Reviews

Most reviews are collected by individual tutors, and can be found under their name, or on their website.  Reviews that mention more than one tutor, or which mention FME as a platform, or are not published elsewhere, are published here.  We publish reviews only with the explicit permission of the reviewer. We edit reviews to remove references to other tutors.

Reviews 2020

AFM (Sunil Bhandari), APM (Mustee Muchhala) and SBR (Tom Clendon)

Hi Mark

I wanted to write to you about FME and my ACCA journey.  Apologies if it seems like I am rambling.  I am now an affiliate as I have passed AFM, APM and SBR with Tom via FME.  I have applied for membership.  Apologies if the below is a ramble.
I got 9 exemptions due to my degree in Accountancy.  I passed P1 and P3 and this was with no exam practice.  However, when I tried other papers and stuck with XXX as a provider.  Things did not work out so well.
In PQ magazine, I saw FME Online, I saw that the 2 papers I needed to take (P4, P5) were advertised.
I emailed Sunil for AFM and spoke to him on the phone.  Initially, I paid him to mark some mock exams.  It was clear that I did not really understand what was going on with AFM.  He sounded very very smart, on the ball.   He encouraged me to take his full course and I declined at the time as I did not have much time left.  I failed AFM in 2018 twice.  I took on Sunil’s full course for the March 2019 sitting.  His lectures are amazing, when he talks I listen, when he shows the calculations, they are always the same.  I know he wrote some articles which made me believe in his methods.  I did doubt Sunil and I was silly do to this.
I still remember line over line for Forex, which sadly did not come up in my exam.  I also remember Sunil’s son is 6’6.  I wish I was as tall as that.  Again, that did not really help me in my exam.
His exam videos broke down everything and he used the methods he taught us to answer the questions.  He had more videos than you could shake a stick at.  His homeworks helped to cover everything. I also got my homeworks and mocks back for marking.  I realised from this I did not need to get everything correct, this was my issue in the past.  I was so focused on getting the perfect answer and that was my down fall.  I needed to work on exam technique.  I did everything I could to study and I knew that Sunil was one of the strictest tutors I have ever known, so when he sets a deadline, you need to stick to it.  The podcasts would help.  Given I would listen to them when at night time and in the mornings when getting ready.  I did panic a lot a few days before the exam and he did give me with some harsh facts.  If he did not do this, I would have melted down and not performed.  Sunil’s predictions were so spot on.  IRR on Q2 for March 2019 with a collar.
I passed AFM 56%.  Even though Section A was awful, I passed it.  I could not believe it.  I have recommended Sunil’s full course to everyone I know that is studying.
I then took APM in the September 2019 sitting, I knew Mustafa from XXX.  I knew that I needed to work on exam technique and skills to actually answer the questions.  I studied myself and then got Mustafa to mark a number of my questions.  He said I submitted so many mocks to him.  I was going through some work issues as well.  With the organisation being restructured and I had some health issues.  Nevertheless, in the exam, I had a scribe on standby and all I could do was to keep writing.  I was writing and writing.  I thought it must have been ok as I wrote so much, I used up 2 books, never had I done that before.  I passed APM 53% for the September 2019 sitting.  This past exam submissions to Mustafa must have helped.  I believed out of the 4 students, I was the only one to pass. Which made me feel lucky.
I spoke to Tom, he sounded like he was similar to Sunil.  From speaking to him in January 2020, I knew that I should take his course.  He said to take it in March 2020.  He said I seemed to know what I needed to do and what to focus on.  Tom would normally discourage some from taking in within 2 months.  But Sunil had trained me, so I was at an advantage.
SBR was an exam I avoided like the plague.  I did not want to take it.  But Tom’s notes. They were short, but it was enough to understand what was going on.  He had all the keywords in the notes (classing IFRS 9 as a Financial Asset for example).  His lecturers were a joy to listen to.  I wanted to study.  I remember just not understanding IFRS 9 before and with Tom, I partly understood it.  I do regret not doing as many questions.  As I did not want to fail.  But his techniques and tips helped a lot.  I realised that by even doing his small examples, it helped me out.  SBR was bad, I prepared myself to fail because I found it so hard.  I told Tom it was a disaster of a paper.  I got my result of 61%.  Which I could not believe.  The one memory from my exam was that Tom’s son is married to lady from Norway (I think). This did not help me at all!  But his techniques and simple notes made such a differences.
FME is the best learning provider as it has 1 tutor who shows you 1 way of doing things. Whatsapp support on the go.  So many videos which are interesting and engaging, so many past exam questions, podcasts, voice notes to help encourage you.  Mocks and questioned marked and return.  Plus the odd phone call to help you out.  The 1 tutor helps as technique is key.  With XXX, you would have multiple tutors and they would show you different ways of completing a question, which did not help.
Sunil method for Forex and IRR was so much faster compared to the XXX and he showed me a new way to study and to tackle an exam.  Mustafa’s way of showing me how to answer questions without knowing anything helped a lot.  Tom’s way of making SBR so so simple and his notes had all the keywords in it and gave me the confidence to have a go.  All of their tips/predictions helped a lot.  Sunil and Tom writing their own notes were more personalised and helpful to students.
If it was not for FME.  I would have most likely not have passed my 3 remaining ACCA exams ever and I would have stopped.  What FME Online has showed me is that I do have the potential and the right tutors can help me to get the right results.  Sunil, Tom and Mustafa are the right tutors.  I would like to buy them all a drink (sadly I will not be getting a pay rise any time soon).  But I am not sure they would want have a drink with me!  (Sunil most likely has friends in high places)!. I hope these guys never stop teaching as students would feel lost.
Thank you to FME for helping me to pass 3 professional exams.   I will always be in debt to FME.  You are a platinum provider.  The best.  Not gold, not silver.  Platinum in my eyes.
Thanks
S

