[duc169]

Finally, my ACCA journey is over ( 5 years with 2 gap years)
Feel a little bit empty inside 🙁

[duc169]

P5 is tough and frustrating. I did the 3rd attempt and hope it went well.

But I highly appreciated it toughness. For some paper like P3, I pass even without understanding topic. But for P5, i must understand the topic from inside out. It took me 2 times the time I spent for other papers

Some topic like Performance Prism, linking strategy to stakeholder, process, resources really widen my horizon, which is quite limited even after I passed some papers

[duc169]

Thank you so much! So 0.3* depreciation = depreciation allowed for tax
You really relieve my headache

[duc169]

P level is a different world from F level so u should expect for the twice time you spend on F level. The syllabus is huge and question are often topic-mixed.
P1 and P3 are quite easy as it is more about common sense rather than typical topic-related knowledge
P2, P4, P5 are really difficult, especially for P4. Hedging is nightmare for me. I spent the same hours in p1 for only hedging and I am still struggling 🙁

If u do not have a lot of time, i highly recommend you to read through the whole topic as fast as possible( use kaplan, bpp is over-excessive and information overloaded), reading the kit and trying summarising the answer. Dont go to much in detail, instead trying linking the topic together.

Also, u should read the Performance prism ( availble in P5). It is the best thing in ACCA. After that, whenever u see a topic, trying usummarise things under 5 headers:
– External analysis ( use PEST as main model)
– Capability analysis
– Stakeholder analysis ( Mendelow matrix) to identify how things can influence stakeholder and reserve
– Process analysis
– Strategy analysis: eg growth or survival, cost leadership or niche,( BCG and five force are useful here)
– Financial analysis:Use financial statement item and ratio will be helpful

For example, here is my summary on Financial reconstruction/ reorganization

– Capability analysis : in order to reconstruct, u need finance. Is the finance source enough? If not, so you might need finance from bank or new issue
You also need people with sufficient knowledge ,ability. So is management able to do so: their exp, ability, their power to do?

– External analysis: The deterriorating financial situtation might come from unstable political or from economic recession. It might come from higher tax rate

– Strategic analysis: As recontruction so cost leadership and differentation is not viable as it require best practice. Niche or focus is better. Survial is preferred to growth

Using BCG and life cycle: If product is decline, market is stagnate: dog–> divest. However, consider whether it is profitable enough to become cash generator for other in ur portfolio. Also consider if it is part of value chain, have great synergy with other SBUs: if great synergy and big cash generator, should not divest but hold

Consider investing in star or not? Star normally require significant investment, but ur strategic capabilities should be considered here? If not enough to gain market share, so bettter off keeping and wait. Also as market grow significantly, but ur star still has bad performance, then it must come from inefficient process so that u can not reach ur potential

-Process: It oftens come from inefficient process so cost control is important. More than often, it comes from company is over-sized so reducing size is better
process to consider here is also : liquidation or reconstruction

-Fincancial analysist:
Asset is often overvalued–> need write off and revalue. It reduce the size and reduce depreciation then boost profit

Liability is huge: Overdraft is expensive so it should be paid off
Debt is huge so you need to reduce debt: convert debt to equity is the strategy here

Tax: can not use tax allowance as no profit, so company must be profitable

Reserve: often negative due to the loss, so it should be written off

Share: u should reduce size, then split into smaller amount is good, as it both reduce size and make share is more attractive
You might need new investment, so additional issue is advisable

Stakeholder:
– Shareholder: before reconstruction : no dividends, fear of losing control
If liquidation : often receive nothing as rank last
If reconstruction : losing control, share value decrease but instead can avoid the worst case scenario. Also will receive some dividends :so reconstruction is often accepted

– Debtor: before: no interest or late payment
if liquidation : receive money back, consider if money received is sufficient to cover all of principal amount or not
After reconstruction( if convert debt to share): receive some control, lose some principal but can rearrange finance so have better interest rate

Also as u are a debtor, so you might require loan covenants, eg: not breaching a specific geaing ratio, or reducing gearing ratio to a certain figure . consider if company can breach or not. If comp breach, so not provide the loan or cancel the loan in advance

Debtor concern about liquidity so cashflow,gearing are important

– Management(eg: management buyout): consider the ability and power level ( mendelow matrix) of management: is it enough?
Any conflict between management and directors ?
Financial consideration for management: compare the amount they have to put in company and the value+ dividends they receive( use dcf or free cashflow ): Is it worth buying shares and manage company

Customer: After reconstruction, how customer react. Will they abandon products and switch to others…

Above are some of my sumarisation of reconstruction? I did not pass P4 or P5 yet so it is hard to tell whether it works or not. But except for some highly technical parts in P2 or hedging, most of ACCA are common sense and I believe u can apply this to 80% of ACCA and real life situations :d

Just my 2 cents

[duc169]

I am younger than you for 2-3 years and I dont have much exp ( just work for only 1 year in a bank) so I am afraid that I am not in a position to give useful advice

However as I work with some former Big4-er I have to say that they are not very successful now compared to their potential ( must be really elite to work for Big4 , they both come from top university with high GPA)

In my opinion, in that harsh time, working in an environment that is quite related to your study is promising. Banking and finance is not a bad choice, especially when you work for an international bank ( hopefully not as a sales ). Some years later, you might feel lucky not to work in Big4

[duc169]

HR do not have a lot of time to read and think carefully whether you can fit or not, less than 5 minutes for 1 CV ( even 1-2 minutes) and I still doubt that they auto-filter the time you filled in your information online ( for example , GPA <=7.5 will be automatically eliminated in the system.

