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  1. Hello Mr John Moffat, this is the first time I will be using your P4 notes and the lectures. I noticed that there are Chapters 7-19 but not others after 19. Where can I find them?

    Also, are these lectures ok to use for sitting in Dec15? Do you advise to buy text book or the downloaded notes are sufficient?

    Thanks

    • The lecture notes have chapters 1 to 29.

      There are lectures on chapters 7 to 24.

      The reason that there are no lectures on the other chapters in the lecture notes is because we do not lecture them on our tuition courses – they are for you to read. There are no calculations involved and are a combination of revision of basic P3 and F9, and are more background reading. There would be no point in simply reading out these chapters in lectures 馃檪 If anything in them puzzles you then you should ask in the Ask the Tutor Forum.

      The lectures are OK for December 2015 – we never leave out-of-date lectures on this website – they are reviewed after every exam.

      You don’t really need a text book (although the more reading you do the better) but it is vital that you have a current edition of a Revision Kit from one of the ACCA approved providers. The nature of P4 makes question practice even more vital that for the earlier exams.

      • Sorry – I had not realised that the lecture numbers have gone wrong. I will have them corrected.

        First, the lectures headed Chapter 17 in fact cover chapters 18 and 19.
        Also, the lectures headed Chapter 18 in fact cover chapters 20 and 21.
        (I will have the headings corrected).

        There are no lectures for chapters 21 onwards. The only one of those that does have calculations is chapter 24, but this is our revision of F9 (and if you need then you can find a lecture in the F9 section).

        Finally, there are no lectures on Chapters 15 to 17 of the lecture notes.
        Mergers and acquisitions are important, but the techniques involved are all covered in other chapters – there are no extra techniques. So for this, instead of repeating earlier chapters in the lectures, I have uploaded (under “Revision Kit Live”) lectures working through several recent exam question 1’s. They are worth watching anyway because they go through the way to approach the questions.

    • There are no lectures for the first six chapters, and there never will be.

      The reason is that they contain no calculations – they are a combination of background reading and revision of P3.

      You should read them yourself. There would be no point in having lectures that could not do much more than read the notes to you. We do not lecture them on our courses.

  5. Hi John I failed P4 with 49% at the last sitting after studying with Kaplan classroom courses in Leeds. As I was late handing in my assessment with them my guaranteed pass would not be withheld and I would have had to have paid 1500 again to go back to the classroom. Kaplan were not interested unless I paid again.

    I would like to say that your lectures are concise, very well presented and clear. I am sure with your help I will pass in June.
    Thank you so much for this great facility you provide.

  7. Hi John…im currently listening to the P4 lectures. I can hear your voice very clearly, but I cant see what you are explaining,,,no pictures(blank)…please what can I do,,thanks

    • Because lectures can only be watched online – they are not downloadable!

      It is the only way that we can keep this website free of charge.

      (The Lecture Notes that are needed while you watch the lectures can be downloaded.)

  9. Hi Mr John

    A little late but I would like to say thank you! I passed P4 on first attempt at 60% and now I am qualified. You have been by far the best teacher I have ever had, you got me through F2, F3, F5, F9 and now P4. Many thanks for your efforts and for the time you have spent answering my lengthy questions, I wouldn’t have been able to pass a lot of these papers if it wasn’t for you.

    Keep up the great work you are doing and I will stay around! 馃檪

      • thanks for the reply john, the only video on all the topic is a video of p5 were the lecturer is answering a question. i have used a different computer and still i get the same result. the video there is p5 and not p4. i encountered the same problem with p7 which had videos for the first 5 topics and after that the is no video relating to the other topics, the only video there is p5. i do not know what is really going on but i will check with a friend. just wanted to bring it to your attention. if any student is having the same problem please let me know

    • The reason that there are no lectures for the first six chapters is that they are more a combination of background reading and topics that you will have studied for earlier papers (particularly P3). We do not lecture them on courses (and the Course Notes are what we use on courses) – they are for reading.

