Most 18-year-olds are still figuring out which elective to pick for their second semester. Waryam was sitting the ACCA Financial Reporting exam — one of the most application-heavy papers at the Skills Level — and clearing it in December 2025.
She wasn’t doing it to prove a point. She was doing it because she’d made a decision early, stayed committed, and refused to let age or circumstance become an excuse. This is her story.
The Interview
Q: Waryam, let’s start from the beginning — who are you, and how did ACCA come into the picture so early?
I’m 18 and currently in B.Com. I got interested in ACCA quite early — honestly before most of my classmates had even heard of it properly. I’d been reading about global finance qualifications and ACCA kept coming up as the one that made the most sense if you wanted a career that wasn’t limited to just India.
My family has always been supportive of me being ambitious, so when I told them I wanted to pursue ACCA alongside college, there wasn’t much resistance. They trusted my judgment. That trust meant a lot.
What also helped was finding out that B.Com students get exemptions from the ACCA Knowledge Level papers — you enter directly at the Skills Level. I wasn’t starting from scratch; my degree had already done part of that work. That made starting feel even more logical.
I think I’ve always known I wanted to be ahead of the curve — not just keeping up with it.
Q: FR is a Skills Level paper — not the easiest place to be at 18. Were you ever intimidated by what you’d signed up for?
Genuinely, yes. Because of the B.Com exemptions, FR was my very first ACCA paper — no warm-up, straight into the Skills Level. When I first looked at the FR syllabus — IFRS standards, consolidated financial statements, financial instruments — I won’t pretend it felt light. It’s a lot of material, and the exam format is application-based, not just theory.
But I think being 18 also works in your favour in a way people don’t talk about. You don’t have the weight of years of “this is how things work” holding you back. You’re still in learning mode, fully. You absorb faster. You have fewer bad habits to unlearn.
Once I stopped treating the syllabus as something overwhelming and started treating it as a map, everything changed.
Q: How did you find QuintEdge, and what made you choose them for FR?
I’d been researching ACCA coaching options for a while. I came across QuintEdge online and what immediately stood out was how the faculty explained things — not just what the standard says, but why it exists and how the examiner uses it. That distinction matters enormously for FR.
I also spoke to a few students who’d studied with QuintEdge before enrolling. The feedback was consistently strong — especially around how doubts were handled and how well the teaching prepared you for actual exam scenarios, not just concept recall.
That was enough for me. I enrolled for FR and didn’t look back.
Q: What was the teaching experience actually like at QuintEdge for FR?
Avijeet Sir and Krupang Sir bring a very structured approach to FR — and for a paper like this, structure is everything. They break down each standard methodically: what it says, how it’s tested, where students typically go wrong, and how to avoid those traps.
Consolidations, for instance — the way they walked through group accounts step by step, showing exactly which adjustments go where and why, made something that looks complex on paper feel completely manageable. By the time I attempted past papers, I wasn’t guessing — I had a clear method.
The live doubt-solving sessions were invaluable too. At 18, studying something this technical, there were plenty of moments where I needed a concept explained from a different angle. That support was always there.
Q: December 2025 exam sitting — walk us through how you prepared in the final stretch.
The final two months before December were the most intense. I’d finished the core syllabus by October, so November and most of December were entirely about past papers, mocks, and targeted revision on weak areas.
I kept a topic tracker — every standard I wasn’t fully confident on went on a list, and I worked through that list systematically every weekend. IFRS 9 financial instruments and IFRS 16 leases were the two I spent the most time on — they’re conceptually deep and the exam loves testing edge cases.
By the time exam week arrived, I’d done enough past papers that the format felt familiar. That familiarity is what keeps the nerves manageable.
Q: Was balancing B.Com college work with FR prep ever a real struggle?
There were definitely weeks where it was a juggle. College assignments, internal exams, and ACCA revision all competing for the same hours — you have to be quite ruthless about how you spend your time.
What helped enormously was the flexibility of QuintEdge’s recorded sessions. On days when college was heavy, I could still get an hour of ACCA revision in by watching a recorded class. I never had to choose one completely over the other — I could manage both, just differently on different days.
I also stopped waiting for “the perfect study session.” Sometimes you get 45 minutes. You use 45 minutes. That mindset shift was important.
Q: December results — take us to that moment.
I remember sitting with my phone, waiting for the results to go live. ACCA results always come out early morning, so I’d set an alarm. I was nervous — genuinely nervous — even though I’d felt okay walking out of the exam.
When I saw I’d cleared FR, my first reaction was just relief. Pure, overwhelming relief. And then it hit me — I was 18, I’d just passed a Skills Level ACCA paper, and I still had most of my B.Com ahead of me.
My parents’ reaction made it even more special. My mom kept saying she couldn’t believe her 18-year-old had cleared a professional qualification exam. Honestly, in that moment, neither could I — and I was the one who’d done it.
Q: What’s your message to someone who thinks they’re too young to start ACCA seriously?
Being young is not a disadvantage — it’s the advantage people aren’t using. You have time, you have energy, and you have very little to lose by starting early. The only thing that actually holds young students back is the belief that they should wait until they’re “ready.”
You’re never going to feel fully ready. You start, and readiness builds as you go.
If you’re in college and you’re serious about a career in finance or accounting, don’t put ACCA on a shelf for later. Later always has its own complications. Start now, find the right coaching, and trust the process.
I cleared FR at 18. That’s not a flex — it’s proof that the timeline you’re imagining for yourself is probably longer than it needs to be.
Inspired by Waryam’s story?
If an 18-year-old can clear ACCA FR while in college, so can you. Talk to our counsellors at QuintEdge and build a plan that works around your schedule.
🌐 www.quintedge.com
