AA resit – self-study or tuition provider? Exam technique advice

The potential problem with going to a tuition provider is that you get "lectured at" as though you haven't studied the syllabus yet. Unless you can specifically get a revision course for resit students with emphasis on question practice and exam technique. I am on holiday this week but when I'm back can reply to any technical queries on a daily basis. I'll happily support you with advice, but cannot offer to mark per se.

Thank you, Kim. There are a few providers offering revision courses, but I’m unsure which one I can really trust and I don’t want to pay for a course and then be disappointed. Are there any revision course providers that you know to be good or would recommend?

In the meantime, I’ll carry on working on my answers and question practice, and if I get stuck, I’ll send here a message for some advice. Thank you

Where are you located?

UK, Lincolnshire

I don't think you should need to rewatch lectures. When I am back I'll provide a shortlist of knowledge to revise from the notes. In the meantime, if controls is a particularly weak area, there's a lot of useful content in the Study Hub chapter, I think it might be chapter 12, that may be worth a read. It covers all the transaction "cycles".

Thank you, that’s really helpful. Controls is definitely one of the areas I need to work on, so I’ll go through the Study Hub chapter and revise in the meantime. I’ll wait for your shortlist when you’re back. Have a lovely holiday!

Good afternoon Mila! I have written a new article https://opentuition.com/acca/articles/how-to-pass-the-controls-question

It would be very helpful to me if you could please confirm that you can access it - also, for any comments on how useful it is to you - whether you have any questions about it. (Before I write a similar article on the "risks" question.)

Hi Kim, Thank you for the article. Yes, I could open it and I found it very useful. It actually helped me to concentrate on what exactly is required by the question and how to structure the answer.

I have been going through the whole syllabus again, roughly one chapter a day, watching OpenTuition videos and trying to practise questions as well. I think my main problem in my first attempt was that my answers were too vague. I watched some videos on YouTube and thought that if I followed the same routine for each question I would be ok, but I now realise that this does not necessarily answer what the question is actually asking. I tend to put too much irrelevant information in, waste time and then lose marks.

I think practising the requirement verbs and learning to be more specific and direct in my answers will really help me.

To be honest, I do feel quite anxious about sitting the exam again after failing my first attempt, so this kind of guidance is really helpful.

It would be really good to see a similar article on the risks question as well.

Thank you again!

Thank you for the feedback, the risk article is here https://opentuition.com/acca/articles/how-to-pass-the-audit-risk-question

My mantra for passing auditing exams, is READ-THINK - WRITE. Markers do not "weigh" scripts, quantity cannot compensate for a lack of quality (like audit evidence!)

Thank you, Kim. This article is really helpful. I can see now where I may have lost marks in my last exam. I think sometimes I may have used different points from the scenario but actually repeated the same risk, and I also need to be more precise with my responses.

There is so much information to process at the moment. When I’m studying, I feel like I understand it, but under exam pressure I sometimes overthink everything and end up writing too much, not enough, or going in the wrong direction.

Can I also ask, if a risk is quite clearly stated in the scenario, is it OK to use the wording directly from the scenario and then explain the risk and the impact on the financial statements, or should it always be rephrased in my own words? I’ve seen different advice about this, so I’m not sure what is best in the exam.

Short answer: There is no need to "always rephrase in own words”.

The important distinction is between selecting the fact that identifies the risk and copying information that does not.

The examiner acknowledges candidates’ use of copy and paste for risk identification (M/J25), but cautions:

“Simply stating a fact from the scenario is not always the same as identifying an audit risk.”

I'll find you some examples to illustrate ...

... identification of a risk in an answer can be very close to the wording in the scenario e.g. Pimento (M/J25):

Scenario: “…there were some technical issues meaning that website sales were not automatically recorded in the accounting system.”

Answer: “Technical issues were encountered meaning that website sales were not automatically recorded in the accounting system.”

The key to risk identification is to get to the crux of the matter. Here's another example from Pimento - first the para:

"In May 20X5, a fraud was discovered in the finance department. Following an investigation, the finance clerk at Pimento Co was found to be responsible and was dismissed. As a result, the remaining members of the finance department have been allocated additional tasks until a replacement finance clerk can be appointed. This has led to a backlog in the processing of some accounting records."

There are two risks to be identified - that there was a fraud - and the processing backlog.

We can copy the para and delete superfluous words to get this down to the facts:

"... a fraud was discovered .... the finance clerk .... was found to be responsible .... dismissed"

"... members of the finance department ... allocated additional tasks ... a backlog in the processing of some accounting records."

And now "reword" concisely to bring the risks into focus:

"A fraud involving the finance clerk was discovered"

"Following the finance clerk's dismissal, the finance department has a backlog in processing accounting records."

When bringing into focus note that "dismissed" is not relevant to the fraud indentification - but the link to the second risk.

Thank you so much. I’ve learnt so much from you over the past few days, and your explanations and examples have really helped me understand things much better. I really appreciate your help!

You're very welcome! If you have any further generic "exam technique" questions on risks or controls please continue to post them here. If you have queries on specific questions, please make new separate posts.