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Complete disaster and I thought I had prepared well! Nothing like I’ve ever encountered before..Taking comfort in the fact that I’m not alone..feeling a little better now ?
Hi Kim
the way you explain it, makes a little more sense, so thank you. It just seems a shame that I have to now duplicate what I have done before. My experience as an accounting technician was recorded and signed off by an accountant to gain membership of ATI, yet I now have to go back and ask them to sign it off again for ACCA, which is a little awkward as I no longer work there. “Conversion” would be much more straightforward.
Anyway, it is what it is, not everything in life is fair so I’ll have to crack on with it.
Many Thanks for your time
Mrs HFor anyone unfortunate enough to have failed, don’t give up, this paper can be passed with the right approach. I agree with rowe992. Understanding what the examiner wants is key to this exam.the examiners reports and also the marking guides will help you understand what gets you a half mark and what gets you a full mark which is vital. You must also accept that the marker isn’t a mind reader! When you are debriefing your answers for the practice papers it’s easy to give yourself marks because you know what your answer means..a stranger may not. I discovered that when my husband (who knows zero on the subject) marked my paper, he gave me less marks than I had given myself. All he had to go on were the sample answers and the marking guide..and he never gave me any half marks..it was all or nothing. Afterwards we would sit down and discuss why he didn’t award marks and where I thought he should. This was an eye-opener! I thought I was answering the question but in reality I wasn’t giving the examiners the key info they wanted so this helped me focus my answers better. The only other advice I can offer is know the difference between an audit procedure and a substantive procedure cos they throw that in on occasion and it throws people off, always apply the substantive procedures to the scenario..this is the difference between nil or half mark and a full mark.you must understand the assertions so it doesn’t matter what scenario they give you.for the risks questions knowing the ias that applies to what is being misstated will also help you get full mark instead of nil or half marks. This paper isn’t easy there’s alot to learn but it is doable! Good luck to anyone who has to resit.
Passed first attempt and this was my least favourite subject..but hard work paid off ,over the moon with my 77! Thanks O.T
Stevie87. Cant remember all 3 ot topics from section a..but one of them was on ethics and safeguards to threats to independence and another was audit planning and appropriate substantive procedures..can’t remember the rest of section a. Section b was…q16. describe narrative notes and questionnaires with a disadvantage of each..4 marks.
8 risks and responses. 16 marks.
Q17..describe purpose of audit strategy and audit plan with 2 examples of what would be included in each. 4 marks. 4 key controls and tocs 8 marks. 6 control deficiencies and recommendations 12 marks . Substantive procedures for receivables 6 marks q18 was 3 more sets of substantive procedures, a legal claim , revenue, and analytical procedures for payroll. 5, 6 and 4 marks not sure which way round..and 5 marks for impact on audit opinion if management refuse to make ammendments to the f.s. everything has come up before in some form in past papers but substantive procedures scenarios vary greatly so there’s no exact set of procedures you can learn..I recommend lots of practice on these so you work out appropriate procedures regardless of scenario. Best of luckI don’t see how acca could possibly justify anything, and after this fiasco how could anyone trust them?. And the actions of some of the invigilators from what I’ve read has been equally poor…some of them don’t seem to know the rules they’re supposed to ensure we follow. Its a Shame acca can’t put in the same amount of effort to facilitate exams, as we have to put in to pass them. Acca definitely failed this one.
Dear mwiser….Calm down..seriously? you poor thing, your experience definitely worse than mine. Have you submitted a complaint or tried to rebook to try again?
I would hound them for another go. Not much point in acca fixing the issues if they don’t do anything to prevent them from reoccurring!Well ACCA have done it again, what a complete shambles!! Tried to log in this morning to take my FM exam, couldn’t even get to the login. Clicked on MyACCA and a website busy message appeared. Tried for an hour without success. Phoned ACCA and was told the server was “slightly down”. I’m no I.T expert, but “slightly down” really??? I was advised to keep trying and that eventually my invigilator would call me. That didn’t happen. With the check-in window closing in ten minutes I called ACCA again. Was told the I.T department were aware of the issue and someone would contact me or I could call back later…later, really? what a joke. After check-in time had passed I emailed ACCA. I received an automated email eventually stating that I could rebook, but of course that’s only if you can log into MyACCA, which I still couldn’t. Alternatively you could complete the online form or just call one of their helpful advisors…so I did…and I was told that he couldn’t re-book for me. So why say that in the email then?? The shambles continues….one hour after check in closes, I receive a text message with a link to access MyACCA. I log in and select the launch exam button, I admit this was extremely optimistic, but according to the SMS this was an option…but no, all hopes dashed…another message saying my check in has closed. So too little too late ACCA. So eventually after going round in circles for hours I have finally rebooked for next Friday. It’ll take me till then to get over the stress and upset from this morning. Can someone please tell me why ACCA offer remote exams if they haven’t got sufficient or adequate resources to provide them? I naively thought they had resolved the issues from earlier in the week. As for their apology, they have no idea just how much unnecessary stress, disappointment and frustration they have caused for the affected students, and “we’re sorry” just doesn’t cut it for me. My heart goes out to anyone who has to wait until March, clearly ACCA don’t realise that some students actually have to fit studies around real life!! If I have problems again next week I will be transferring to another accountancy body that is capable of actually supporting it’s students. Rant over. Best of luck to all who actually got to take exams 🙂
Hi shehzad
as scotty t said nothing really left out, you have to cover whole syllabus. My best advice is to get yourself a revision kit, it’s money well spent. They key to passing is question practice, practice, practice. So use the kit and all available specimens and past papers on the ACCA website. It’s important to familiarise yourself with how the examiners like to word questions so you know the key tricks, and pitfalls to avoid. Also strongly advise reading the examiners reports, at least the last 4, and all the technical articles on the ACCA website. Some of these are written by examiners and give guidance on how to answer a question the way they want you to. Today’s exam was tough but no surprises. If you want to pass you can’t go into the exam hoping that you won’t get a particular question type or topic.
Good luck in June!
