I self study acca through kaplan who offer the following 3 methods of learning.
completely self study (you get the text books and thats it)
online lectures (basically tutor other end of a webcam and works through stuff)
go to college at weekends.
I have done all 3 methods over the past few years.
Self Study:
by far and away the hardest for me as i lack self motivation towards doing it as i have never yet left education so its starting to annoy me (still got many years ahead as well).
it is good as obviously you go at your own pace so you can do things quicker/slower as you see fit, but if your anything like me then it all gets left to be one mad rush at the end, it also means you put all your trust in a text book which from my experience is utterly rubbish the amount of mistakes i find in them is untrue and they also occasionally do not explain answers so your still non the wiser at the end of a chapter (obviously this is not neccasarily the case for all text books).
it also means that if you dont quite follow something or you learn something in the wrong manner then come exam time your goosed.
online lectures:
this was very good and very bad at the same time, good as you have someone to guide you through and to show you quicker/easier ways to work things out compared to the long handed ways in text books, obviously got someone to explain stuff you dont get. Ours were also recorded which meant that you could go back and rewatch an entire lecture when ever you wanted.
the bad points is... your on the internet watching a lecture so all it takes is a quick click onto another site and then your surfing the net whilst listening to the lecturer and not learning anything, it was also prone to a few hickups like lines dropping and sound not being very clear etc.
college/uni:
suppose this all depends on who the teacher is/class mates are as if you get one class mate that really doesnt get something then the lecturer will go over it loads until they get it which means your left twiddling your thumbs and staring off out the window until you move on to something new and if the whole class is disruptivethen your not going to get much work done and its all left to do at home. Does however mean you have more people you can talk to, to help you with work if you need it/explain things in ways you may understand over a lecturer for example.
general adviceadvice would be its very time consuming, for example i get up at 6.30 everyday, leave house for 7, work all day at a computer screen, get back in at 6 at the earliest so by the time you have had a rest/food/sorted anything else out its nearly 8 and the last thing your going to want to do is pick up a book or watch a lecture, so you need to be very strict/dedicated to do it alongside work imo.
I know people it works very well for ie they will take 3/4 exams at a time as they have the self control to literally lock themselves away every night for a few hours with no forms of communication to allow them to work.
where as i cant do that and prefer to keep some form of social life so i only do 2 or 1 at a time.
I know parts of this wont relate to your exact question but i just thought id share my experience.