#BPP #June14 #ExamTips #ACCA ACCA F4 In questions 1 – 7 all of the marks are for accurate use of legal knowledge. To prepare for these you should focus on memorising as many rules, facts and cases as you can. Using mind maps or spider diagrams to form word associations may help. In questions 8 – 10 you will need to give some advice. For these questions practise using the ‘ISAC’ approach outlined in BPP’s learning materials and online debriefs to help you structure your answers. Overall keep in mind the ‘1 mark per relevant point’ principle i.e. when answering a question that allocates 5 marks for discussing an area of law try and produce 5 concise legal facts / rules / cases. ACCA F5 There will be 5 compulsory questions, each worth 20 marks. It is likely that one of these will be entirely written, with the others being a mixture of discursive and numerical requirements. This means that it is essential to practice written questions as well as numerical ones when studying for F5. The syllabus for this paper is very broad, an understanding of all areas is necessary to pass the exam. It would be reasonable to expect one topic from each of the five syllabus areas to be tested. The examiner has repeatedly stated that question spotting is not a suitable way to approach F5. I believe that time spent trying to guess what is going to be in the exam would be better spent revising one additional topic. Even with this in mind there are some general themes which crop up in most exams: variances have always been tested historically. Since basic variances were designated as assumed knowledge from 2013 it is likely that mix and yield and/or planning and operational variances will be tested for syllabus area D. Additionally performance management in the form of appraisal of a company or divisions within one company is a regular feature. This may include transfer pricing or the use of ROI and RI. ACCA F6 The exam will comprise five compulsory questions. Question 1 will focus on income tax with Question 2 focusing on corporation tax. These two questions will make up 55% of the marks. Commonly examined income tax areas include the employed earner and the sole trader. Capital allowances is regularly examined within question 2 but we anticipate aspects of groups could also feature in this question. Question 3 to 5 will total 15 marks each. Question 3 will examine capital gains tax from either an individual and/or company perspective involving a number of disposals. We favour a question on companies chargeable gains this time. The other two questions will cover other areas of the syllabus. One of these questions will be more thought provoking testing candidates ability to think about the tax implications of a situation. VAT will be examined for at least 5 marks in either Question 1 or 2 but could form a separate question. Inheritance tax will also always be examined for between 5 to 15 marks within Question 3, 4 or 5. The paper will be largely computational with a few written marks for explanations. ACCA F7 Question 1 Consolidated statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income and/or consolidated statement of financial position with one subsidiary plus associate (including usual adjustments – fair values, PUP on inventories/PPE, intragroup trading, goods/cash in transit). May include adjustment on another syllabus area, e.g. change in value of financial instrument. Discursive part (b) on reasons for adjusting for eliminating intragroup trading, unrealised profit, negative goodwill or other group topic. Question 2 Accounts restatement or preparation from trial balance (statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income, statement of financial position and may include statement of changes in equity) with the usual adjustments for depreciation, revaluation and current/deferred tax (including deferred tax on revaluations) plus a mixture of adjustments (e.g. leases, substance over form issues, financial instruments (change in fair value or amortised cost), share issues, government grants, inventory valuation or revenue recognition). May include earnings per share or statement of changes in equity with a prior period adjustment. Question 3 Whole question on interpretation or cash flows and interpretation, which may include discussion of how aims of not-for-profit organisations are different. Interpretation may focus on limited ratios and their interpretation (e.g. liquidity). Sections of a statement of cash flows (rather than whole statement) may be tested Questions 4 and 5. One question in context of conceptual framework; other containing one or two discrete topics Possibilities: inflation, deferred tax, provisions, intangible/tangible assets, government grants, earnings per share or financial instruments. ACCA F8 Questions 1, 3, 4 and 5 will be based on separate short scenarios and it is essential that you use the information in the scenario to make your answers relevant. At the beginning of the exam you are given 15 minutes “reading and planning” time. During this time you can read and annotate your question paper and so this is a perfect chance to make notes next to the information in the scenarios of things to include in your answer. During this time you should also think about how you will present your answer – try to use a tabular format in your solutions where relevant as the examiner has stated that candidates who do this score better. Finally pay attention to the