      I am sorry that you failed in June – obviously you want to make sure that you are successful in December.

      I assume that you had studied hard prior to June and are therefore have covered the syllabus.
      What I suggest you do is use our lectures and course notes to revise what you learned previously. Most importantly you must practice as many questions as you can, using a Revision/Exam Kit from one of the approved publishers. (If you used one for the June sitting, then get hold of one from another publisher so that you have different questions.)
      Make sure you attempt them properly before looking at the answers, and then learn from the answers.
      Appreciate that in P4 there is rarely one correct answer – much depends on making assumptions, and provided your assumptions are sensible then you will still get the marks.
      Don’t concentrate just on the calculations – there are an enormous number of marks in the exam for the written parts of questions and you cannot pass without producing reasonable answers to the written parts.

      Whenever you come across anything that you realise you do not really understand, or that confuses you, then do ask in the P4 Ask the Tutor Forum and I will do my best to help.

  17. Hi Mr John,

    I have seen some of the comments and I kind of got worried/confused. I gave P1, P2 and P3 in June 14 session, I am very hopeful as regards P1 and P3 and I feel that I should be able to pass them, however, I am not so sure about P2 and I was planning that if I fail it (hopefully not!) I will reattempt it in December along with P4 and P7. But now I saw some comment about how I should pass the first three Ps first and all, kindly advise.

    Thanks, Maha

    • It is no problem – to take P4 and/or P7 you must either have passed P1 to P3, or be taking them at the same sitting.

      So if you have failed P2, then you can take P2 plus P4 and P7.

      (What you cannot do is just take P4 and P7 alone if you have failed P2)

      • Wow! I really had no idea that I cannot leave P2 out when attempting the advanced papers, it is not a problem for me at all, I actually have to reattempt with the rest (in case I failed) if I wish to finish in December, but it is surprising since ACCA has been always flexible about the papers sequence.

        Anyway, thank you Mr John for the good information and prompt response, as the usual! 馃檪

        Maha

  19. Hello Sir,

    Season’s Greeting! I hope you had a great holiday and that 2014 is a great year for you.

    I am writing to ask for some advise please: I do not have a tuition provider in my city and therefore my current method is self study using the BBP books, Open Tuition (thank you very much) and past exam papers. I am only able to take one paper per exam sitting as I work full-time on a reduced hours basis. Having said that, while studying for paper F9, I was dreading paper P4 as I was not very happy with this subject even though I felt comfortable with some parts of this syllabus. However, I recently sat paper F9 on Dec 6th and although it was not extremely easy nor difficult, I was able to answer all parts of each question and so I am hoping for a pass. Can you please advise whether I should purchase the text and begin studying for paper P4 since F9 is still very fresh in my mind and I’ve gained a level of confidence I didn’t seem to have before I took the exam? Or would you advise me to continue in the normal sequential order of sitting paper P1 in June? followed by P2 in Dec?

    I’ve read as much articles I can about how to choose your options but am still unsure as I was previously planning on sitting the Tax and Audit papers when the time arrived. I currently work in the Insurance industry as an Accounting Clerk and so I do not have enough financial nor performance managerial experience to guide in this decision. However, my ultimate dream is to one day become a professional tutor such as yourself.

    Kindly advise. Thank you,
    Sonria

    • I am afraid that the ACCA does not allow you to take P4 until you have passed P1, P2 and P3. You have to take these first.

      The only way round it is to take P1, P2, P3 and P4 at the same time, but that is a lot to try and pass in one sitting. You can of course apply for all four of them and not turn up for all of them – any you pass will still remain passes – but it is an expensive way of doing it.

      • Thank you very much sir,
        I was not aware of this. You’ve really helped me a lot. I will take P1 in June and P2 in December.
        Thanks again for always being there for us,
        Sonria.

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