*** ACCA AAA September 2018 Exam Results ***

It was very hard

Sorry Raoul your technique doesn’t work with the examiner

“”I suggest all those complaining read Robertoh posts. Seems like virtually the only person on here who had the right technique and used it.
Fact is I haven’t seen the exam but have just written an answer to Q1 that will get 25 marks minimum. Based only on what requirements say.
So if I can do that without reading a single word of the scenario that is apparently too long, why isn’t every student doing it too?
Having poor exam technique is not the examiner’s fault and if you keep blaming everyone else you will never improve.””

Here is the examiner report Sep 2018 for particularly SPECULATIVE RISK POINT :

Another common mistake candidates made on this requirement was to spend a lot of time discussing
speculative risks which generally do not obtain credit. The fact that a company is multinational with many
subsidiaries does not automatically result in a key audit risk regarding the inability of the company to know
how to perform a consolidation, or to account for foreign currency. The fact that this is not a new client and
the audit engagement partner did not raise any concerns in this regard past should be taken as a sign that
these are things are not key issues. Candidates should instead focus on the details given in the scenario
that the engagement partner thought relevant to highlight. In this case, the acquisition of a new subsidiary
and the risks arising from what is a significant non-routine transaction, the significant spend during the year
on research and development which has been capitalised, and the fact that management does not believe
there is any impairment of assets despite falling revenues. Recent past question answers illustrate the sort
of risks which are considered relevant to the accompanying scenarios. Speculative risks do not attract credit
in the examination and it is surprising that candidates chose to evaluate such risks when there were so many
specific risks contained within the scenario. This session it was disappointing how many candidates opened
with speculative risks such as failure to cancel intercompany balances, failure to account for day-to-day
foreign currency transactions, and the control risk arising from international subsidiaries. Candidates would
score better if they were to prioritise risks in their planning and to focus on the ones described in detail by the
examiner in the scenario rather than reproducing a rote learnt list of general points which do not demonstrate
any application of knowledge to the scenario itself