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Hi john.
my self Nasrullah. I am frequent user of your website.I failed acca p7 paper 3 times.last june I failed at 45.I did not attempt it in the dec exam instead of I attempted p4.I got only 2 option level exams left to qualified. I want to attempt p7 this march and only got 2 months from today.so how should I go about my study approach.should I go back to all lectures again to refresh my knowledge or should I start question practice?
please show me your best possible approach for my 4th attempt of P7 exam.thank you. Hope to hear from you soon.
I don’t see any point in going through the course notes, the lectures nor any study text.
Getyour revision kit / exam kit out and read through questions and answers starting at question 1, answer 1, question 2, answer 2, question 3, ans…. and so on right through the kit.
Immerse yourself in the language, the style, the layout and the professionalism.
Don’t, at this stage, start trying to answer the questions yourself – JUST READ.
And then do it again
And again and pay particular attention to the question requirements! There’s a BIG difference between “State what evidence you should expect to find” compared with “State what further audit procedures you would recommend”
Consider closely the verb that is used within the question and ensure that you understand how the answer fits the requirements of that verb.
After your third reading through, pick any question at random and, having divided the number of marks available in the question (and part questions) by 2, you now know the number of minutes that you should be spending on each separate part of the question in reading and planning what to write if you were being asked to write an answer.
Spend that time allocation reading the question, highlighting key words and phrases as you read, making one-word notes in the margin of the question page as you read and then …..
….. plan the answer that you would have written in the exam – all this is done within the reading and planning time.
At the end of that time, stop. And count the number of separate relevant markable points that you have made in your planned answer for each part of the question.
Did you get >= 50%?
Repeat, endlessly
Now it’s March and you’re in the exam room
Do the same exercise but this time you have to expand your one-word planned points into proper sentences. No more that 1 minute 18 seconds per sentence. No more that one point in any one sentence. no more than one sentence in a paragraph
And leave a line between your paragraphs
Try that and let me know how you go on
Thanks for your help.So starting point at this stage is just Reading questions and answers in full.after reading all questions and answers understanding all topics from the reading stage.I should Go about writing the answers within planned time.
did I understand correctly?No
Repeatedly reading questions and answers – one time through is not enough. Read the revision kit, then read it again, and then …. read it again
Start to finish
Then pick a question. Calculate planning time (number of marks divided by 2). Now PLAN an answer, in writing, on a piece of paper. At the end of your PLANNING time, stop! and compare your answer with the printed solution. Did you make a note of sufficient points to score >50% of the marks? Did you? Honestly?
Probably not ….. and maybe that’s what is letting you down – 3 times already!
Did you pay great attention to the verbs in the question requirement? Probably not!
Did you plan an answer for EVERY part of the question requirement? Probably not?
What’s the secret to success in this exam? EXAM TECHNIQUE
And the secret to exam technique? There is no secret! It’s all written out for you multiple times on the opentuition website (but I’ve very briefly summarised for you where I believe there is a good chance where you are going wrong!)
Thanks.i start my preparation for the March by reading through past exam question and answers from acca website and from rivison kit
Thanks once again.I will surely take in to account the points you told me to success in this exam.Thanks.
On January 7 at 10.38 I asked you to try an exercise and let me know how you went on.
You haven’t told me!
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Hi,
I want to follow the advise given above , i failed with 47 in the December 2015 exam but what revision kit would you advise me to use. my email address is justeenmusumali@gmail.com.
Hi Justeen
There’s no way that I’m entering into email correspondence with you!
Which revision kit? I doubt whether any one is better than any other. You could even save some money and download the past exam questions and examiner’s answers from the internet.
If you really do want to buy a revision kit, they’re all pretty similar containing, as they do, substantially all and only the past exam questions. The only immediate difference that I would draw your attention to is the black box with yellow script to the right of this post. By ordering BPP material through this site you can take advantage of a 20% discount, but that doesn’t mean that BPP is any better or worse than any other publisher’s materials
Nasrullah, you still have not responded to my questions of January 7, 2016 at 10.38 am and January 16, 2016 at 12:54 pm
I’m still waiting!
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Hi,
This is Hani.
I want to follow the advise given above. Can you please tell from which year the past exam questions should be downloaded?Thanks.
From as early as you can find them right the way up to December 2015 – why limit yourself? The revision kits / exam kits from the reliable publishers include pretty well all those past exam questions but you can access them free from ACCA or you can even download them from this site
Hello Mike,
I have Failed P-7 four times now, 48, 43, 38 & 33.
