ACCA P7 Exam Tips December 2015

ACCA P7 Exam Tips December 2015 Session given below are just intelligent guesses from exam point of view provided by famous tuition providers. These exam tips must not be relied on totally. To increase chances of success in Exams you must prepare full breadth of syllabus and topics

ACCA P7 Exam Tips December 2015:

ACCA P7 Exam Tips December 2015 Session are given below by famous tuition providers

Kaplan

Concentrate on the core areas – these are the ones that are regularly examined; your Kaplan tutor will help you to identify what they are. But your strategy should be study breadth not depth; it is much better to have a working knowledge of the whole syllabus rather than just 6 topics in lots of depth. 

Pay attention to the verbs in the question to start with. ‘Explain’ requires you to state an answer with some facts as examples to support it. So, if the question was, ‘Explain the evidence you would seek when auditing provisions’, then an answer may be, ‘ External advice from a solicitor to prove existence and valuation.

BPP

Section A
– Test planning.
– Risk assessment.
– Evidence gathering and practice management.
– Non-audit engagement, such as prospective financial information (PFI) or due diligence.
– Audit completion.
– Consolidated groups.

Section B
– Audit evidence and financial reporting issues.
– Practice management, including ethics.
– Quality control and reporting, including completion and communication.

LSBF

The format of question paper consists of 2 compulsory questions in Part A and 3 out of which 2 have to be solved in Part B.

1st tip is about strategy. It is that you should start with optional questions or with which you feel confident as this will help you take a good start that will boost your confidence. Next you should move towards compulsory questions and then came back to optional question.

2nd exam tip is Always note carefully the verb used by examiner in the question requirements and the marks allocated. For example if question asks you to identify 6 points and awards 6 marks than you only need six bullet points with minimum details. On the other hand if it asks you to explain and award 6 marks than you need 3 separate bullet points but with in-depth details. 

3rd exam tip relates to style and presentation. Always remember that this paper is not only examining your technical knowledge but also your written communication skills. Part of being a good is Accountant or Auditor is being a Good communicator. 

Always try to use good business English and structure answers by using headings and subheadings and a align with a ruler and leave some space. Do not use bullet points as examiner have clearly stated that answers in this format is not suitable for P7 students. 

– Audit risk/risk of material misstatement.
– Matters and evidence (accounting issues and audit work on those issues).
– Audit report scenarios/implications.
– Discussion of benefits of new style audit report.
– Assurance on prospective financial Info.
– If sitting INT stream, audit of public sector performance information.
– Threats to independence.
– Advertising.
– Reliance on work of internal audit.
– And know your ISAs, especially more interesting ones such as 250, 402, 540, 550, 560, 600, 720.
– If sitting UK Stream, insolvency.

Beckers Professional

Coming Soon

First Intuition

– Business risks in a scenario.
– Identifying ethical and other professional issues in a scenario.
– Matters to be considered and audit evidence for a couple of core accounting issues.
– Money laundering.
– Insolvency issues.

Open Tuition

Section A

35 marker compulsory question 1 – 63 minutes

• this will probably involve responding to a partner’s email about a forthcoming audit client where you are asked to identify business risks, audit risks that you expect to face, principal procedures that you expect to perform during the audit and any ethical issues that may be relevant
• the 63 minutes time allocation should be allocated as 17.5 minutes PLANNING your answers to the various parts of the question and 45.5 minutes writing your answer to those various parts
• it is vital that you stick rigidly to time allocation within all these questions. There should be no question of you finishing the 3 hours and saying “I didn’t have time to do part d) of question 1”. There HAS to be a proper attempt at ALL parts of the questions that you elect to attempt
• this is the question where 4 professional marks are available for style, presentation, clarity, persuasiveness …. so make sure that you can write a letter, an email, a draft press release, an address to the shareholders a report …..

Section A

25 marker compulsory question 2 – 45 minutes

• planning time here is 12.5 minutes so use it wisely and that leaves just 32.5 minutes for writing out your plan
• this is typically an audit question with an accounting twist asking you to comment on “matters to be considered and explain the audit evidence that you should expect to find during your review of the audit working papers”
• the particularly important word in this question is “explain” the audit evidence. Not identify or list but explain. Further, you don’t expect to find something like “if that fails then telephone the third party ….” So be very careful to restrict your answer to an explanation of the audit evidence that you could expect to find in audit working papers (and a telephone conversation isn’t evidence that you would find on an audit file!)
• also important is to ensure that you are on top of the IAS / IFRS and particularly the more recent ones or those with recent amendments
• document numbers and titles are NOT IMPORTANT – they score no marks

Section B

choice of 2 from 3 questions worth 20 marks each – 36 minutes each

• planning time here is 10 minutes for each of your two chosen questions so, as always, use it wisely and that will leave only 26 minutes writing time
• there will most probably be something about ethics in one or even two of these optional questions
• make sure you write something for every part of every question. You are unlikely to be able to finish every part of every question – either because you run out of time or you get stuck – but you can always write something.
• each comment that you make should be within its own sentence and leave a line between your sentences effectively making them into paragraphs
• time yourself copying sentences from a book and stop after 1 minute and 18 seconds. That’s the time that you have available to write one sentence containing just one markable point.
• you’re unlikely to get past the third line and that’s the MAXIMUM length of a sentence / paragraph in the exam
• make sure that your writing is legible. If a marker can’t read your script, he can’t give you credit for your thoughts!
• if you write one long paragraph containing several points, then there is a danger that the marker will miss some of the points.
• start each part of each question on a new page in the answer booklet (if you run out of pages you will be provided with a supplementary booklet!).
• that way you can always go back to questions and you will be able to add more to your answer neatly, if you have time left at the end of the exam.
• do make sure you make it clear at the top of the page which part of which question you are answering.
• for a non-numerate exam like P7, be aware of just how many marks are available for each part-question and plan sufficient points to include within your answer to get the majority of those marks. Remember, one correct point earns one mark.