Short answer first, since this is the kind of question that deserves one: the ACCA Qualification currently has 13 subjects (papers), spread across three levels — Applied Knowledge, Applied Skills, and Strategic Professional. This guide lists every one of them, what each actually covers, how they're examined, and how they connect to each other, so you can see the whole picture in one place rather than piecing it together from thirteen separate exam pages.

If you're after the full, section-by-section syllabus content for each paper — down to individual topic weightings — our complete ACCA syllabus guide goes into that level of detail. This guide is built to answer a slightly different question: what are all the subjects, at a glance, and how do they fit together.

One distinction worth making before the list itself: "subject" and "paper" are used interchangeably throughout ACCA's own materials and by tuition providers, and both simply mean one of the 13 individually examined components of the qualification. Some people also loosely use "module" for the same thing, though ACCA's own terminology reserves "module" more specifically for groupings like the Ethics and Professional Skills Module, which isn't one of the 13 examined subjects itself. None of this terminology confusion changes what you actually need to study — it's worth clearing up only so the rest of this guide, and any other ACCA material you read, doesn't feel inconsistent. With that settled, here's the full list, level by level.

All 13 ACCA Subjects at a Glance

Three levels, 13 subjects. Alongside them, every candidate also completes the Ethics and Professional Skills Module (a non-exam, self-paced online module) and a 36-month Practical Experience Requirement — not exam subjects themselves, but compulsory parts of the full qualification. For a full breakdown of what the three-level structure means and how it's about to change, see our guide on how many levels ACCA actually has.

How the Subjects Build on Each Other

One thing a flat list of 13 subjects doesn't show is how tightly several of them depend on each other — treating each as a fully separate, closed box to pass and forget is one of the more common reasons capable candidates struggle later in the qualification than their exam results up to that point would suggest.

This dependency chain is exactly why the recommended study sequence later in this guide isn't arbitrary — sitting AA before FR, for instance, means trying to audit financial statements using preparation skills you haven't actually built yet, which is a genuinely harder and less efficient way to approach either subject. The same logic applies less obviously to SBL: because it draws on content from across the whole qualification simultaneously, most candidates find it easier to attempt after clearing a solid majority of their Applied Skills subjects, rather than treating it as something that can be tackled in isolation the moment Strategic Professional technically becomes available to them.

Applied Knowledge Subjects: The Foundation

These three subjects build broad business awareness and the basic accounting mechanics every later subject assumes you already have.

Business and Technology (BT)

The most conceptual of the three, covering business organisations and their external environment, organisational structure and governance, the accounting and finance function, leading and managing individuals and teams, personal effectiveness and communication, and professional ethics. Roughly 80% theory, 20% numerical.

Management Accounting (MA)

Covers cost and management accounting fundamentals: cost classification, marginal and absorption costing, job and process costing, budgeting and forecasting, standard costing and variance analysis, and basic performance measurement. This subject is heavily calculation-based and feeds directly into Performance Management later.

Financial Accounting (FA)

Builds double-entry bookkeeping from the ground up: the accounting equation, recording transactions, accruals and prepayments, depreciation, inventory valuation, trial balances, error correction, and preparing basic financial statements including an introduction to consolidation. Every later financial subject assumes this foundation is solid.

Together, these three subjects are graded almost entirely through objective testing — multiple choice, multiple response, and number-entry questions — which is exactly why pass rates here run highest across the whole qualification. That doesn't make them trivial: the volume of simultaneous adjustments tested in a single FA question, for instance, catches out students who've memorised individual concepts without practising them combined under time pressure.

Applied Skills Subjects: Building Technical Competence

This is where the subjects shift from general awareness into the specific technical skills a working accountant applies daily.

Corporate and Business Law (LW)

The only entirely non-numerical subject in the whole qualification, and the only Applied Skills subject you can book on-demand rather than waiting for a quarterly sitting. Covers the legal system, contract and tort law, employment law, company formation and constitution, company financing, and corporate insolvency and fraud.

Performance Management (PM)

Builds directly on MA, covering specialist costing techniques (activity-based costing, target costing, throughput accounting), decision-making techniques, budgeting, standard costing, and performance measurement including divisional performance and transfer pricing. Widely considered one of the harder Applied Skills subjects.

Taxation (TX)

Covers the tax system's overall function, income tax for individuals, employment income, corporation tax, chargeable gains, and an introduction to VAT. Offered in country-specific variants since tax law is inherently jurisdiction-bound — most Nepali students sit a UK or other available variant, since no Nepal-specific TX variant currently exists.

