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The OpenTuition Study Guide for Paper P4 has been updated to include the latest available past exam papers.
It is linked from the main Paper P4 page:
https://opentuition.com/acca/P4/- Topics: 16
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Sir John,
When you close the topics for new replies in the ‘ask the tutor’ forums, we cannot ask any new questions on any existing threads.
For example, if there is a thread on a past paper question where someone asked you a question in the past, it so happened that i asked another question today, you replied and after that the topic is closed for any new discussion.
Do you imply that we need to open a new thread , even if our question is related to a past paper question that has a thread already?
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- Replies: 1
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Sir, Any exam tips for P4 June 2017 attempt?
taxman123: Generally (but not always) we close a thread once the question has been answered. On the one hand, obviously we want to give as much help as we can, but on the other hand some people were abusing it terribly by posting question after question on different topics in the same thread (effectively expecting private tuition, which is not what we offer). Also, too often people were not thinking through their question properly – so we would answer exactly what they asked, but then they would decide that they actually meant to ask something completely different 🙂
It is a difficult for us to decide on the best way, but if a thread is closed then obviously do by all means ask more questions but if it is closed then it does mean starting a new thread.
Also, certainly with regard to past exam questions, in so many cases the question has already been answers and using the search box on the website would have found that whatever they were asking had already been answered before.
Sorry for when it causes inconvenience but we try and use the closing of threads fairly.
(PS Sorry for taking so long to answer, but I only just saw your question. I do not have the time to look at all of the forums, and so usually only see questions in the Ask the Tutor Forums for my papers.)
pirat3s0: We used to give exam tips (albeit they could obviously only be educated guesses). However now that there are 4 exam sittings a year it has become impossible to give sensible guesses.
We do publish the tips from the likes of BPP when they become available (although mostly these days they end up tipping most of the syllabus rather than specific areas 🙂 )what ACCA does not realise is that some of us come from third world countries and paying even just the exam sitting fee for one paper is my entire months salary, before transport, food or any other expense in a country where you literrally have to pay for everything, no social services.
i cannot afford a tuition provider, my younger sister had to buy me a book out of her own pocket. i go to work over the weekends just to use internet and watch open tuition videos because half of the things in P4 like options and futures do not even exist here.
i have worked so hard all year long just to try and get a grasp of the issues. for people to sit there and say things like ‘ if you are not good in math then p4 is not for you ‘ i feel is unfair.
education is about developing skills. locking people out is like in that movie ‘ music of my heart ‘ where the violin teacher started teaching people in the projects, and people were like ‘violin is nit for these kinds of people’ they were willing to work hard and skills can always be developed.
in a world where people want to build up barriers, a course like ACCA can develope skills among people who have been exploited for generations. it is not fair to make money out of people who are struggling without offering even a glimmer of hope. sure, our education system here is useless, math might not be as easy for us as it is for you, but it is not because we are stupid. so help us improve.
i feel like the ACCA is worse than the companies that exploit cheap labour. they have a golden opportunity to break barriers, empower us to be able to improve our lives instead of being stuck in this third world endless cycle of poverty and despair. how can we have the chance to rise up and stop people who are bleeding our country dry right in front of our eyes? there is poor corporate governance, institutions are falling due to mismanagement, enriching a few and destroying the lives of many, insurance and pension schemes here are a rip off. if more of us were empowered, we could have hope. that is all we are asking for. hope.You have written well (although I think this would have been better posted in either the general forum or the P4 forum) and I do sympathise with what you write about it being hard and expensive for people in poorer countries. (We try to help in a small way by providing this website free of charge – paying for tuition makes it even harder to afford).
It is not my job to defend the ACCA – we obviously do not work for them – but I would just make comment on two if your points.
