days till Day 10 to revise the syllabus continuously and to practice as many questions as possible per day. From Day 11 to 15, you can continue revising the syllabus each day and practice past papers, and maybe attend a mock on the 13^th and 14^th days. On Day 15, you do your final preparations for the ACCA AFM exam.

Although this plan may seem like a bright idea, the chances of you passing after you follow this is 50%, like the marks that you have to score. One of the main reasons for this is that it’s really easy to plan such aggressive strategies to prepare for the exam, but when it comes to implementation, the majority may fail to stick to their plans.

There are some more demerits to it as well. The time is taken by students to learn the syllabus is different for different individuals. There is no guarantee that your brain can grasp the entire syllabus in 3 to 4 days. Plus, you will only be able to practice a limited amount of questions if your preparation time is constrained to 15 days. I would also suggest you refer to FinTram’s AFM Revision Boot Camp. This quickly revises all the syllabus areas along with a question practice pool to excel in the exam.

 Therefore, your ability to apply your knowledge to practical scenarios may not be up to the examiner’s expectations and so you may not be able to score the pass mark.

This is definitely not recommended for working professionals unless they have experience in applying the knowledge from the syllabus on their everyday working hours. 

Therefore, unless you are a prodigy student, it is always better to start your preparation at least 1 or 2 months before the exam. You can take your time to learn the syllabus and practice as many questions as you can to learn how to apply the knowledge that you gained in different practical scenarios. Your ultimate decision here would be as to whether you’d like to gamble your exam fees with an aggressive strategy or use it to confidently attend and pass the exam by adopting a conservative strategy.