I am falling backwards rather than going towards the 50 mark.
I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong some say its the lack of knowledge some say it is the exam technique.
I plan an answer, highlight the verbs, jolt down the points on which I can score and I usually attempt full paper and use up to 4 to 5 extra sheets I have done this in all the exams but I have no clue whats going wrong here in P-7
I was so confident after Dec- 2015 attempt but this result have shook me to the core.
In desperate need of help & guidance,
Regards,
OJHow wonderfully neat is your trend line! Let’s hope 28 isn’t next!
It sounds to me like you’re not answering the question but instead you’re misinterpreting what has been asked.
I can’t believe that, after 4 attempts, it can be a lack of knowledge. Have you tried reading answers? I don’t mean simply reading the words and saying to yourself “Yes, I understand that”
What I’m asking is, when you read the sentences, are you appreciating why and how the particular point being made in the sentence is maybe different than the way you might have expressed the same idea? And is that difference possibly because the printed sentence is precisely directed at the question scenario as well as directly addressing the question requirement?
You mention high-lighting verbs. Do you really appreciate the different nuances of different verb requirements or are you simply high-lighting because you know that you should?
You mention additional pages. Whereas length is important, it’s more important to have quality. I find it hard to come to terms with the idea that a non-natural English speaker can write 20 sides of A4 in 3 hours – that’s less than 10 minutes for every side consistently through 3 hours – and that excludes reading and planning time!
It seems that maybe you’re guilty of the misapprehension that the more you write the more impressed will be the marker! Concentrate on quality with less attention to “….I really want to impress by asking for a continuation booklet”
What to do between now and next attempt? Probably follow the advice running through this thread. See if you can follow the instruction that I gave to Nasrullah on January 7 and 16 and that he has chosen to ignore!
Hello,
Thank you for your response. You do remind me of one of my college teachers though, I really enjoy the way you answer all the questions.
I do read answers after I have written down bullet points which I think are relevant and yes a lot of times my language is obviously different from the printed answers but still what ” I think ” is that the points are are equally relevant and do make kind of same sense. I’m sure now I’m wrong most of the times.
Highlighting the verb is what I have learned from all my previous exam attempts and from different teachers maybe I’m not considering as you mentioned ” the different nuances of different verbs”… I will try to work on that!
When writing on my exam sheet I leave a line so that marker does not have too much problem understanding and also put headings where needed to get those professional marks. And yes maybe sometimes I do get carried away and try to attach more continuation booklets than actually required/necessary.
I just came across this forum yesterday and have read quite a few forums where you have mentioned Exam Technique I really liked the idea that is why I immediately wrote down my experience and asked for your help.
Thank you very much.
Best Regards,
Ossama Jamal
hi mike.sorry I just read u are asking for response..sorry I did not ignore ur advice.I am doing same as u told me.reading through question and answers.I did not get notification email but yesterday I read that.
Mike I am doing well but still getting prob in q1 specially in group audit.
thanks.Ossama, you’re welcome. And if you have any further questions, please do put them in this Ask ACCA Tutor forum, and I shall get back to you
“but still getting prob in q1 specially in group audit.” – what can I say? You don’t tell me what your problem is!
After you reach the end of this post, get a piece of paper and a magazine, newspaper, revision kit, text book – anything with writing in it
Find a friend (don’t take too long over that step)
Get ready to copy the writing from the magazine, newspaper, revision kit, text book and get your friend to set a stopwatch to zero
Your friend then starts the stopwatch at the same time as saying “Go” (or “Massachusetts” or “Bury Football Club” or anything!) and you start copying. At the end of 1 minute 18 seconds your friend says “Stop” (or “Whoa” or “Lost again” – whatever is appropriate) and you stop
Count the number of lines that you completed within that time.
That’s the MAXIMUM length of a sentence in the exam. And that sentence has just ONE markable point within it. And probably no “and” within it
Did you reach the fourth line? I doubt that very much
Hi John
Is there any chance to get the questions for last Sep 15 exam questions for P7?
Thanks
BennyHi Brian
No, the ACCA is not publishing the September exam separately, nor even the December exam. What they are to publish is a hybrid collation of the two exams together
And incidentally Bernard, this is Mike. Not John! OK Barney?
Nasrullah, at 9.12 on February 7, I set you a task to complete. I expected a response within 5 minutes!
