Study smart | Support
Help, support and preparation
Clare Finch is a former KPMG auditor who went into accounting education and then set up her own training provider, HTFT. In September 2025, she won the Hall of Fame Award at the PQ Awards. Here, she explains how to succeed in your exams
Words Marianne Curphey Illustration iStock
Clare Finch has helped AAT students and those taking other accountancy qualifications to build and develop their careers through distance learning. While she has a long history of successfully guiding students through their qualifications and into successful careers, she has often had to provide additional support to those who struggle initially with the demands of balancing studies and other commitments.
“Most of our current students are in work, either as apprentices or with full-time jobs, and are studying for their AAT qualification on top of their employment,” Finch explains. “One of the challenges for students that we see is a lot of variability in the amount of study support each individual receives from their workplace. For example, they might be on a course with somebody who has one day off a week for their study, whereas they have to fit in study in their own personal time.
“Even so, everyone who is studying for AAT has to do some study in the evening or weekend if they are working full-time. Although the playing field is not level, it is still achievable if you are committed.”
AT A GLANCE
1
Passion for education
Clare trained with KPMG and qualified in 1990, but found that corporate life was at odds with caring for her young children so switched roles to become a lecturer in accountancy.
2
Blended learning
She left a senior role at Kaplan in 2012 to set up her own accountancy training company, HTFT, built around the flipped classroom model – a form of blended learning.
3
Preparation and initiative
Her emphasis is on helping students to plan and manage their studies to achieve their potential.
Understand what support is available
If you want to get the qualification while you are working then it is a good idea to ask questions up front and build that into your decision process, Finch says.
“Sometimes students focus on ‘where is the office’, ‘do I get to work from home’ and ‘how much do I get paid?’ Of course, these are important considerations, but you also need to ask about study support,” she says.
“Will your employer pay for your courses and will you get a training contract? Can you train as an apprentice, and would you have guaranteed off-the-job time to study and learn? One employer might be offering a much better study support package than another. This is something to consider when you are looking at a job offer.”
Plan your qualification journey
In addition, Finch recommends students look at the timescale between starting the course and when they will be sitting their exams.
“Try to plan your life so that when you know you are going to sit the exam you don’t have a holiday of a lifetime in the middle of your study time,” she says. “Everyone needs a break, but it is important to think about how you are going to plan your life over the next 15 months. As tutors, we can’t plan everybody’s holidays for them, but we can try to educate people into making sure that they are organising the different parts of their life.”
It is really important that you share your plans, dates and deadlines with your family as well, so that the people in your life are aware that you have got these big exams and that you will need a support network around you or cut you some slack around household chores.
Commitment is crucial
Once you have scheduled your monthly plan, you need to look at your proposed study timetable at the module level week by week. Think about how you are going to find the seven hours you will need to study each week, and when and where you work best. Are you better going to go into work early and studying for an hour before your day begins, or would you prefer to study at the weekend?
“You need to plan and take your lifestyle and commitments into account because if you try and do seven hours at 10pm on a Sunday night, you’re going to run out of time,” Finch says.
“Think about where are you going to study. Some people study very well at home, but others prefer to get out of the house. When you are working, you can catch up with your studies by using your lunch hour for revision. If you get behind on your course, you might consider taking a day’s annual leave to get back up to speed.”
In the last two weeks before an exam, Finch says you will probably need to commit to 14 hours of study a week, including weekends.
Use proven exam techniques
Keeping up with your work and assignments helps you stay motivated and prevents you feeling disheartened as a result of falling behind.
“If we find that a student is struggling, we will have interventions to help them get back on track and identify what is holding them back,” Finch says. “We do that as early as possible in order to support them as best we can. For example, we have helped a student with dyslexia who needed extra time and coaching around exam techniques.”
Exam technique is an important skill for everyone to learn and can help you pick up extra points.
“For example, if you are asked to identify a threat, you can’t just put down a bullet point or a couple of words,” Finch says. “To get the marks, you will have to explain why it’s a threat and how this could impact on company costs and therefore profit, and how it could also impact on cash flow and therefore the actual stability of the company.”
Time management is also an important skill to learn, whichever AAT level you are at and whichever exam paper you are sitting.
“When you are sitting an exam, it is very important that you spend your time doing the things you can do, not going down a rabbit hole on something you can’t,” Finch explains. “If you are unable to answer a question, move on and plan to come back. As you are doing other questions, your brain continues to work in the background on the problem and sometimes another question will trigger you to recall the information that you need.”
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