Acca Exam tips for P2 by BPP LSBF ATC AND FIRST INTUITION..!!

First Intuition:
Qn 1 = Group question on cashflows or Foreign subsidiaries
Ethics
Revenue Recognition
Deferred Tax
Impairment (especially goodwill)
Share based payments
Related parties

BPP:
Section A
The compulsory case study is likely to require you to prepare a group statement of financial position (balance sheet) and/or statement of comprehensive income (profit and loss account) with continuing and discontinued activities or foreign subsidiary. Alternatively, it could be a consolidated statement of cash flows which would include other accounting complications such as financial instruments, pensions, share-based payment and impairments.
There will also be discursive requirements on a linked accounting adjustment and social/ethical/moral aspects of corporate reporting.
Section B
An industry question (often Q3), testing a range of standards (NB: no specific knowledge of the particular industry is required).
A discussion question (Q4) looking at current developments in corporate reporting, such as: small and medium-sized entities, revenue recognition, success/issues on implementation of IFRSs, management commentary, comprehensive income/presentation of financial statements, improvements in performance measurement. It may also include a related computational part based on figures from a case study.
Single topic (e.g. share-based payment, deferred tax, pensions) or ‘multi-part’ question (Q2) testing a range of standards separately, such as: related parties, accounting policies, discontinued operations, recognition and/or impairment of tangible and intangible assets, government grants, foreign currency transactions, provisions, events after the reporting period (balance sheet date), leases, consistency of standards with the conceptual framework, the effect of accounting treatments on earnings per share or ratios.

LSBF:
Complex groups.
Cash flow statement.
Revenue.
SME.
Segments.
Provisions

ATC exam tips for P2
Exam Tips – June 2011 Session
The exam tips set out below are not intended as a guaranteed or definitive list of
the topics that will be contained in the forthcoming examination paper and should
not be construed as such. What follows is presented as an additional resource for
students’ preparation, based on knowledge and past experience of ACCA
examinations. ATC International accepts no liability where final examination papers
differ from these suggestions.
Paper P2
By Phil Bradbury
The examiners name is Graham Holt, he wrote 2 articles which were based on IFRS
3 (revised 2008) that appeared in the February and April 2009 Student Accountant.
Make sure you have read these articles, Q1 will be a consolidation question which
will include issues from these articles.
As at April the examiner has not written any recent articles which may feature in
the forthcoming exam, be on the lookout for any articles by him in the weeks
leading up to the exam.
Be aware that IFRS 9 is now the examinable document in respect of the recognition
and measurement of financial assets, make sure you are up to date with this new
standard as it is likely to feature in part during the exam.
The examiner stresses that students should read around the subject and keep
themselves up to date. He encourages students to regularly read Economist or
Financial Times and look into one of the Big 4 audit companies IFRS website, the
examiner himself regularly looks at these sites and may take inspiration for a
question from them. Also do look at the CPD section of the ACCA website where
you will see articles written by the examiner.
Exam Tips
Areas that feature on a regular basis in the exam are as follows;
Consolidations in Q1
Disposals and complex groups (June 2010)
Disposals (December 2009)
Step acquisitions (December 2009)
Cash flow (Dec 2010)
Foreign Sub (June 2008)
Complex group
Exam Tips – June 2011 Session
It is possible that the consolidation issue in the June exam could either
be a complex group or a foreign subsidiary.
Financial Instruments (IAS 39/IFRS 9) to include hedge accounting, questions
on this topic tend to appear in most exams
Employee benefits (IAS 19)
Leases (IAS 17)
Share-based Payments (IFRS 2)
Impairment of assets (IAS 36)
Deferred Tax (IAS 12)
At the 2011 teacher’s conference the examiner did state that he expects to
examine IFRS 1 First-time Adoption on a more regular basis, so it is possible that
this question may feature as topical Q4 in 2011, but students should also be aware
of other topical issues such as the financial crisis, Fair Value accounting and
accounting for Financial Instruments.
Exam Technique
Don’t forget the following advice while in the exam:
Answer all questions, including the written elements of questions. It is very difficult
to pass the exam by learning the numbers.
Cross reference your workings, they are an integral part of your answer.
Answer the question set, not the one you wished had been set, focus on the
requirements especially relating to the written part of the answers.
Look at the marks available for each part of the question, do not write pages of
answers for a 3 mark part similarly if the question has allocated 6 marks then make
sure you adequately answer that part, a line is not enough to get you 6 marks.
For a 25 mark question you should be spending no more than 45 minutes on it.
Good Luck!
In addition to noting the guidance set out above, students should make use of
ACCA past examination papers, pay close attention to articles published in Student
Accountant and should read the Examiner’s review of the last examination session
at http://www.accaglobal.com/students.