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@doughnut said:
Hi Guys
I’m considering changing my option from AAA to APM. I do much better with numbers/calcs than words and feel this could be the right move.
I’m trying to pass my final option and I’ve already completed ATX.
Does anyone have any advise?
Thanks
StephHi Steph,
Although there are calculations involved in APM, You need to know that there is a lot of words and writing involved as well, the first question is always a report, to be honest, there is no much getting away from theories/words/writing in APM as well as AAA.
I wrote both AAA and APM and in terms of writing/words, I could see no huge difference between them. Much of the marks in APM is awarded for your analysis and interpretation of the figures and not the calculations itself which usually carry few marks.
if you feel you would do better with APM, then give it a try, but do not expect fewer words/theories here. Be prepared.
I wish you all the best.
Hello Zainab,
I self-studied AAA (P7) and passed the first attempt. I have two little ones and do not work presently. While you did not state your other personal or possible work commitments, I would say take it one at a time, whether studying alone or at an institute, you still need a lot of focus and commitment with these higher level papers.
I *tried* to do APM with AAA in Sept 18 diet but I quickly realised it was foolhardy and decided to just focus on one at a time, I postponed APM till Dec 18 and focused on AAA..which paid off in the end. I have now finished all my exams.As you have such marks in both AFM and AAA, the majority of your work now should be on honing your exam techniques. This is also as difficult as getting the knowledge base, so do not take it lightly.
I would suggest you focus on AAA for March 19 and sit for AFM in June. The time between the two sittings is not that much and you would stand a higher chance of passing if you do not rush them.
@tamjidat said:
please advice, If I start study from tomorrow for APM is it possible to pass by March session as I failed in AAA so I have to go for both AAA and APM and I am working full time and I have kid. Please advice??? If possible then How?/I think your plan might be a bit ambitious..AAA and APM are both vast subjects and require more time to study if you want to study them at the proper depth.
I also tried to do both together at the last September diet but i quickly realised it was shooting myself in the leg. I do not work full time and i have two little ones. I decided to defer APM till December and sat for only AAA in Sept..which I passed.
I wrote APM in December,passed as well and now an affiliate. If I had continued with my over ambitious plan of writing both in a single diet in September..I am sure I would have flunked them both.
So my advice is take it slow and steady, All the time left now is barely enough to study one of these subjects at the proper depth. It, s just 6 weeks, so I advise you to focus on AAA now for March since that should still be fresh. Then defer APM till June. They are both NOT a “walk in the park” type of subjects.
You will get there eventually.. the rush is not worth it.
Passed at 60%..first attempt, self-study. It took blood, sweat and tears and I never thought that this day would come. Finally, It’s all over now. Allahmdulilahi Robbil Alamin. Praise be to God Almighty. I am an Affiliate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congrats to everyone who made it and if you did not, please never ever give up. I am proof that great things do happen if we are determined to never give up on our goals. You can do this.
Thanks, Open tuition, You guys here are simply the best.
@ruthguy said:
Found it ok actually – with the exception on Q3 which i didn’t leave enough time for and completely did wrong (all the different risk preferences would have picked Green so god knows what probability table i did)struggled to explain the new performance measures against DMAIC as not really come up in my practise questions so not sure i will have scored high on exam technique there
Q1 was ok though
A little frustrating that we are told to memorise the models yet we were given them and also no EVA even though i spent ages revising it.
I agree with the comments that it’s an easy module to learn but then so confusing in the exam. personally i’d rather have more complicated models but with more straight forward questions as in real life if the board/senior manager asked me something in a confusing manner i’d ask them to elaborate and in my experience that’s never been an issue so APM exam wording isn’t really reflecting the real world!
hopefully I’ve done enough as this was my last exam and i want my freedom back!!
fingers crossed for everyone – roll on 13th Jan!
@ruthguy..you can say that again! It is my last paper as well and I only just care about getting my freedom back now. Nothing more. I cannot be bothered to lose any more sleep over a straight-forward course content that is enjoyable and so easy to understand, but for some reasons, the examiner just prefers to take an unnecessarily convoluted approach to the questions. Does not make any sense and you are right about this never happening in the real world.I mean, what is wrong in just asking the questions in straight-forward and a clear manner? it shouldn’t detract from the quality of the questions but rather add to it in my opinion as students are then focused on providing in-depth application of their knowledge to their answers, rather than wasting half the allocated question time figuring out the wordplay involved in the questions.