Financial Reporting (FR)

The direct successor to FA, covering the conceptual and regulatory framework, accounting under specific IFRS standards (property, plant and equipment; intangible assets; inventory; revenue; leases; financial instruments; provisions), preparation of financial statements for single entities and simple groups, and ratio analysis. Widely regarded as one of the hardest Applied Skills subjects.

Audit and Assurance (AA)

Builds directly on FR, shifting from preparing financial statements to challenging and verifying them: audit framework and regulation, planning and risk assessment, internal controls, audit evidence, and reporting. Studying FR properly before attempting AA is one of the most consistently recommended sequencing decisions in the whole qualification, since auditing statements you don't yet know how to prepare is considerably harder than it needs to be.

Financial Management (FM)

The final Applied Skills subject, covering the financial management function and environment, working capital management, investment appraisal, business finance, business valuations, and risk management. The highest-priority topics by weighting are investment appraisal (NPV, IRR, payback), cost of capital, and working capital management.

Across the six Applied Skills subjects, exam format shifts meaningfully from the objective-heavy Applied Knowledge level: LW remains fully objective, but PM, TX, FR, AA, and FM all combine objective testing with written, constructed-response questions, meaning candidates need to build a genuinely different skill — explaining a technical judgement clearly in full sentences under time pressure — that Applied Knowledge alone doesn't require.

Strategic Professional Subjects: Judgement Over Recall

There are no multiple-choice questions anywhere in this level — every subject is entirely scenario-based, testing whether you can apply everything learned so far the way a senior finance professional actually would.

Strategic Business Leader (SBL) — Mandatory

Built around a single, integrated case study with pre-seen material released two weeks before the exam. Covers leadership, governance, strategy, risk management, technology and data analytics, and professional ethics — all within one four-hour, fully integrated exam rather than as separate topics.

Strategic Business Reporting (SBR) — Mandatory

The advanced continuation of FR, covering complex group accounts, financial instruments, share-based payment, employee benefits, and current issues in corporate reporting including sustainability and integrated reporting — an area that's grown considerably in weighting in recent syllabus updates.

The Four Options — Choose Any 2

Advanced Financial Management (AFM): advanced investment appraisal, treasury and risk management, business valuations, and mergers and acquisitions. Suits candidates aiming at treasury or corporate finance.

Advanced Performance Management (APM): strategic performance measurement, data analytics in performance management, and evaluating organisational performance in complex environments. Consistently one of the hardest subjects in the entire qualification.

Advanced Taxation (ATX): advanced tax planning and advisory work, international tax considerations, and the ethical boundary between tax planning and tax avoidance. Suits candidates aiming specifically at tax advisory careers.

Advanced Audit and Assurance (AAA): complex audit planning, quality management, evaluating audit evidence, and specialist engagements including forensic auditing and increasingly sustainability assurance. Typically the lowest pass rate of the four options.

Subject-by-Subject: Difficulty and Pass Rates at a Glance

Pass rates shift slightly between sittings and are published by ACCA after each exam session, so treat these as directional rather than fixed.

The clear pattern: subjects don't just get longer as you progress through the qualification — they shift from testing whether you know a rule to testing whether you can apply professional judgement under pressure. The full syllabus guide linked at the top of this article covers exactly how to prepare for that shift, subject by subject.

Study Time Investment by Subject

Beyond pass rates, it's worth understanding roughly how much study time each subject actually demands, since planning a study calendar around 13 subjects treated as equally time-consuming leads to unrealistic scheduling.

Spread across a typical 10–14 week run-up to an exam sitting, Applied Skills and Strategic Professional subjects generally require 8–12 focused study hours a week for a working student, rising to 15–20 in the final fortnight before the exam. Applied Knowledge subjects, being on-demand, allow more flexibility in how that time is distributed, since there's no fixed sitting date forcing a rigid countdown.

This flexibility is genuinely useful for working students specifically — it means the three Applied Knowledge subjects can be paced around a busy work period rather than fighting against a quarterly deadline that doesn't care what else is happening in your schedule that month.

What Exam Day Actually Looks Like, Subject by Subject

The format of the exam itself changes meaningfully as you move through the 13 subjects, and knowing what to expect before you sit down reduces one entirely avoidable source of exam-day stress.

Applied Knowledge and LW: a two-hour, fully computer-based exam at an approved test centre, made up of multiple-choice and multi-task questions, auto-marked and typically producing a provisional result almost immediately after the session.

PM, TX, FR, AA, FM: a three-hour session-based exam split into sections — an objective-test section worth a smaller portion of total marks, followed by longer, written constructed-response questions requiring calculation and explanation together.

