acca exam tips

Disclaimer: Use at your own risk.

WARNING:The examiners deliberately try to avoid question spotting. Use the tips as areas to have a good look at, but remember that no-one knows what’s in the exam except the examiner. Your safest bet is to achieve good syllabus coverage in your revision, as the examiner aims to do in the exam

Tips for ACCA F1 - F3

No exam tips available - Multiple choice questions cover entire syllabus

Tips for ACCA F4 Corporate and Business Law (Eng)

There are fourteen of them even though there are only ten questions.

The number’s in brackets behind the topic are the question numbers from the BPP revision kit.

1. Judicial precedent / delegated legislation ( 4, 7, 8 )
2. Terms, conditions, warranties, innominates ( 22 )
3. Redundancy ( 41, 42 )
4. Consideration ( 19, 20 )
5. Exclusion clauses ( 24 )
6. Breach ( 28, 29 )
7. Tort and auditor negligence ( 35, 36 )
8. Partnership compared with limited company ( 52, 53 )
9. Company names ( 65 )
10. Capital terms ( 68 )
11. Meetings and resolutions ( 78, 79 )
12. Statutory duties of directors ( 83 )
13. Corporate governance and directors ( 95 )
14. Money laundering ( 100 )

Tips for ACCA Paper F5 “Performance Management”

Question 1
Budgets / Learning curves

Question 2
Decision making under uncertainty (maximin etc..)

Question 3
Mix & Yield variances

Question 4

Financial ratios / Non-financial performance measures / transfer pricing

Tips for ACCA Paper F6 Taxation (UK)

F6 is very predictable so no tips as such

Practise as many exam standard questions as you can.

Make sure you do to time. After the 15 minute reading time you have 1.8 minutes per mark. If a question is split between part (a) 10 marks and part (b) 10 marks then only spend 18 minutes on part (a) and then move on to part (b).

Look at all the requirements of the question, can you answer an easy parts first, for example one part maybe standalone and on something very straightforward, so do this part first
You do not have to answer the questions in the order they are set, if question 5 is the easiest do this one first.

Question 3 will be the hardest so leave this until last but make sure you leave 36 minutes to answer it.
Do not panic if you can’t remember something in a question, don’t spend too much time trying to remember it, have a go or even guess. Then you can move on to other parts of the question.

Above all you need 50% to pass, so find the marks you can do. There will always be more than 50% of the question which is examining core areas of the syllabus, only a few marks will be fringe areas, but you do not have to worry about these as you can find the 50 marks you need to pass

Tips for ACCA F7 Financial Reporting (INT)

Question 1

Consolidation, probably Statement of Financial Position, with subsidiary
( full year ) and Associate ( part year )

Question 2

Preparation of financial statements from a trial balance or draft set of
accounts with 6 or 7 adjustments to make - beware the accrued loan interest

Question 3

Cash flow, with or without an interpretation section. Probably with
interpretation so ….a relatively straight-forward cash flow for ( say ) 12
marks and a report interpreting the results for 13 marks

Question 4

15 marker on some lesser examined topic. Construction contracts would be
my guess - but it could be anything - EPS, Leases, Contingencies and
provisions ….. )

Question 5

Could be absolutely anything! Any part of the question Mrs Harper from
the BPP revision kit would be a good Q5 - or part (b) of Q5

Tips for ACCA Paper F8 Audit and Assurance (INT)

30 Mark question:

The audit of non-current assets, including final audit work and expected internal controls.

10 Mark question:

Audit risk or audit committee.

20 Mark questions (3):

CAAT/sampling Audit reports

Letter of representation,

Post balance sheet events,

Liabilities and contingencies.

Tips for ACCA Paper F9 “Financial Management”

Question 1

Foreign exchange:
Forecasting exchange rate
Managing risk (forward rates / money markets)

Question 2

WACC calculation / discussion of ways of raising finance

Question 3

Receivables management / cash management - Miller Orr

Question 4

Capital Rationing / discussion of limitations

Tips for ACCA P1 Professional Accountant - UPDATED!

Question 1
Gray, Owen and Adams - corporate social responsibility, deontology,
teleology, accountability to stakeholders - question JH Graphics

Question 2
Neds and corporate governance, role of the audit committee, role of the
risk management committee

Question 3
Internal auditors, internal controls, compare internal auditors with
external auditors

Question 4
Identification of risk, unitary board compared with 2 tier board

And a final one as a long shot even though there are only 4 questions in
the exam!

Statutory duties of directors

Tips for ACCA P2 Corporate Reporting (INT)

Question 1

Consolidated Cash Flow Statement
Question 2

Shares and share based payment schemes
Question 3
Deferred tax
Question 4
Various IAS/IFRS question (4 or 5 accounting problems to comment on)

Tips for ACCA Paper P3 Business Analysis

Part A - 50 mark case study
Position analysis (5 forces, PESTEL, generic strategies etc).
Foreign expansion/globalisation/convergence.
* Part B – 2 from 3 25 mark questions
• Business process change and quality – DMAIC, CMMI. Value chain. (See September article in Student Accountant). Commoditisation of business processes and outsourcing.
• Quality of software (V model). Relationship marketing. E-business evolution.

• Corporate structure – divisionalisation, matrix, decentralisation.

Tips for ACCA Paper P5 Advanced Performance Management - JUST UPDATED!

Question 1
Preparation of budget and actual profit statements (including
learning curves)
Non-financial performance measures

Question 2
Comments on financial performance (either 2 years of accounts or
comparison with similar companies)
Extra information required to be able to do a more detailed analysis
Importance/advantages of EBIDTA as a measure

Choice questions:
Question 3
Written question about deciding on performance measures

Question 4
Transfer pricing

Question 5
Written question on corporate failure

Tips for ACCA P7 Advanced Audit and Assurance (INT)

Question 1

Audit risk / Fin statement risk
Question 2

Forensic accounting (Student Sept 08) Q53
(Ethical and professional issues)?

Question 3
Audit reports
Question 4

Comment on matters requiring consideration + State the audit evidence you should expect to find

Question 5
Audit work on suspected fraud (q27 Indigo)

Sources: opentuition.com