Q1..I also evaluated the performance report since it was specifically mentioned that it was what the board used for the review but i highlighted that the weaknesses in the main financial report used by the board could be improved by bringing in the information already available in the performance systems in the company e.g. the information in the divisions relating to innovation and staff training..
I don’t know if that is what..but i find that the difficulty in this paper is always to do with the “tricky” way the questions are asked.. not the actual knowledge/content.
God help us all. Can only hope for the best now..Goodluck everyone.
Dear Sir,
Related to this question, what practical steps could a company that is highly geared (operationally) take then to reduce its level of fixed costs proportion?
I know that for a high financial gearing, reducing the level of debts (interest payments) could bring this down but for a high fixed cost say in rents or salaries or the machines you mentioned above, how could a company go about bringing reducing these costs without laying off the staffs to reduce salaries for instance?
Thank you.
@alayanic18 said:
I am really sick and tired of the exam technique topic that tutors and examiners are so keen of and keep bringing up. Nobody uses this exam technique in real life, hopefully. In 10+ years working in both internal and external audit, I had my share of time pressured audits. Thank God that I didn’t use the exam technique recommended of not reading anything about the client, blankly computing ratios and cherry picking the risks that I’m most comfortable with, or the usual standard risks for the respective type of engagement. Understanding and risk assessment usually took about 25-30% of the time allocated to the engagement. In a highly regulated, rapidly changing environment it is crucial to invest enough time to understand what you are assessing, instead of applying pre-defined knowledge. It could be possible that a risk which affects many similar companies from the industry is not relevant for the audited company, or that the audited company faces uncommon risks for that industry.
Regarding money laundering, maybe it should be a big deal for this exam with some requirements of applied knowledge instead of just defining money laundering / stages of money laundering. The number of fines applied by regulators is constantly increasing and there are some recent cases in which the fine value was so huge (several hundred million euros) that the regulator actually had to consider if the company will be able to pay it. Being able to identify ML is more important than being able to define it in my opinion.@alayanic18 said:
I am really sick and tired of the exam technique topic that tutors and examiners are so keen of and keep bringing up. Nobody uses this exam technique in real life, hopefully. In 10+ years working in both internal and external audit, I had my share of time pressured audits. Thank God that I didn’t use the exam technique recommended of not reading anything about the client, blankly computing ratios and cherry picking the risks that I’m most comfortable with, or the usual standard risks for the respective type of engagement. Understanding and risk assessment usually took about 25-30% of the time allocated to the engagement. In a highly regulated, rapidly changing environment it is crucial to invest enough time to understand what you are assessing, instead of applying pre-defined knowledge. It could be possible that a risk which affects many similar companies from the industry is not relevant for the audited company, or that the audited company faces uncommon risks for that industry.
Regarding money laundering, maybe it should be a big deal for this exam with some requirements of applied knowledge instead of just defining money laundering / stages of money laundering. The number of fines applied by regulators is constantly increasing and there are some recent cases in which the fine value was so huge (several hundred million euros) that the regulator actually had to consider if the company will be able to pay it. Being able to identify ML is more important than being able to define it in my opinion.</blockAlaya..thank you for this..an insightful contribution from a “real auditor”
Teaching audit is definitely not the same as actually practising audit. I guess it must be the reason why ” an award-winning” tutor would recommend not reading the case scenario at all and prefer we just read the requirements and start to write the answer.
Very shocking to me when you consider that this is a very practical paper where you have to apply judgement, scepticism and understanding to details you have about the company..which must come from the scenario you have “not read”. This is what you have now confirmed is not the ideal approach in the real life of audit practice, which ACCA claims it is training us for.
And you are very correct when you say that fast&efficient does not equal pressurized. Time as an input will ALWAYS have an impact on quality of the output, and this applies in all aspects of life, not just audit exams.
One day our ” it’s all about exam-technique ” tutors and examiners+students will understand this. I hope.
raoul7370, I would suggest you see the exam paper first before passing such self- righteous judgements on “every student”.
