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Dear Mike,
I am plowing through answers in P7 BPP Revision Kit and whenever procedures are requested I do not see Assertions (ACCA COVER) to be used very often as part of answer. I would even say quite seldom.
I thought assertion is the “why” explanation part of writing about procedure. So whenever a recommendation about procedure is requested I would expect a 1 sentence for describing procedure (AEIOU) and then second sentence explaining why (ACCA COVER)
to gain 1 mark.What I see in BPP answers is 1 sentence with specific description of audit procedure
I’m confused on how to secure this 1 mark on recommending a procedure?
When you say “1 sentence with specific description of audit procedure” does that sentence cover the “why” and the “how” or just the “how”
And in your response can you give me the specific wording of the question or, better still, the exam reference and question number?
Q18 PULP 6/08 b)ii
Q20 MAC 6/10 c)
Q23 APRICOT 12/09 a)Above questions have single “Recommend” requirement. So answers described how to perform the procedure without saying the “why” part
E.g.like to ensure appropriate Accuracy, Completeness, Cut off, etc… of the ‘item’.Then we have Q24 POPPY (12/08) b) ii)
The requirement is – Identify and explain.
And here you can see ‘to ensure something’ part. Although ACCA COVER words are not used, you can see the ‘why’ part clearly.It is confusing also because the requirement is lower intellectual level than ‘recommend’ I would say. I would expect explain to be description of procedure not the reason for it.
Q25 Magpie (6/12) Goodwill procedures
Here again the requirement is ‘Recommend’ so I see good description of procedure but no word about which assertion is provided or the reasoning for this particular procedure.
Q33 LAPWING (6/12) which has extensive list of procedures with requirement of “Recommend”.
Some of them you see the reasoning part but some of them are just descriptions – so a mix in answer depth I would say.
It’s hard to find key words from ACCA COVER mnemonic – so are they required in answer, is the marker looking for them specifically? I have compared some answers in revision kit to examiners and ACCA COVER assertions key words are not used.
As I went through questions usually the requirement for procedures is to RECOMMEND (level 3 verb)
My conclusion is that to score a mark on procedure to describe it specifically in relation to scenario and provide some reasing ‘because’, ‘to ensure’, ‘to assess’ something – but ACCA COVER is not really looked for? Not sure…
I’m answering this now so that you don’t think I’m ignoring you but I’m going to ask you to post the question again tomorrow so that it’s on my list of matters to attend to when I get home on Wednesday ready for an opentuition session on Thursday morning
Hi
I’ve only looked at one – Apricot from December 2009 – but if all the others are similar then clearly this is representative
The question requirement says “Recommend the procedures …..”
There’s no requirement to “Recommend the procedures and explain the reasons ….”
I repeatedly warn students to read very carefully the question requirements and to give extreme attention to the “hidden” requirement where the examiner uses “and” as in my second example above.
In Apricot there’s no “and”! The question is not looking for justification / explanation of WHY the procedure should be carried out – it’s simply looking for an “audit program” (even though no audit is being undertaken)
Does that explain it for you? Have a look at the other questions that you have quoted and see if the same comment can be applied to them too
Ok?
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