SBL: a four-hour exam built around pre-seen case material released two weeks in advance, with the actual exam presenting new exhibits and requiring an integrated written response spanning multiple business functions at once.

SBR and the four options: three hours and 15 minutes each, entirely scenario-based with no objective-test component at all, and — unlike every subject before this level — carrying dedicated marks for professional skills such as clarity of communication and structured, evidence-based reasoning, not just technical correctness.

How Many Subjects Will You Actually Need to Study?

This is where the "13 subjects" headline number gets more personal, since exemptions mean most students don't actually sit all 13.

Strategic Professional subjects can never be exempted under any circumstances, regardless of your prior qualification — a firm rule worth remembering, since it means your final four to six subjects are fixed no matter how strong your exemptions elsewhere are. Exemptions also aren't free — a reduced fee is charged per subject exempted rather than the exemption being granted at no cost. For the full fee breakdown, including exemption pricing and realistic total-cost scenarios for Nepal specifically, see our guide on ACCA course fees in Nepal.

Subject Variants: Where "The Same Subject" Isn't Identical Everywhere

Two subjects in the qualification — Corporate and Business Law (LW) and Taxation (TX) — aren't examined identically worldwide, and it's worth understanding why before you register for a specific variant.

Tax law is inherently national: what counts as taxable income, allowable deductions, and VAT treatment differs by country, so ACCA offers TX in country-specific variants (TX-UK being the most widely sat globally) rather than a single universal syllabus. Nepal doesn't currently have its own TX variant, so most Nepali candidates sit TX-UK or another available variant through their tuition provider. Corporate and Business Law works similarly: LW-ENG covers English law specifically, while LW-GLO covers general legal principles including aspects of international sale-of-goods law, alongside several other country-specific variants for jurisdictions such as Ireland, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Practically, this means two ACCA holders can both list "TX" and "LW" as passed subjects on their CV while having studied meaningfully different legal and tax content, depending on which variant each sat — worth knowing if you're ever comparing your own qualification against someone else's, or explaining your specific variant choice to a Nepal-based employer during an interview.

Choosing Your Two Strategic Professional Options

Since four of your 13 subjects come down to a choice rather than a fixed list, it's worth treating this decision deliberately rather than picking based on rumoured difficulty alone.

Most successful candidates choose based on career direction rather than perceived pass-rate ease — the case-study material in each option lands far more intuitively when you've already seen a version of the problem in actual work, which is one more reason starting your Practical Experience Requirement early, in a role connected to your intended specialisation, pays off well before you reach this stage of the qualification.

The Subjects Are Changing: What's Different From 2027

ACCA has confirmed the biggest restructure of the qualification in over a decade, moving from the current 13 subjects across three levels to 11 subjects across four levels — Foundations, Knowledge, Expertise, and Strategic Professional — effective July 2027.

Under the new structure, BT is retired as a standalone subject, LW moves down into the new Knowledge level with a revised format, and Applied Skills (renamed Expertise) drops from six subjects to five. Strategic Professional keeps SBL and SBR but reduces from two optional subjects to one, adding a brand-new Data Science Professional (SDS) option. ACCA's own official page on the future ACCA Qualification has the full detail on syllabi and specimen exams for the new structure.

If you're studying now, or start before the changeover, none of this affects your progress: every subject passed under the current structure carries forward automatically into the new system, with no resits required. There's no strategic advantage to waiting.

Which Subject Should You Start With?

A sensible sequence most experienced tutors recommend: BT → MA → FA first, since these build the foundational vocabulary and mechanics everything else assumes. Sit LW early, since it's on-demand and purely objective — there's no reason to hold it back for later. Then move through Applied Skills as PM → FM → FR → AA → TX, studying FR before AA specifically. Finish with SBL and SBR, followed by your two chosen options.

For a genuinely useful next step if you're just starting out, our guide on getting started with the ACCA course in Nepal walks through registration, eligibility, and your first 90 days in more detail than this subjects-focused overview covers.

Which Subjects Matter Most for Nepal's Job Market

Since not every subject carries equal weight once you're actually job-hunting, it's worth a brief, honest note here. Employers in Nepal's banking sector particularly value strong performance in FR, AA, and FM, since internal audit, risk, and financial reporting roles draw directly on those subjects. Big Four and audit firms weight AA and, later, AAA heavily during technical interviews. Corporate finance and multinational roles tend to draw more on FM, PM, and — for those who chose it — AFM. If you're studying with a specific sector already in mind, it's reasonable to give slightly extra attention to the subjects that map most directly onto that sector's daily work, on top of passing every subject to a solid standard regardless.