verbs used in question requirements as these indicate the number of marks available. For example, the verb “explain” requires a sentence and will score one mark if properly explained whereas the verb “list” simply requires you to list out information with no further explanation and this will score ½ mark per point. ACCA F9 The Examination contains four compulsory 25 mark questions, usually each question features a scenario and multiple requirements. Approximately 50% of the marks will be awarded for calculations and 50% for discussion. It is important that you practise both skills. The F9 Examiner likes to test across the whole syllabus. In many post exam commentaries the Examiner has stated that candidates who were well prepared and who had studied all parts of the syllabus did well on this paper. Candidates who were not successful may have focused on a small number of topic areas. Whilst the above topics are likely to be tested, just focussing on them alone will not be enough to pass the exam. ACCA P1 We expect that the P1 exam in June will mirror previous sittings, with one compulsory question and a choice of two from three optional questions. Remember, the compulsory question will be fixed at 50 marks, focusing on a scenario testing all three main syllabus areas, with up to 4 professional marks available for producing some form of written communication (briefing note, press release or letter to shareholders). The optional questions will score 25 marks each and can test up to two syllabus areas each by applying the syllabus to a real-world scenario. For this sitting, you can expect to see the use of ethical and CSR theories applied to scenarios, as well as the use of risk and governance syllabus content – you should be aiming to revisit as many past-paper questions as possible as we are starting to see exam requirements that have been examined before. Candidates should also take heed of the examiner’s recently published article content for P1 when preparing for this exam. ACCA P2 Section A This will be a 50 mark compulsory case study including preparation of a group statement of profit of loss and other comprehensive income and/or statement of financial position which may include discontinued activities, disposals, acquisitions or a foreign subsidiary. This will include other accounting complications such as financial instruments, pensions, share-based payment and impairments. There will also be discursive requirements on a linked accounting adjustment and social/ethical/moral aspects of corporate reporting. Section B Section B normally includes: Q2 & Q3: 2 case study questions: one a multi-part question covering a range of topics or a theme such as deferred tax, foreign currency transactions, financial instruments, pensions, share-based payment, non-current assets (recognition and/or impairment of tangible and intangible assets), borrowing costs, the effect of accounting treatments on earnings per share or ratios; the other an industry-based question (NB: no specific knowledge of the particular industry is required) testing a range of standards such as accounting policies and the framework, leases, grants, IFRS for SMEs, reorganisations, provisions, events after the reporting period and related parties. Q4: a discussion question looking at current developments in corporate reporting and problems with existing standards, such as regulatory issues over adoption and consistent application of IFRSs, implementation issues, updating the conceptual framework, impairment in the current economic climate, management commentary, application of the definition of control, improvements in performance measurement. Will also normally include a related computational part based on figures from a case study. One of these questions can also include elements of group accounting, especially if question 1 is a statement of cash flows question. ACCA P3 If we look back at the December 2013 P3 exam we can see that the examiner has again required students to have a very good grasp of the syllabus, both breadth and depth, combined with an ability to apply that knowledge (along with a decent amount of commercial common sense) to the specific circumstances of the scenario. In addition it is clear that the examiner likes to keep students on their toes by including substantial elements within questions that are from areas that could be considered the fringes of the syllabus. For instance in December 2013 there was a 25 mark question which required a detailed knowledge of regression analysis, time series analysis and budgeting. In December 2012 there was a 25 mark question based largely on decision trees. It is therefore extremely dangerous for any student to focus on certain elements of the syllabus at the expense of others. To stand the best chance of passing P3 students need to have a good understanding of the entire syllabus. This will enable them to choose the questions where they believe they will find it easier to pick up marks (for instance because it is easier to understand the requirements, or easier to structure an answer, or easier to pick up knowledge marks) rather than having to choose questions because of the syllabus area. In addition if students were to look at the exams in the past couple of years they will see that all of the key areas of the syllabus have been examined over the past four or five sittings which again shows the danger of question spotting or ignoring areas. Finally it