As you already had interned for 3 months at BDO, why dont you give it other try? I believe that working in some firm like BDO and IGL is quite good, staff turnover rate here are much lower than Big4

[duc169]

I guess we come from the same country, my bro 🙂

I used to apply for many international firm when I passed F level, rejected by some, passed some ( screening round) and now I am working in different field( not external audit, but still related to accounting and finance)

ACCA now is quite common in our country, so that many candidates apply for Big4 are are studying ACCA, some are even affiliates at the age of 21 or 22. Many candidates of Big4 even got a Master degree .The audit market in our country now is highly competitive, so that it is not easy to gain advantage to others even if you got ACCA. And ACCA is only 1 factor that can add value to you( let s say : 20%) there are many other factors like : age, exp, extra-curriculum activities…. You might be rejected as you do not fit other requirements. Additionally, 1 or 2 gap years might be a disaster for your CV. Other factors like you used to work as musician also ( maybe) adversely affect ur CV

1 things I want to add is that the career path for an auditor in our country is not as bright as it seems to be. Therefore, instead of applying for only audit, you can apply to other company in other fields. You should not narrow your possibilities to only 4 firms( I used to be very narrow-minded too).

I think that knowledge in ACCA is quite well-round, especially in P papers. Never think that ACCA is a certificate to show off( just my feeling). Just think that it is an opportunity for you to study advanced, up-to-date knowledge in accounting and finance.Try to remember knowledge and master it and I think that it will be useful for you in the future. Alongside ACCA, you should improve English and communication skills as well as Excel skills. Believe me, it is more practical than any certificate and diploma in the world! Try to think positively and become “AQ” , since sometimes, even a real PHD can only earn a miserable salary 🙂

P/s: If you still want to work as external auditor, u can apply to other firm like IGL,Grant Thornton, BDO…

[duc169]

srry for being off topic

[duc169]

@patd134 said:
In my opinion if you can pass p2 you can pass anything else in acca especially p5 🙂 my recommendation is avoid p4 and do p7 instead!

Did u pass P5? This extremely low pass rate freak me out 🙁 P4 seems to be not that hard as I am very good at number crunching

[duc169]

Marginal pass 🙁 . I expect a 6x so I am quite disappointed. At this rate, I wonder whether I can pass hell papers like P4 and P5

[duc169]

I have underestimated f9 as it is similar to f5
So that i learned for f9 about 3 days
And I v done everything wrongly .Working capital for 1a , the whole 1b, ungear for 2 and no islamic finance
Just lost about 20 mark now
Hope for a marginal pass

[duc169]

Just clarify my question:
As you know ,when you sell inventory or disposal asset… , the double entry is
Dr expense( disposal ) Cr inventory( asset)
Dr cash… Cr revenue( disposal)
Then in the case ur company sell a brand or customer list and have no right use it( ie transfer the right to ur customer ),then it need to derecognise the asset ( dr expense cr asset)
But as there is no asset here in the fs , how can it be derecognised

[duc169]

hope that
In my exam at university, even u have a mistake at the beginning and it affects the resulf after thar, i ll def get a zero
In my last paper f7, i get a mistake to transfer wrongly a figure from fs to the working and it takes me 20 minutes to correct all the consenquent error.
It just break down my time management and i have only 25 minutes to do the ratio:(

[duc169]

well i just think about alternative approach
Instead of multplying everything with 3, only divided 360000 by 3
It is much shorter
Then i only not get the mark for not divide 360000 .
well hope that i will take me only 3 mark

[duc169]

I also made a mistake in the decision tree
Forget to multiple everything with 3
Do u think that i ll get nothing in this question ( urgg it is 12 mark )or it just take me about 3-4 mark

[duc169]

I passed f7 ( the Dec 2012 ) in my 1st atttempt with 75 marks ( not too high, i think so)
I am a full time student but learn like a part time one ( god , i am lazy as hell :p )
I just have some tips for you :
Dont use BPP text ( especially fo paper with lots of computational work ).In fact, even in paper like f8, i cant see why people still use text . It is way excessive and useless for self study. Using kaplan ( i think it is better than Course note as it has a lot of short excercises). By the way , for consolidation you need to read bpp to understand it inside out )
I do a lot of exercise:D. For example, just do all consolidation in the kit in one days. Dont need to understand too much.Just to get accustomed to it .After one question, summary the error
Keep with double entry to not get lost.i ve seen most of my friends do only a single working.Dont khow if it is your problem but following is how i do ques 1 and 2
Remember some basic proforma( eg: cost of sales, m and equip, )
Read the note first ( in 15 minutes of reading ) and try to thi nk of what working you will need
After that: , when the reading ends. you need to reads the fs provided .If u think 1 item in the fs is needed for working, underline it and immediately write this figure in working ( eg : When u see the opening inventory of 70, underline it and write in the working” cost of sales “. It is the same with closing inventory)
DONT UNDERLINE and leave the items not used in working for later work
Then read the note and use the double entry.DONT DO ONE WORKING ALONE
eg: expenditure cost of 100 must be capitalised Dr: asset Cr expense 100
Then what you need to do is filling in ( 100 ) in cost of sales working and filling 100 in Plant machine working
After doing all the notes, turning back to the unused items in fs
I believe that it is one of the quickest and most effecient way to do ques 1 2 and cash flow( hope that you dont know this tips . If not , i am writing like a donkey 😀 ) . Well it is mostly impossible to not make error but i might reduce the amount to lowest
And if it is for ques 1 2 3 you dont need to understand the IAS ( just a little basic knowledge ). All you need to know is just the double entry.Well , try to list all of possible double entries in your own books )
For 4 5 i have no comment on them. It is up to ur knowledge and your luckiness. 😀

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