It's worth being careful with this advice, though: "give extra attention" should never mean skimping on a subject you find less immediately relevant. Employers routinely test full-syllabus knowledge at interview stage regardless of which specific role you're applying for, and a genuinely weak subject anywhere on your transcript can raise questions even in an otherwise strong application. Treat sector alignment as a tiebreaker for where you put marginal extra revision time close to an exam, not a licence to under-prepare for anything.

How ACCA Subjects Are Taught: What to Look For

Since the technical content of every subject is standardised by ACCA globally, the real difference between institutes lies in how thoroughly each subject is actually taught and practised. A few things worth checking with any tuition provider: whether mock exams are run under genuine timed conditions for each subject, whether tutors have real industry experience in that subject's area rather than just exam-coaching background, and whether practical, beyond-the-syllabus skills are built in alongside the pure exam content.

At FinT Learning Hub, this last point is handled through the FinT Skills Lab, which pairs standard subject coaching with hands-on software training and workplace-communication practice — the kind of practical layer that helps subjects like FR, AA, and FM translate more directly into real job-readiness rather than staying purely exam-focused knowledge.

This matters more for some subjects than others. A subject like FA or MA, tested purely through objective questions, translates fairly directly from exam knowledge into workplace competence — the calculations and concepts you're tested on are close to what you'll actually do day to day. A subject like AA or SBL, by contrast, tests professional judgement in a simulated scenario, which is a genuinely different skill from applying that same judgement to a real, messy, incomplete-information workplace situation. Practical training that bridges that specific gap — audit simulation exercises, for instance, rather than only exam-style audit case studies — is where a well-rounded tuition programme earns its value beyond simply teaching the syllabus content itself.

Retaking a Subject: What Actually Changes on a Resit

Since pass rates for several subjects sit well below 100%, it's worth addressing resits directly rather than treating them as an edge case. If you don't pass a subject, you simply re-register and sit it again in a future session — there's no penalty beyond the repeated exam fee and the added time before you can move on to dependent subjects further down the chain described earlier in this guide. ACCA doesn't cap the number of attempts allowed for most subjects, though it's worth checking current specific rules for any subject you're retaking, since policy details can be updated over time.

The more useful question than "how many times can I resit" is usually "what should change about my preparation before I resit," since repeating the identical study approach that led to a narrow fail rarely produces a different outcome. Reviewing your actual exam feedback or marked mock-exam scripts in detail — not just the overall score, but which specific sections lost marks — is consistently more useful preparation for a resit than simply re-reading the same study text a second time.

A Note on Terminology: "Papers," "Subjects," and Old Naming Conventions

If you've come across older ACCA material — from tutors, forums, or even some outdated web pages — you may have seen subjects referred to by an older naming system: F1 through F9 for what are now BT through FM, and P1 through P7 for what are now SBL, SBR, and the four Strategic Professional options. ACCA renamed and renumbered its subjects some years ago, though the underlying three-level structure and much of the core content has remained conceptually consistent since. If you're ever cross-referencing older study material, forum discussions, or a tutor's informal shorthand against this guide's current BT–FM and SBL/SBR/options naming, this old-to-new mapping is the reason the codes might not match at first glance.

Common Myths About ACCA Subjects

"There are 13 levels in ACCA." This confuses subjects with levels — there are 13 subjects grouped into 3 levels (soon 4, from 2027).

"You have to study every subject in order, one at a time." Not strictly — LW's on-demand format, for instance, means it can be studied alongside Applied Knowledge subjects rather than waiting its turn in a strict sequence.

"Every subject takes the same amount of study time." They don't — Applied Knowledge subjects typically need 60–100 study hours each, Applied Skills 100–150 hours, and Strategic Professional 150–200 hours, given the volume of case material and exam-writing practice required at the later stages.

"The optional subjects at Strategic Professional don't matter much." They shape your realistic specialisation and career direction meaningfully — choosing AFM versus APM, for instance, points toward genuinely different job functions later.

"Once you've passed a subject, you never need to think about it again." Later subjects assume earlier ones are still fluent — PM assumes MA's costing techniques, SBR assumes FR's reporting standards — so periodically revisiting earlier material, rather than banking a pass and moving on entirely, tends to pay off at Strategic Professional specifically.

"Failing a subject once means you're not cut out for ACCA." Given that several subjects have pass rates below 50%, a single resit is a statistically normal part of most candidates' journeys rather than a meaningful signal about your overall ability — what matters more is adjusting your preparation approach for the resit rather than repeating what didn't work the first time.

