ACCA Books: Which is Better - KAPLAN or BPP?

ACCA Books which is better KAPLAN or BPP.

Many students often ask us which ACCA books are better, BPP or KAPLAN, to pursue their studies. Eduyush.com are authorized resellers of the original BPP Books and KAPLAN books.

So we lay down statistics of our purchases, and feedback is given to us orally or over surveys.

We list down the subjects and which publishers students choose to go for when looking at the past 12000+ purchases (updated till September 2024)

Both BPP Books ACCA and KAPLAN Books are good in the summary and conceptual clarity and are approved by the ACCA Examination team. 

ACCA Books: Your Passport to Acing the Exams and Outsmarting the Competition

Read analysis of

• Knowledge level books
• Skill level books
• Professional level books

A summary of the feedback given to us by students

• Students who need more accessible language prefer KAPLAN over BPP.
• Students who need more technical language and conceptual clarity chose BPP.
• BPP has very detailed text with lots of case studies and references
• KAPLAN books were more pre-dominantly sold at Knowledge level approx. 67%. At the strategic level, students prefer BPP by almost 81% as it has more case studies, and the language is more technical, which helps students in exam preparation.
• Students who wish to do self-study now take up BPP Books as theres an added advantage of the BPP Training. BPP online training is available at a fractional cost (approx. 5,000 INR Avg.) as compared to other tuition partners and has a repeat (78%) purchase from first-time users
• Students with little or nil work experience find KAPLAN's language easier to understand over BPP.
• With BPP launching its new interactive revision kit from August 2023, many students now do take the BPP revision kit in ebook format to practice and get real time answers. 

We list down estimated purchases made by students in the past two years through our site for each level. 

Knowledge Level or Applied Knowledge Papers :

The Knowledge exams provide students with a broad introduction to finance and accounting and develop the student's essential understanding of practices and techniques in accounting.

The three examinations under knowledge level are :

 Key-takeways

Students who need easy language go for KAPLAN, and students who are accomplished in English and want more technical knowledge go for BPP

Skills Level or Applied Skills Papers:

The Applied Skills modules or papers build on existing knowledge, acquired during the knowledge level. It creates an understanding of applications and develops strong, broad, and practical finance skills required to function as a professional accountant in any sector or industry. 

The six applied skills papers are :

 Key takeaways from students

Broadly students prefer BPP Books for technical subjects or numerical subjects like FR, FM and TX while for theory AA is preferred

Broad Theme:

BPP helps you understand the concepts clearly, especially if you're studying independently. Kaplan is simple, and you use it if you attend coaching classes or have a tutor.

With its interactive nature, BPP's new revision kit ensures active learning, enabling students to engage with the material and improving retention and understanding of complex concepts. This has resulted in students opting in for the revision kit from BPP as an additional resource for exam preparation.

Subject wise theme

• Students find BPP TX Workbook quite detailed oriented and also find the revision kit very useful.
• Many students who chose FR or F7, go either with KAPLAN for clarity in explanation or BPP for practical solutions.

Also with BPP Training options available at INR 4800 (50 GBP), students prefer BPP as it gives them a fall back option

Strategic Professional Level

The Strategic Professional Level comprises 6 papers, of which two are compulsory. Among the four optional courses, every student needs to choose two specialisations. Students may specialise in areas that best suit your career ambitions. 

 Key takeaways from students

Key themes

BPP is very wordy and more elaborate, which is excellent for technical papers like SBR, ATX, and AFM.

Kaplan is more precise and very to the point. This is helpful where a better exam technique is required, as you can go through the text faster and spend more time on the revision kit( Key to ACCA).

Students prefer BPP for the following reasons over KAPLAN

1. As Strategic papers are  case study based, they find BPP technical language better suited to score more marks
2. As students need guidance on a professional level, BPP training at INR 4,900 (50 GBP) offers a lot more value with pre-recorded lectures from BPP UK faculty, CBE mocks, CBE software. So students now preferring going with BPP as the training gives them a fall back option to take up online training
3. Students who dont have work experience find KAPLAN better due to the simple language. Even though KAPLAN is wordy and had more content, students find it easier to manage the case study exams.