*** ACCA P5 March 2018 Exam Results ***

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@essem said:
For March 2018 exams I took P4 and P5. Early on I decided that most of time should be directed towards P4 given the amount of knowledge\calculations. From January 2018 to the date of exam my time was split 75% P4 and 25% P5

My approach to P5

1. Throw away your study text.

2. Read opentuition notes, I didn’t bother with the videos. I would dedicate 10-15 hours to this in total. Do not try to understand everything as I would recommend reviewing notes after attempting questions.

3. Most of your time, around 70% of it should be spent attempting questions. Personally I would practice questions taken from past papers on the acca website. I would also read the relevant examiners report for each exam, before and after attempting the paper. Ask yourself have you taken on board the guidance in the report.

4. When attempting the question, before reading the scenarios, read all the requirements first. Key to passing the exam is understanding what the examiner is asking for.An example, taken from the examiners report for the last exam March 2018:

“Part (ii) required an evaluation of the current performance dashboard in measuring the
achievement of the local government’s and waste management department’s aims. This was a
basic test of the candidates’ ability to interpret a dashboard and link it to the strategy of an
organisation and was generally done well. There were a number of candidates who did not
respond to the question asked and instead, evaluated the performance of the company (rather
than the dashboard) or else failed to link the dashboard to the aims.”

The examiner asked for an evaluation of the current performance dashboard.
Most people that failed would have evaluated the current performance and would have scored 0 marks.

Also, carefully read the question as all questions contain more than 1 requirement and will carry equal marks. Ignoring part of requirement will reduce the marks available to you by 2 or 3 times.

5. When reviewing your answers to past papers, check the examiners answers and try to see how he has applied the scenario to his answer. Using the scenario in the your answer is essential. Everything in the scenario has been included for a reason and using this in your answer is a skill that needs to be developed and practiced during your question practice.

6. Basic structure of an answer should be
“relevant information to question from scenario” + “this is what the information means” + “justification” of why it is important. This should be around 2 or 3 sentences.

7. Do not write big paragraphs. As per point 6. each point should be 2 or 3 sentences long and should be its own individual paragraph. Have a new point to make? Start a new paragraph.

8. Time pressure in the exam is an illusion. We are aiming 50% and therefore should be aiming to make 60 points in the exam. As per point 6. each point should be 2 or 3 sentences long which should take 2 minutes to write. 2 min per point * 60 points = 120 minutes. Spend about 20-25 minutes reading the scenario. The remaining time should be spent carefully thinking about what you are going to write and whether it is relevant/answering the question.

9. Do not obsess over the calculations in this module. Spend 10-15 hours going over these during revision to understand how to do them. More important is understanding what they mean and interpreting the results. This also applies during the exam, do not spend time trying to get the calculations perfect, allocate time and move on. In the March 2018 exam I messed up the EVA calculation yet still managed to score 70% in the exam overall

Most important post in the P5 forum.

Few students will realise this.