Firstly, you say that things like options do not exist in your country. However, the ACCA is an international qualification and options are an important tool for a financial manager – they may not exist yet in your country, but one day they will and no doubt there are those in your country who do make use of options in other countries. Also, even the majority of students based in the UK will have had no experience of options – but it important that they learn what they are. They might be of important to them in the future as qualified accountants.
Secondly, there is inevitably a fair amount of maths needed in paper P4, and that is unavoidable. It is an optional paper and so for people to say that ‘if you are not good at maths then P4 is not for you’ is a sensible recommendation. The other optional papers do not require much mathematical ability and would therefore be better choices for someone not good at maths.
If i am right in assuming that you are near to finishing the ACCA exams, then certainly do not give up. The qualification is worth having, and even more so if you live in a less developed country because there will be fewer people who have the knowledge that you will have when you have qualified than if you lived in a more developed country where there are far more qualified accountants.
Sir, i really appreciate your open tuition website. without it, i would probably not have a chance. i have watched your videos so much, i know some of them nearly by heart.
i have been doing ACCA since 2006. P4 is my last paper.
i have done all the ACCA exams, not a single exemption, because my background is not in finance. i am a biochemist, but science is not supported here so it was very difficult to work in that field.
i started studying ACCA because i realised that i was absolutely ignorant about finance. when i started, i did not even know what debit and credit was. all i knew is that i have no hope if i don’t understand money. first job i got as a laboratory technician in a high school, i saved up and started taking ACCA exams. we have local variants but i felt like they are very shallow and not right. i would go to a library every day after work, study for three hours, and all weekend long. go through the book and study till it made sense. everyone asked me what i was thinking making such a big change, but little by little i surprised them as i kept going through the papers. before failing my P4 paper, i had only ever failed the F7 paper once.
for the longest time, i have been an ACCA. looking back at some old family pictures, i was surprised to see that i always had an ACCA book somewhere.
i started ACCA because i want to understand money. i am not saying that the topics are not important. all i am saying is that it might not be clear the kind of hurdles we face. we so desperately want to understand all these things.
i wish everyone the best of luck. for the first time in a long time, i have to let go of my ACCA dream. i have just realised that it was one of the few things i was deeply proud of myself for. i just wanted to finish and proudly say that i fought the good fight. that if only you gave it a fair shot, you can succeed. looking at this particular paper, all i feel is discouragement. last time i sat it was in 2011. i got 43 marks. i did not know what more i could do so i left it for six years. last time i sat i did not know about open tuition. this time round, i watched f9 videos, p4 videos, downloaded all the notes, read them though, bought the book, studied all the examples through and through. coming back, i really gave it my all because i loved it so much. i have considered taking audit or performance management, which are the only two other choices i have. i just don’t have any more to give.
i just wish everyone the best.i appreciate you work and its just that as an assistant teacher, i had to believe that everyone has a chance. one of the students i was working with the teacher told me not to pay attention to him because science is just not for everyone. however i worked with him slowly and realised that there was just one little part he had not understood in linear equations. once he got that, we flew over all the other topics and within one semester, he came from being at the bottom of the class to one of the top students. he even won the science fair and the science teacher said that that win was all the more sweet because it was one of the most dramatic improvements he had ever witnessed. now that kid might have a bright future even in science, which he thought he was not good at!
it is just a bump. i did not have anywhere else to vent. since 2011 it has been difficult to get the finances i need just to register let alone dedicate so much time, so once i got the chance i took it very seriously. i could have sat in dec or march but i knew i had a lot to cover so i started reading really far back, knowing that june was the soonest i could attempt. ACCA was my anchor, the one thing i could lean on. sure it is tough and demanding, but it has always paid off. it always felt fair.you put in the work, you get the results. i put in more work than i ever have before. was really just hoping for a pass. the cloud may one day lift, and i may once again attempt. but till then, i realised that half the pain was that ACCA had become part of my identity, i tell young people in university here to register, start it early because it is good for them. i tell them they can dream big and achieve, as long as they put in the work. i went all in. just in shock.
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