What’s the point of me trying to help you if you won’t help yourself?
sorry mike.I was busy I just logged in today and see ur post.
I do work as well study and probably your local timings may be different to mine.Thats why I did not answer u promptly.
within 1.18 min I can finish 4 lines fully.Hello Mike,
1) Could you please specify how exactly I should spend 15 minutes reading and planning time? eg.
– read all the requirement in all 5 questions and choose 3rd and 4th question – how many minutes should I spend on it?
– What should I do then? Read and plan (ie. annotate, highlight, underline text, write down one-word bullet points on question sheet) 1st and 2nd question or read and plan 1st question only? How many minutes should I spend on it?
2) You are saying: “having divided the number of marks available in the question (and part questions) by 2, you now know the number of minutes that you should be spending on each separate part of the question in reading and planning”.
How should I practically apply it? I normally read the whole question then plan it or do reading and planning at the same time. Should I do it in the following way: say for 20 mark question – spend 10 minutes reading the whole question and planning (ie. annotate, highlight, underline text, write down one-word bullet points on question sheet) for all parts of the question and then write down answer spending no more than 1m 18 seconds per mark?
3) 12/07 Q1 Island, requirement a) states:
“Using the information provided, identify and explain the principal audit risks, and any other matters to be considered when planning the final audit for Island Co for the year ended 30 November 2007.”
There are a number of points in the text regarding risks and issues say:
REVENUE RECOGNITION
What maximum amount of marks will I receive explaining revenue risk? Maximum 1,5?
Because I can write how revenue should be recognized in accordance with accounting standard (1 mark), Then I can explain what could be wrong with revenue recognition with that particular company (1-2 marks), calculate and state whether matter is material in amount or in nature (1 mark).
Then I can finally sum up say ” there is a risk that revenue overstated because…” (1mark)
Therefore I can dedicate 5 marks to revenue.
So my question is:
I do not understand for sure how the question will be marked. What maximum amount of marks are available say for REVENUE issue (and every other single matter) in that particular question and other questions like this one?
Thank you in advance))
Nasrullah, either you are only writing 6 words per line or your watch doesn’t work properly! I can’t write 4 lines in 78 seconds! Whatever, hat’s off to you if you can
The point of the exercise is to demonstrate to you the MAXIMUM length of any sentence / paragraph that you should be writing in the exam and that sentence paragraph shall contain JUST ONE markable point
If you work on that principle, you should be ok
Now, am I stupid?
The fact that you work and that local timings may be different is not even beginning to be a valid reason for you to have taken over a month to do that 78 second exercise!
From January 7 at 10.38 to February 9 at 8.58!
But, at least you’ve managed it now and hopefully that exercise will be remembered by you in the exam room – next month is it?
“– read all the requirement in all 5 questions and choose 3rd and 4th question – how many minutes should I spend on it?” – no more than 1 minute
Then read the entire question of the one that you have discarded (number 3, 4 or 5) and pick up any points that may be relevant elsewhere
Whether you spend the remaining time reading just question 1 and 2 and annotating, highlighting, underlining text, writing down one-word bullet points on question sheet is entirely up to you. Maybe you would prefer to do the same with the two chosen option questions – or even blast your way through all 4
It’s not a request that I can answer, sadly. The principle holds good in that, if you are hoping to raise enough markable points in every part of your four chosen questions, you’re not going to achieve that by launching in without thought.
Number of marks divided by 2 is an indication of just how much time you should be devoting to thinking about the required number of points to satisfy the number of marks available in the question or part question
Mark allocation is something that you become able to assess for yourself (if there is no indication given on the question paper itself) You can always look at past papers in a revision kit and study the mark allocation. I can’t sit here and say “Revenue will be worth 5 marks”
If there are 5 general issues and only 15 marks available, then it’s unlikely that any one of those 5 issues will be worth 5 marks. My inclination would be to guess that they would count for 3 marks each
When you get used to planning you’ll realise that some parts of questions are easier to plan than others – in a 5 mark sub-question you may find that you can get to 5 separate points in a plan very quickly. Alternatively, in a different 5 marker, you could struggle to get 2 or 3 points within the 2.5 minutes’ planning time.
It all comes with practice
One spin off benefit from planning is the realisation that, if you are to get all these points written out in an answer in proper form, there simply is not the time available to wind on and on over one idea. You have to stop after one sentence and move on to the next point
And that also comes with practice!
Has that answered you sufficiently well?
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