Final Word on ACCA Subjects

Thirteen subjects sounds like a lot until you see how deliberately they build on each other — three foundational subjects, six applied-skills subjects that turn that foundation into real technical competence, and four Strategic Professional subjects (two fixed, two chosen) that test judgement rather than recall. Understanding the full list this way, rather than as thirteen disconnected exam codes, is what actually makes planning your own study journey through them manageable.

For a genuinely comprehensive plan — not just what each subject covers, but how to sequence, budget, and register for all of them from a standing start — the syllabus, level-structure, and getting-started guides linked earlier each take a different angle on the same underlying journey this subjects list is part of. Between the three, and this overview, you should have enough to plan the whole thirteen-subject journey with confidence rather than piecing it together one search at a time.

Frequently Asked Questions About ACCA Subjects

1. How many subjects are there in ACCA? 13, across three levels: Applied Knowledge (3), Applied Skills (6), and Strategic Professional (4, including 2 mandatory and 2 chosen from 4 options).

2. What are the easiest ACCA subjects? Based on published pass rates, BT, MA, FA, and LW tend to have the highest pass rates, generally in the 65–85% range.

3. What are the hardest ACCA subjects? Advanced Performance Management (APM) and Advanced Audit and Assurance (AAA) consistently have the lowest pass rates, often in the high-30s to mid-40s percentage range.

4. Do I have to study all 13 subjects? Not necessarily — exemptions based on prior qualifications (a relevant bachelor's degree, CA-Intermediate background) can reduce the number of subjects you actually sit, though Strategic Professional subjects can never be exempted.

5. Which ACCA subjects are optional? The four Strategic Professional options — AFM, APM, ATX, and AAA — of which you choose any two; every other subject in the qualification is mandatory.

6. What order should I study ACCA subjects in? A common recommended order is BT → MA → FA, then LW early since it's on-demand, followed by PM → FM → FR → AA → TX, then SBL and SBR, then your two chosen options.

7. Is Corporate and Business Law (LW) a numerical subject? No — it's the only entirely non-numerical subject in the whole qualification, covering contract, company, and insolvency law rather than calculations.

8. Which ACCA subject should I take first? Business and Technology (BT) is the most common starting subject, since it builds foundational business vocabulary that reappears throughout later subjects.

9. Are ACCA subjects the same across every country? Mostly, yes — the technical content is standardised globally, with the exception of subjects offering country-specific variants, namely Corporate and Business Law (LW) and Taxation (TX).

10. How many subjects will change under the 2027 ACCA restructure? The qualification moves from 13 subjects to 11, with BT retired as standalone content, LW moving to a new Knowledge level, and Strategic Professional's options reducing from two chosen subjects to one, alongside a new Data Science Professional option.

11. Will subjects I've already passed still count after the 2027 changes? Yes — every subject passed under the current structure carries forward automatically into the new system with no resits required, according to ACCA's own guidance on the transition.

12. Which ACCA subjects are most relevant for jobs in Nepal? FR, AA, and FM are particularly valued in banking and audit-firm hiring, since these subjects map most directly onto internal audit, risk, and financial reporting roles that dominate Nepal's ACCA job market.

13. How long does it take to study one ACCA subject? Roughly 60–100 hours for Applied Knowledge subjects, 100–150 hours for Applied Skills, and 150–200 hours for Strategic Professional subjects, depending on your existing familiarity with the content.

14. Can I study two ACCA subjects at the same time? Yes — many candidates study two subjects in parallel, particularly combining an on-demand subject (like LW) with a session-based one, to make efficient use of study time between quarterly sittings.

15. Do all ACCA subjects have exams, or are some coursework-based? All 13 subjects are assessed through computer-based exams. Separately, the Ethics and Professional Skills Module is non-exam and self-paced, and isn't counted among the 13 subjects.

16. Which ACCA subject has the most content to study? Strategic Business Leader (SBL) is widely considered the most demanding in terms of integrated content, since it draws on strategy, governance, risk, technology, and ethics simultaneously within a single case-study-based exam.

17. Where can I find official ACCA study materials for each subject? ACCA's own exam support resources page provides official syllabus and study guides, past exams, and technical articles for every subject.

18. Do TX and LW differ depending on which country I'm studying in? Yes — both subjects are offered in country-specific variants since tax and legal systems differ by jurisdiction. Nepal doesn't have its own TX variant, so most Nepali candidates sit TX-UK or another available variant, and typically LW-ENG or LW-GLO for law.

19. Do all 13 ACCA subjects cost the same to sit? No — exam fees increase by level, with Applied Knowledge and LW being the cheapest, Applied Skills subjects mid-priced, and Strategic Professional subjects the most expensive per sitting, reflecting the increased complexity of marking scenario-based, professional-skills-assessed exams.