You wrote an answer to a question you have not seen, most likely in the comfort of your study space and without the inevitable exam nerves. Simulate the real-life experience and you may not be so confident of your top-notch exam technique.
I believe every student goes into the exam hall with a game plan of how to apply the best possible exam techniques, but you cannot say that you know “exactly” how things will turn out until you have actually sat in the exam hall and faced the real thing.
If ACCA needs to be called out and given constructive feedback from students who “actually” wrote the exams, then, by all means, we would do that. You cannot just put down the experience of an overwhelming majority of students on here to “poor exam technique”.
Yes, some students may have better pressure-coping and exam technique skills than others, but I believe the real taste of the pudding is in the eating.
@dumonde said:
Exam was very similar to the pilot paper on the website as you’d expect but my goodness it was longer….Examiner must think it is a four hour exam with the amount of read time required.
I don’t understand, ACCA are looking for professional people giving professional answers but then you’re expected to respond well to that, it’s just incredible.
Where was the mark allocation for question 1. Was it just make it up as you go along.
Wow, wow, wow
More like ridiculous..ACCA seem to be looking for professional speed writers rather because I do not understand how they expect students to process so much information in so little time, with exam nerves and still produce decent answers. In the real world, professionals are definitely not giving advice under such conditions.
Such a joke of an exam. How on earth can we be expected to finish such a lengthy paper in 3.15hrs? I believe even the examiners cannot achieve such a feat. It is simply ridiculous.
I could hardly think straight/digest the information in question 1 before rushing to write down my answer, no time to process the complex information. This is not a true test of students’ knowledge at all, with the way the exam is always time pressured.
Any way we can petition/lay an effective complaint about this? Who or what body regulates ACCA anyways?
Passed! Against all the odds. It was a meagre 54% but I am more than pleased and very grateful to God and Chris Barlow…His teaching technique and sense humour on a rather harrowing subject got me through.
P2 is a tough and technical paper but I found that a thorough understanding of the “bigger” picture behind all that number crunching and IFRSs does help.
Try to look beyond the numbers and understand the “thinking” first, before diving into where the numbers go. This will help when the calculation questions do get tricky as it very often does.
Do not neglect the theoretical aspect of this paper. It will be to your own detriment. March 2018 paper was not a “number cruncher” ‘s paradise at all, as it was weighted more towards theory/writing/explanation than doing complex calculations. This was a shock to many and an advantage to some of us who prefer theory/writing to complex calculations.
Practice past question papers, as much as is humanly possible…
Above all, please do not be overly scared of this paper, It is a monster but yes, it can be tamed. I sat this paper during one of the most stressful periods of my life…moving homes, sick kids, got sick myself and I even tried to cancel the entry but it was too late, I pressed on with it and now it is behind me.
Do not give up!
Hello Ken,
Just wanted to add my own thanks to this too. Your kind guidance and prompt responses to all sorts of panic-fuelled questions, even in the dead of the night definitely goes beyond the call of duty.
You are an amazing tutor. Thanks a million!
Hello Sir?
On ratios…is it better to show the ratio workings in the answer script or do it on scrap paper/or an appendix and just bring it into the analysis without showing how it was derived?
I am getting conflicting advices on this.
Thank you.
Is it okay to combine models to answer a single question though? e.g.. if there is not enough information in the question to use all the elements of PESTEL, can one conclude the analysis with another relevant model?
Hello,
I have read through your answer to the OP and i also have the same intent of writing P2 international..but i did read on the ACCA website that in order to be able to practice as registered auditor in the UK, one must have chosen the UK version of P2 and P7..Please do you have any insight to this?
Also are the differences between the UK and International versions very wide?
Thanks.
there are some new questions and updates in both the study text and revision kit regarding IFRS 16-Leases. That,s the only difference I have seen, I have the two( June 2017 and the one that covers from Sept 2017 to June 2018). Recently bought the Sept 17-June 18 when i read about the IFRS 16 being examinable from Sept 2017.
hello,
how much is the brand new revision kit and is it relevant for june/sept 2017 sitting?
hello,
Are you saying that just reading through the articles on the websites WITHOUT studying the texts/notes plus exam questions practice is sufficient to passing this paper?