PS.  Don’t be fooled by the price.  I thought the more expensive something is, it is better.  XXX was more expensive for tuition, revision and a mock, so I thought it was the best.  FME is better value for your money as you get more due to marked homework questions and each tutor will mark extra questions (if you ask nicely) for a lower price.  I was and am still cash strapped!!  With XXX, you only had 6 questions marked.  With FME, it was in the double figures for me.  All of this helped me in the exams to keep calm and have a go at the questions.  I learnt that you did not need to know everything.

In addition, I preferred face to face classes initially and the idea of doing it online was a bit scary as I thought I would get distracted, which did happen wtih XXX.  But those 3 tutors.  When you listen to them speak in their recordings you can hear the passion, you can hear the excitement: they keep your interest.  The delivery is what makes this so much better than XXX and when I listened to the recordings, I remember what was said, which is a big things as my memory is not the best.  FME all the way.

Reviews prior to 2020

CertITM

I just wanted to drop you a note and say many thanks for the great product and service you provided with the Cert ITM online study package. As someone who took the exam in the US, your course was invaluable to me in cutting through so much of the ACT supplied readings, and explaining the core concepts, calculations, etc. the 5 day study course and 2 day revision course videos were especially useful to me

CertITM

Well presented, easy to follow and understand. Worked examples very useful. Summarised complex areas well and overcome some of the jargon. Course notes and question bank and solutions very good

Mark Ingram

“Excellent tutor, enthusiastic and provided relevant examples.” “Walks you through the complete syllabus and helps you to identify your own personal areas of weakness”  

Mark Ingram

“Tutor explained the maths in a real life context and simplified the equations to allow us to understand how to logically work out. The Tutor was very clear and concise, and gave me confidence I could pass the exam.”  

Risk Management

“Excellent exam preparation and great tips on how to maximise marks during the exam.”

CertITM videos

It focused on the key principles and concepts underlying the majority of the syllabus and on developing a strong understanding of them.

Corporate Finance and Funding

“I wanted to thank you for your help with studying for the CFF. I have passed, at the second try. I wouldn’t have been able to do so without your help.”