ACCA Exam Tips June 2012 exams

ACCA Exam Tips for December 2012 exams are here >>

Please Note ACCA Exam Tips should not be relied on – they are only intelligent guesses.
Their only purpose is to give you suggestions for topics to concentrate on in your last few days of preparation.
Do not exclude other topics from your overall preparation.

To get the most from your preparation, make sure you watch all OpenTuition ACCA lectures, and practice as many past exam questions as possible! Also check all the latest SA Technical Articles.

June 2012 Exam tips below:

Tips for ACCA F1 – F3

No exam tips available – Multiple choice questions cover entire syllabus

ACCA Exam tips for Paper F4 English

Q1 Criminal law, civil law, arbitration December 7

Q2 Lifting the veil June 8

Q3 Meetings Pilot paper

Q4 Corporate governance – auditors December 7

Q5 Self-employed or employed June 10

Q6 Damages, measurement and remoteness June 9

Q7 Insolvent liquidation December 7

Q8 Treasury shares – new to syllabus

Q9 Intention to create legal relations December 7

Q10 Bribery – new to syllabus

ACCA Exam tips for Paper F4 Global

Q1 Criminal law, civil law, arbitration December 7

Q2 Lifting the veil June 8

Q3 Meetings Pilot paper

Q4 Corporate governance – auditors December 7

Q5 Sale of goods, anticipatory breach December 8 / June 9

Q6 INCOTERMS – the two new ones

Q7 Insolvent liquidation December 7

Q8 Treasury shares – new to syllabus

Q9 Sale of goods, passing of risk December 9

Q10 Bribery – new to syllabus

Tips from other providers (Kaplan/BPP/LSBF) for Paper F4 >>

ACCA Exam tips for Paper F5

Activity Based Costing

Cost volume profit analysis

Planning and Operational Variances

Budgets – mainly written, but with preparation of a flexed budget and commenting on it

Financial and non-financial performance measures (with main emphasis on non-financial)

Tips from other providers for Paper F5 >>

ACCA Exam tips for Paper F6

Students should never rely on tips from any source as exam success is based on a sound knowledge of the basic rules that underpin the computations required for each tax and the ability to apply this knowledge within the 3 hours and 15 minutes available. This is based on considerable practice of past examination questions which have been updated for Finance Act 2011 and by sitting a mock examination in the allotted time. It can be of little surprise that students fail exams if the last time they sat such an exam was when they failed at the previous sitting!

If any of the areas tipped should appear then this, if you are prepared, should be a bonus – you should not be expecting these areas and then be disappointed when they do not appear and therefore be immediately at a psychological low in the exam room!

Be properly prepared through work effort, expect the worst but know if you do your best you will pass whatever exam is placed in front of you!!

Q.1 Income Tax / VAT

This question always requires the preparation of an Income Tax Computation for at least one individual, possibly two (spouses or civil partners) or even three taxpayers (members of the same family) The two main sources of income tested within the computation are Employment Income and the adjusted trading profits of the Self Employed. Interest income is frequently tested with examples of taxable interest received net and gross plus exempt interest and of course some dividend income.

A scenario involving a transition from employment to self employment part way through the tax year would allow both employment income with assessable benefits for part of tax year to be tested along with adjustment of profits and a capital allowances computation for a short or long opening period of account and dealing with pre trading revenue and capital expenditure. The adjusted profit would then be used to determine the assessments in the opening years of the new business and the computation of the overlap profits.

The changes to the pension contribution rules with the introduction of the Annual Allowance (AA) and AA Charge will probably attract the examiners attention in this year’s exams so should be understood – this could feature as part of Question 4 or 5 instead.

Class I NIC’s for the period of employment and or Class 2 and 4 NIC’s for the period of self employment could also be tested.

If VAT was included in such a question then it could test issues of VAT registration, submission of first VAT return dealing with pre registration input VAT and suitability of small business accounting schemes such as cash and annual accounting and the flat rate scheme.

Q.2 Corporation Tax / VAT
Will require the preparation of a Corporation Tax Computation for a Chargeable Accounting Period which will probably straddle Financial Years 2010 and 2011
e.g. Accounting Year Ended 31 December 2011 or 9 months to 30 September 2011.
A significant amount of marks are usually available for the adjustment of profit statement and Capital Allowances Computation. The company may be in a gains group. If VAT featured in this question it might include group VAT registration

Q.3 Chargeable Gains

If a question involves corporate gains rather than an individual then the main assets that a company may dispose of would include:

Properties – this may involve establishing the cost of the property from an earlier acquisition via a no gain no loss transfer from a fellow gains group member and/or the cost may have been reduced by a rollover relief claim at the time of acquisition. The gain arising may now also be deferred by a full rollover or partial rollover relief claim or if a depreciating asset is now acquired a holdover relief claim may instead be available.

