Revision Techniques

Your question is in effect a mini lecture in itself. But let me see if I can give you some guidance;

The following are exerpts from my responses to similar questions to yours that have recently been asked by students like yourself preparing for F9 in December

(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!

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.

In the Examination

BEFORE you start writing on your answer sheet, you need to FIRSTLY construct an ANSWER PLAN that addressses the EXACT QUESTION(S) that have been set by the Examiner within the REQUIREMNTS PART of the question.

When learning THEORY within the F9 syllabus I usually attempt to summarise the topic under some or all of the following HEADINGS:

(1) Definition
(2) State Formula associated with the particular Theory/Model or outline appropriate TEMPLATE
(3) State ASSUMPTIONS of the Model/Theory
(4) Describe main ADVANTAGES of the particular THEORY
(5) Describe main DISADVANTAGES of the particular Theory
(6) Offer a simple EXAMPLE of how you would use the FORMULA, MODEL or Theory
(7) Suggest any EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE to support the Model/Theory
(8) Conclusion – usually a particular THEORY is limited by the ASSUMPTIONS which underly it.
My ANSWER PLAN will then utilise SOME or all of these headings to construct my final answer in the exam.
ALWAYS watch the number of sub-headings used MATCH the number of marks available for the Question PART …. for example, 5 marks might = 5 points = 5 sub headings.

Theory versus Computational questions in the exam:

As a general rule, I advise to do the calculation parts FIRSTLY…but you MUST be brutal with your time management here. Get your layout (template) down as quickly as possible and then just perform the calculations as far as you can go … and then STOP what you are doing! REMEMBER, most “smart” students will not finish their calculations to the bitter end!!.

When your time allocation is up you MUST STOP what you are doing and move immediately onto the THEORY part. Often, the theory question will follow-on from, or be based on, your calculations completed in earlier parts. Here now you have an opportunity to make up for the feeling that you have not done as well as you would have liked to on the calculations. If the question says 5 marks, then make sure you have made 5 good lucid and relevant points.

You need to remember that it is here that students too often under-perform and fail the exam. They pay scant attention to the theory part after having over-ran or spent too much time fixated on trying to produce correct numbers or finish a particular series of calculations ….. this is really foolish from an EXAM TECHNIQUE point of view.

Remember, your strategy for passing the exam must be built around following the marks and picking up marks wherever you can… A masterpiece of calculations, at the expense of time spent on theory will NOT help you pass the exam.
Practice this before the big day!

I recommend that you try as far as possible to construct an ANSWER PLAN from ONLY reading each part of the Question REQUIREMENTS. That is, you MUST try and IGNORE the text or narrative or calculations that precede the requirements section of each question.

In this way you will remain completely FOCUSED on sketching an ANSWER PLAN which is tailored to match the marks available for that particular Question Part.
For example, what is meant by foreign exchange risk (3 marks)? …. Your answer plan will require 3 headings, lets say Transaction Exp, Translation Exp, and Economic Exp …… a couple of lines under each heading and that’s all the time you have and then STOP what you are doing and move on to the next question part. This is how to do the answer plan – BEFORE writing your actual answer you read the question narrative in order to make sure your initial answer plan covers everything that is required by the question within the time allowed, making sure you haven’t missed or misunderstood anything.

The same question could have said … what is meant by foreign exchange risk (7 marks)? …. In this case you will need 7 points or suitable headings. For example, like before your answer plan will require 3 headings, lets say Transaction Exp, Translation Exp, and Economic Exp …… but you will also need to discuss suitable hedging techniques for each exposure. For example, especially list the INTERNAL and EXTERNAL hedging techniques under transactions exposure. Balance your answer with a brief mention of hedging strategies under translation and economic exposures. ……. You MUST be careful not to write too much on one aspect at the expense of another aspect. What your answer plan should achieve is a BALANCED answer utilising ONLY the number of points or headings required by your Answer Plan. … the important point is to stick to your answer plan headings and/or points

Hope this helps you in your preparations.

Good luck in the exam, Kevin Kelly