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Failing P5 in Mar 2018 exam with 37%, I feel so disappointed. I had done the text book as well as practice most of the major part in exam kit and a few past exam.
At the exam, I found myself unable to translate what in my brain into the written paper and also I misread some scenario mostly like due to English is my second language.
I have 2 last papers to complete: P5 and P7, these 2 papers seem like hell to me.
Any advices for me to prepare for upcoming retake exam in this June ?
Regards,
Hi,
I was in a similar situation and this is what I did for P7:
I used the Kaplan Revision Kit and they give a list of recommended questions as part of preparing for the exam. They say if you do all those questions under exam conditions, you are guaranteed a pass. And when I followed their instruction, I passed with very good marks.Feel free to contact me on LLMAQE@gmail.com and I can share my experience with you.
If you are left with two papers you are almost there, don’t give up.
Don’t give up and don’t worry that English is your second language – you are not alone. I have two pieces of advice for you:
(1) Read the examiner’s report for P5 for March 2018 https://www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/acca/global/PDF-students/acca/p5/examinersreports/p5-examreport-march-2018.pdf and see if can relate the examiner’s insights to what you remember of your performance – with the benefit of hindsight you should be able to target what you need to focus on. Also (re)read the examiner’s approach article https://www.accaglobal.com/uk/en/student/exam-support-resources/professional-exams-study-resources/p5/technical-articles/examiner-approach-to-paper-p5.html and the articles you will find in the related links “Improving you P5 answers2 and “Reading the Q requirements of P5”. Do similarly for P7 so you understand and avoid the potential pitfalls in sitting this exam.
(2) Attempt every revision Q in the time allowed – rule-off where you get to when the time is up – by all means continue with it but review and assess your answer only up to where the time was up. Appreciate where the easy marks were available and where you might have wasted time (e.g. digressing from the Q set). Remember that a prize-winning script is not a long one – it answers all Qs (except the one you choose not to answer) and all parts of Qs directly and concisely. I have marked many many exams and, especially at this level, my summary advice is “think more – write less” – make every sentence count for a mark and the amount you need to write in 3 hours is not so very much.Hi Kim,
Thank for your advice and feedforward. Currently, I try to reflect back of what I did wrong during and the weakness and to improve them to prepare the next sitting.
@sambathkun You are not alone with this. English is my second language too, though my English is really good or at least so was I told by various people over the years but I still struggle with wordy papers like P3, P5 etc. P3 took me 4 attempts to pass and knowledge was not the issue, it’s difficult to answer these exam questions. With numerical papers you just practice calculations inside and out but with wordy ones, I hate them, I was always terrible at writing essays and reports etc at university and ever since I was a kid.
I will also read these 3 articles by kim2311 and hopefully that will earn my pass. So far I failed P5 in Dec 2017 and in March 2018, going again in June alongside with P2.
P3 and P5 are the type of exams after which you leave the examination hall not having any clue whether you did well or you messed it up. At least with numerical papers you have an idea if you did badly and messed up calculations. Here you can write 80-90% of the paper and still end up failing.
That’s true. I completed every parts of the questions in March exam and still fail.
i found out my mains pitfalls was : 1-Mis read the scenario and requirement (most of the time i find them very confusion, not sure of what they examiner is asking for) and 2-Difficult to form the appropriate answer.
Anyway, currently, i try to practice the past exams and study the question requirements for ths Jun exam. However, some basic knowlegde still lack of, especially on the iT system parts.Wish u and i pass this jun exam.
I am also struggling to get a pass in P5 and I have been disappointed with the result I got in March,2018 however I am resitting this June,2018.Kindly help me If I need to practice the whole revision kit for me to pass a pass.
Make sure you watch the video from the P5 examining team in which they tell you key things about how to approach the P5 exam, you find it under P5 on the ACCA website/exam resources.
Make sure you read the articles from the examining team re “how to improve your P5 answers” (both parts 1 and 2 of the same article) and there is one more article called “Reading the question requirements of Paper P5” – all these are on the ACCA website/exam resources.
Once you read these you will have an idea of how to approach, how to answer questions then you just need to practise them. Don’t waste your time writing out full answers, you only have less than 2 weeks to go. Understand why and how the questions are answered in the way they are answered in the model answer. Try to answer the questions with bullet points by yourself, then have a read of the model answer, compare it with your bullet points and see where you are gone wrong. Your answer does not have to be the same as the model answer, but it has to be similar in approach. If your answer is compeletely different than you may be on the wrong path with that particular answer.
Other than those points above, just keep pracising, keep sitting the exam every 3 months until you pass. It’s down to luck as well but exam preparation and exam technique are key.
@sambathkun said:
That’s true. I completed every parts of the questions in March exam and still fail.
i found out my mains pitfalls was : 1-Mis read the scenario and requirement (most of the time i find them very confusion, not sure of what they examiner is asking for) and 2-Difficult to form the appropriate answer.
Anyway, currently, i try to practice the past exams and study the question requirements for ths Jun exam. However, some basic knowlegde still lack of, especially on the iT system parts.Wish u and i pass this jun exam.
up to 20% of the marks in this paper will be given for knowledge
the rest is application
practice reading and breaking down the requirement for each question
each part of a question has at least 2 requirements, break it down and make sure you attempt to answer all of them. Looking at your mark and what you have written here, I feel this might be holding you back in passing
@essam How many exam questions do you recommend to go through in detail like that? One for each topic? I know the first half of the syllabus well. I need to practise EVA, ROI, transfer pricing, ABC, and corporate failure.
As many as possible.
My question practice was perhaps a little different from others. I didn’t usually write answers but instead would analyse the requirement and split it into its various components and work out what topics of the syllabus it was covering then check this information against the examiners answer from the ACCA website. This would allow me to see the sort of answer the examiner is after in terms of structure and content of the answer.
Re the topics EVA, ROI, transfer pricing, ABC – don’t get obsessed by trying to get the calculations write. Find past papers in which those topics have been tested and look at what sort of non calculation questions the examiner has tested and as above, analyse the requirement and answer structure/content referring back to the scenario to see where examiner has mentioned it in his answer. Note that he will not simply just copy from the scenario but explain implications and why it is important etc.
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