Land – a part disposal of land

Shares

Chattels – e.g. a painting from the boardroom

Questions 4 and 5

IHT seems likely to be a regular feature of part of a question and it would seem likely that at some point the examiner will test the more difficult problem of CLT’s not only taking place within the 7 years before the date of death but there also being a CLT more than 7 years before death. This would not itself be chargeable on death but given the cumulative nature of IHT would impact on the transfers within the 7 years following it which do then become chargeable on death.

Groups if not tested in Q.2

Income tax loss reliefs and / or partnerships

Tips from other providers for Paper F6 >>

ACCA Exam tips for Paper F7

Question 1, Consolidated satement of Income, subsidiary and associate,
mid-year acquisition, share for share exchange, nci based on share price,
fair value adjustment, intra group sales and pup, 5 mark chat – exclusion
of subsidiary from consolidation

Question 2, Usual question 2, preparation of financial statements,
Financial Position, Income, Comprehensive Income, Changes in Equity from a
trial balance

Question 3, Report on financial performance – possibly a simple cash flow
included

Question 4, Framework, possible element of reliabilty, relevance, faithful
representation

Question 5, Development expenditure or a complex asset depreciation

Tips from other providers for Paper F7 >>

ACCA Exam tips for Paper F8

1 Inventory count.
2 Nature of an assurance assignment/internal audit
3 Going concern and analytical procedures
4 Computer assisted audit techniques
5 Contingent liabilities

Tips from other providers for Paper F8 >>

ACCA Exam tips for Paper F9

1 a) Investment appraisal – lease v buy decision
b) Written on replacement

2 a) economic order quantity calculation
b) cash budget

3 a) Capital asset pricing model (ungearing an equity beta)
b) foreign exchange risk management – forward rates and money markets

4 a) calculation of effect of raising finance (i) from equity and (ii) from debt on the earnings per share, interest cover, and gearing ratio of a company
b) written on other ways of raising finance.

Tips from other providers for Paper F9 >>

ACCA Exam tips for Paper P1

(Not in any particular sequence)
1 Different contributors to corporate governance ( internal auditors,
external auditors, non-executive directors )

2 Ethics, ethical dilemma, deontology / teleology, Kohlberg

3 Board sub-committees, unitary board cf two-tiered board

4 Role of risk manager, risk committee, Mendelow

Any of the questions could possibly include a computational element – so
TAKE YOUR CALCULATOR INTO THE EXAM ROOM

Tips from other providers for Paper P1 >>

ACCA Exam tips for Paper P2

1) Complex group – question Rod ( adapted past exam question ), or
Piecemeal acquisition / partial disposal – question Beth ( December 2007 )
or Base Group ( adapted past exam question )

2) Management commentary – question 52 in Kaplan revision kit

3) IFRS 10, 11, 12 and 13 – no past exam question – check the OpenTuition course notes

4) a question on “Various IASs / IFRSs” – many examples from past exams

5) Entity reconstruction – no past exam question – check the OT course notes

Any one, including question 1, could ask for “special” style – report,
memorandum, email or even letter! So make sure you answer in appropriate
style.

Tips from other providers for Paper P2 >>

ACCA Exam tips for Paper P3

1 Strategic position and analysis; corporate parenting
2 Communicating mission and core values (see recent ACCA SA article)
3 Project gateways, project lifecycle and project initiation document
4 Expected values/decision tree. Process improvement
5 Benchmarking

Tips from other providers for Paper P3 >>

ACCA Exam tips for Paper P4

Section A
Valuation of a business (for acquisition) – suggesting a range of values
(part including present value of cash flows requiring calculation of the discount rate to use with CAPM involved)
Foreign exchange risk management (forward rates/money markets/futures/options)

Section B
Option pricing
Written question on the European debt crisis
Portfolio theory including written on international diversification

Tips from other providers for Paper P4 >>

ACCA Exam tips for Paper P5

1 Critical success factors and KPIs
2 Activity based costing, ABB and ABM
3 Transfer pricing
4 Economic value added
5 Performance Prism and corporate failure

Tips from other providers for Paper P5 >>

ACCA Exam tips for Paper P6

Tips from other providers for Paper P6 >>

ACCA Exam tips for Paper P7

1. Group audits
2. Material misstatement risk (article)
3. Non-audit services
4. Standard Q3 – matters to be considered (ethical, professional, practical, accounting);
state the evidence you should expect to find on the audit file
(or identify the procedures you would expect to be followed)
5. CAATs
6. Completion of audit (Make sure to read Lisa’s article from October 2011 student Accountant about “Completing the audit”)

Tips from other providers for Paper P7 >>