Some students treat ACCA as something to start after the degree is done, the dust has settled, and life feels a little more certain. Divya Bisht had a different plan entirely. A final-year student at Delhi University, she’s already cleared two Skills Level papers — ACCA Financial Reporting with 75 and Financial Management with 81 — and she’s still not done.
Audit, Tax, Financial Reporting — the areas she’s building expertise in are as serious as the scores suggest. This is the story of how she got here, and where she’s going next.
The Interview
Q: Divya, introduce yourself — DU student, two ACCA papers cleared. How did all of this come together?
I’m in my final year at Delhi University, graduating in 2026. I’d decided on ACCA fairly early in my degree — I knew I wanted to build a career in Audit, Tax, and Financial Reporting, and ACCA is genuinely the most respected global qualification for that path.
What made starting easier was finding out that as a DU student, I get exemptions from the ACCA Knowledge Level papers. That means I entered directly at the Skills Level — FR and FM were my first two papers. No long warm-up phase, straight into the substance.
I think knowing that my degree was already doing some of the groundwork made me feel like I had no excuse not to start immediately.
Q: FR and FM are quite different papers — one is deeply technical accounting, the other is quantitative finance. Did you find one harder than the other?
They’re very different in character, yes. FR — Financial Reporting — is about depth. You need to understand IFRS standards well enough to apply them to scenarios you’ve never seen before. It rewards careful, methodical thinking.
FM — Financial Management — is more quantitative. Investment appraisal, working capital management, cost of capital — it rewards speed and accuracy under time pressure. The calculations aren’t always complex, but getting them right consistently across a full paper is its own skill.
Honestly, I found FR slightly more demanding because the application-based questions leave no room for surface-level understanding. You either know how IFRS 9 or IFRS 16 works, or the question exposes you. FM felt more tractable once I got my calculation technique sharp.
Q: 75 in FR and 81 in FM — those are strong scores. When did you start preparing for each?
I planned both papers in sequence, not simultaneously — that was a deliberate choice. Trying to split your focus between FR and FM at the same time is a recipe for doing neither well.
I prepared FR first, sat it, and once that was done, shifted my full attention to FM. Having a clean boundary between the two made the preparation feel manageable even while college was running in parallel.
The scores weren’t accidental — they came from being very intentional about how I structured my time.
Q: How did you find QuintEdge, and what made you choose them for both papers?
I’d been looking at coaching options and came across QuintEdge through a combination of online research and word of mouth from seniors at DU. What stood out immediately was the clarity of teaching — not just covering the syllabus, but building genuine understanding of how topics are examined.
I enrolled with QuintEdge for FR first. The experience was strong enough that when it came to FM, there was no deliberation — I came back for that too.
Consistency in coaching matters more than people realise. When you’re working with faculty who already know how you learn, the second paper goes smoother than the first.
Q: What was the teaching experience like at QuintEdge — for both FR and FM?
Avijeet Sir and Krupang Sir are excellent at making complex topics feel structured and approachable. For FR, what I appreciated most was how they taught each IFRS standard not in isolation, but in the context of how the ACCA examiner actually tests it. That exam-lens approach is something you simply can’t replicate through self-study.
Consolidations were the area I was most nervous about going in — group accounts, NCI calculations, intragroup eliminations. The way it was taught at QuintEdge — step by step, with enough worked examples to see every variation — made it one of my stronger areas by exam day.
For FM, the focus on calculation technique and time management was invaluable. Knowing which questions to prioritise, how to set up workings cleanly, where marks are most accessible — that kind of strategic coaching is what pushed my score to 81.
Q: Balancing a DU final year with two back-to-back professional papers — what did your day actually look like?
Structured, but not rigid. I kept mornings for college work and evenings for ACCA. Weekends were mostly ACCA — past papers, revision, anything I’d flagged during the week as needing more attention.
The recorded sessions from QuintEdge were a genuine lifesaver during busy college stretches. I never fell behind on the ACCA syllabus even during internal exam weeks — I’d just catch up on recordings and keep moving.
I also kept a topic weakness log — every concept I wasn’t fully confident on went on a list, and I worked through it systematically in the final month before each paper. By the time I sat FR, that list was nearly empty. Same for FM.
Q: You’re building expertise specifically in Audit, Tax, and Financial Reporting. How does clearing FR and FM feed into that goal?
FR is directly central to that path — Financial Reporting is literally one of the three pillars I’m focused on. Understanding IFRS inside out, being able to prepare and interpret consolidated financial statements — that’s foundational knowledge for anyone serious about Audit or Financial Reporting as a career.
FM broadens the picture. Even in Audit and Tax roles, financial analysis comes up constantly — understanding how businesses make capital allocation decisions, how working capital is managed, what the cost of financing looks like. FM gives you a commercial lens that makes you a better professional across all three areas.
Every paper I clear is one more layer of credibility. By the time I graduate in 2026, I want that credibility to be very hard to ignore.
Q: Results day — FR first, then FM. What were those two moments like?
FR results came first, and that was the one I was more anxious about — it was my first ACCA paper ever, and I genuinely didn’t know what to expect from the experience. When I saw 75, the relief was immediate. Not just relief at passing — relief that the approach had worked, that the preparation was real.
FM felt different. By then I had one paper under my belt, I knew what the process felt like, and I was more confident walking out of the exam. Seeing 81 confirmed that the improvement was real — not just luck.
Two papers, two strong scores. I remember sitting quietly for a moment after FM results and thinking — okay, this is actually happening.
Q: What’s your advice for a DU student who’s thinking about ACCA but hasn’t committed yet?
Commit. That’s the advice. Stop thinking about whether it’s the right time and start thinking about what you’re going to do with the time you have.
DU students have a real structural advantage — the Knowledge Level exemptions mean you’re starting at the Skills Level from day one. You’re closer to a full qualification than most people realise when they first look at ACCA from the outside.
The students who do well aren’t the ones with the most free time — they’re the ones who treat ACCA seriously alongside everything else. College, exams, life — all of it runs in parallel. You make it work because you’ve decided it matters.
I’m graduating in 2026 with two Skills Level papers already cleared. That’s not an accident — it’s a choice I made early. You can make the same one.
Inspired by Divya’s story?
If you’re a Delhi University student considering ACCA, your degree already gives you a head start. Talk to our counsellors at QuintEdge and find out exactly where you can begin.
🌐 www.quintedge.com