is worth pointing out that the December paper saw a return to calculations (the June 2013 paper had very few calculations or financial analysis). We would fully expect this to continue in June this year. ACCA P4 Section A of the P4 exam has, from June 2013, contained one compulsory question. This 50 mark question will, inevitably, draw from a number of different syllabus areas. The examiner has said that he does not plan exams by referring to past exams (i.e. checking that the whole syllabus is being tested over the course of a number of exam sittings). This makes question spotting almost impossible. However we would expect section A questions to test core syllabus areas as listed above. In section B (50 marks in total) you will need to choose two questions from a choice of three. Each question will be worth 25 marks, one of the questions may be entirely discussion based (but this is not guaranteed from June 2013). Remember that this paper is not a maths exam – the examiner is as interested in your ability to communicate well and to give good management advice as he is in your numerical ability. Keep checking the ACCA website for articles written by the P4 examiner in the lead up to the exam, these are often tested. ACCA P5 Performance Analysis: The examiner has indicated that his questions will require more skill in interpreting data and discussing strategies to improve performance rather than performing calculations. You may be asked to analysis performance v budgetary targets to identify underlying problems that a company needs to address. This analysis could include the use of activity-based approaches, learning curves or non-financial performance measures. Ensure you have read the article on Benchmarking published in September 2012. ‘Beyond budgeting’ is an important area that can be tested either as a discussion or a numerical question. Performance appraisal requires effective information systems so expect to be asked to identify the key strategic, tactical and operational information requirements of a business or the implications of introducing a new system on performance management. Risk Analysis: Analysis of the risk of a new proposal could include numerical techniques such as expected values and probabilities but also strategic frameworks such as PEST analysis and Porter could feature here. Strategic Performance Measures in the Private Sector: Divisional performance measurement is another key area; ROI, RI, EVA, NPV, share price movement or even costs of quality could feature here and transfer pricing could feature as an aspect of these questions. Reward Systems: HR issues are new to the syllabus from June 2011 and the examiner is interested in the impact of reward systems on performance management. Ensure you have read the article published January 2013 on Reward Schemes for Employees and Management. Alternative Views of Performance Measurement: Questions are commonly set that require a good understanding of the balanced scorecard, the building blocks model and the performance pyramid. Questions will often require you to analyse data that has been collected using one of these models. Performance Hierarchy: Linking strategic decisions to mission statements or suggesting strategic options using models such as Ansoff’s matrix or the BCG matrix lend themselves to questions containing a mixture of financial and discursive elements that could easily include a simple NPV or profit analysis. ACCA P6 The exam will comprise two compulsory questions within Section A which will both be of a case study style. The first question will be 35 marks in length and will contain four marks for professional skills. The second will be for 25 marks in total and will contain no professional skills marks. One of these questions will focus on personal tax issues and the other will focus on corporate tax issues. Section B will comprise three questions, each of 20 marks in length of which only two are to be answered. These will be in a more succinct, note form style. The whole syllabus is examinable throughout the paper. The paper will examine candidates’ ability to analyse and evaluate the tax implications of various situations, numerical calculations will only be required to assist in producing an answer and no purely numerical questions will be set. Groups of companies, unincorporated business, capital gains tax versus inheritance tax, overseas aspects are regularly examined topics. ACCA Paper P7 We expect that the P7 exam in June will mirror previous sittings, with two compulsory questions making up the majority of the marks on offer and a choice of two from three optional questions. Remember, the compulsory questions will be fixed at 35 marks and 25 marks for Questions 1 and 2 respectively, with up to 4 professional marks available in one of these questions, while the optional questions will score 20 marks each. For this sitting, you can expect a planning scenario in the compulsory section which should test risk assessment, audit procedures and professional issues, while we expect that optional questions will again test audit reports, evidence, ethical and other practice-related matters. Candidates should also take heed of the examiner’s recently published article content for P7 on exam technique, controls, audit reports and assurance engagements when preparing for this exa Courtesy : BPP , PQ
Posted on: Sat, 24 May 2014 14:00:00 +0000
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