Exam Techniques for f9

Hi,

Your questions are good questions but quite difficult to answer in this forum – they are in effect a mini lecture in themselves. I especially address the questions you have raised during the Revision Phase of one of my F9 courses. But let me see if I can give you some guidance;
(1) Make sure that you study ALL of the syllabus …. that you have a good overview of the syllabus. This is especially important for the THEORY part of the exam, and remember the THEORY WILL cover 50% of the available marks. An efficient way of obtaining this OVERVIEW of the syllabus is to work your way through ALL chapters of the OT Lecture Notes. When you have done this you should practice answering as many past theory questions/ parts as possible, watching that the length of your answers corresponds to the number of marks available. For example, 5 marks available might suggest building your answer around 5 main points or headings.
(2) 50% of the marks are available for calculation parts. Here you should rehearse your APPROACH to the main topics or syllabus areas that usually are examined; Investment Appraisal, Cost of Capital (especially WACC) Working Capital, Financial Analysis, Foreign Exchange and so on. Their is no magic formula I can give you. BUT, what is important is that you have a well thought out APPROACH, LAYOUT (or what I call TEMPLATE) for each major area of the likely numerical questions, as above. Then you must practice YOUR approach against as many past ACCA F9 exam questions as possible, comparing your approach to the MODEL answers. In this way you build up SPEED and CONFIDENCE in your methodology.

The EXAMINER tends to look for a good OVERALL understanding of the syllabus and the questions he sets reflect this – they can be on any area. This is especially true of the theory questions he sets. Have a close look at the structure and the SPREAD of the exam questions as you prepare/study. What all of this amounts to also is that “question spotting” is a wholly unwise strategy for F9.
(3) Finally, you MUST be prepared to answer ALL PARTS to ALL questions in the EXAM … even if you think you have nothing to say. I strongly advise you to practice writing an answer to a question part that you believe at the outset you know nothing about…you’ll be surprised what comes to you!

Finally, be sure to work you way through ALL of the OT video presentations as well as the OT Lecture Notes. Then keep going over as many past papers and Revision Kit questions & solutions as you can.

Hope this helps. Good luck, Kevin Kelly