Dec 2014 nightmare

Anna I imagine how you feel. Let me move your thread to Ask the Tutor Forum P2 so perhaps Mike Little can help you.

What I am going to write now can probably make you feel even worse. (I was also sitting December 2014 P2)

For me studying for P2 was a nightmare I had so low feel of the subjected literally not understanding what I’m reading. I have practiced only 2-3 examples of CSOFP not even finishing one completely – memorizing most popular adjustments that could appear.. I didn’t even practice CSOPL or Cash Flow… (this was the gamble I had taken).

As for the IAS/IFRS I can honestly say I had very little understanding only basic knowledge. I haven’t practised a single question about IAS/IFRS. I had some knowledge about current issues but mostly from my own written notes which I just memorized. (Literally learning memorized answer to bash out at the exam)

It doesn’t mean I wasn’t studying at all. I did put effort but It was so difficult to study what you can’t understand.

At the exam day:
Since my approach was that I will probably fail this made me even more relaxed than for the other paper (P3) which I thought was very well prepared.

At the desk I said to myself: OK just relax, don’t give a **** about this exam and do what you can do, do your best. So I stick to 3 rules which I always used for previous papers.

1. Be neat help the marker structuring your answer and give legible writing.
2. Strictly stick to time given per question no matter what! (time management)
3. Application – I tried to refer to scenario as much as possible. I pushed myself to put anything that would show the marker I’m actually answering the question in the context of scenario.

Because my mental approach was that I didn’t care about the exam I noticed the time was passing very slow. My mental approach was like “damn I have so much time”.

When the exam has finished my first thought – hmmm that exam wasn’t that bad at all. Later on I saw opinions from that this exam was sooo hard and awkward I started to worry about my paper because my answers could be far away from what is expected.

Honestly I wouldn’t even pass myself (P2).

In the end I passed P2 with 50 marks
and Failed P3 with 47 marks for which I had so much better preparation, practice and understanding. I studied with some of my friends and I was rather the person who was teaching 😉 – they all passed I failed – but I’m honestly very happy for them.

Now reading your post makes me confused about how those ACCA exams are marked and what is expected. Same opinion of my friends who saw my results – me passing P2 and failing P3.

Now:
On one hand you have such student as me who passes with 50 marks and in the other a well prepared student as Anna who fails with 47 marks.

I suspect that you:
Could have written too much (since you had so good understanding) which led to bad time allocation and couldn’t manage to answer all the questions evenly well.

Lack of application in descriptive questions: Perhaps you showed very good understanding of IAS/IFRS but without referring to scenario given

Making it short: Better exam technique.

Better mental approach:
I know it’s hard but you should go into exam saying that you are so well prepared you can do everything and just relax.

At my desk I spent 15 minutes on relaxing while reading the questions
(I suggest not even looking into Q1 in those minutes – only Q2-Q4)
and making general notes what I will write.

When reading time finished I instantly moved to Q1 and just bashing out pro formas calculations doing what I can do in given time. Examiner often says that students spent too much time on those 35 marks and not even attempting ethics question – a free 7-8 marks to get !!

It’s hard for me to say more since I don’t know your exam technique and can give general advices – but I am happy to go with you to some details.

I’m sorry for lenghty comment – the mic is yours Mike