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ACCA Exams 2010

How to pass the third level P1, P2 & P3

P1 Professional Accountant..
Whatever you do make sure you don’t leave a whole syllabus area out of your revision (such as ethics) – section A always examines across the whole syllabus. Ethics will definitely be in section A so you cannot avoid it.
Learning facts about areas like corporate governance, with lists of roles and advantages/disadvantages, will help for this exam, but will never get you enough marks to pass. Questions across all areas of the syllabus may require some theoretical facts, but then always move onto application to the given scenario. You must refer to things that are described in the case to get good marks, and be prepared to tackle questions that do not require any theory or models at all.
A common problem in this exam is not answering questions to the depth required by the verbs in the requirements (such as assess, evaluate or analyse). There may be two marks available for any correct point, for identifying and then analysing it in detail.
It is essential that you read the question requirements carefully, and note any use of the word ‘and’, which separates out two parts of the requirement. Planning your answer before writing it in full will ensure that you avoid overlap between question sections and that your points are not repeated (and hence you do not waste time writing the same thing twice).
Finally, ensure you aim to achieve the professional marks – to date there has been up to four marks available in section A that do not require additional knowledge, but your answer needs to be in a specific format or style.

P2 Corporate Reporting..
This paper is the final pillar of the central core test of accountancy. It builds directly from paper F3 and paper F7. Before you start your P2 studies it is essential you get out your books from F7 and practise some exam standard questions. If you were exempt F7 you will need to go to the ACCA website, download the recent exam and check you can indeed answer it. All of this is assumed knowledge when you start P2.
Even if you got a great mark at F7, do not be complacent. The best answered F7 questions are always Q1, Q2 and Q3. For F7 these are highly numeric – a consolidation, published accounts and either a cash flow or ratios. For many students a combination of these three questions is enough to pass the paper, with questions 4 and 5 on the accounting standards being poorly attempted. If this rings bells with you… beware P2.
To be successful at P2, you MUST know your accounting standards. You do not get a published accounts question or a ratios ever, so you cannot rely on being good at those questions. You will not get both a consolidation and a cash flow – Q1 is either a consolidation or a group cash flow. To even be successful at this one numeric question, you must know ALL your accounting standards. Around 68% of the marks for this paper are driven by accounting standards. So to be successful at P2 print off the 2010 list of examinable documents, pin it to your wall, and get learning.

P3 Business Analysis..
ACCA P3 is not a test of knowledge. Instead, students are expected to apply their knowledge to real world scenarios. Some of the key difficulties that students experience are as follows:
• The scenarios are long and detailed. Typically, the compulsory case study can be 1,600–1,800 words. This takes a long time to read (especially if English is not your first language).
• Most chapters in the syllabus contain one or two key models and the examiner expects these to be used in answers. But he does not always tell us which model to use.
• Questions mix syllabus areas and chapters together.
• Marks are only added if answers are relevant to the scenario.
The key tips to overcome these problems are as follows:
• Time management is vital. If, for example, 30 minutes is put aside for reading and planning the compulsory question, there are only 60 minutes left for writing (1.2 minutes per mark available).
• Practise questions. Experience of past scenarios will get you familiar with which models are used in which syllabus areas.
• Broad syllabus coverage. The material in P3 is often straightforward, but there is a lot of it and you need to be familiar with every chapter.
• Don’t simply regurgitate revision notes. Make sure you use examples from the scenario to back up your points and make sure you focus on the question that has been set. Don’t include points from your revision notes if they do not apply to the particular organisation in the scenario.

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