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Hello John/Gromit,
I wonder if you could offer some advice.
I am sitting P5 in December for the first time.I am fairly happy with the way my study is going, the problem I am having is interpreting the questions.
Unless it specifically says “calculate this” or “do this” then sometimes I struggle to recognise if they want calculations & discussion or just discussion.For example, June 14 Q4 had a brief introduction and a page full of numbers in the question, but the actual standard ACCA answer was all discussion.
Is there any advice you can offer for spotting what the examiner wants? Any key words to look out for in the question etc etc?
Many Thanks
MarkyIt’s hard to give general advice when requirements can be worded in many different ways. Some questions might expect more calculations without specifically mentioning the need for them (eg interpret performance in two sets of financial statements). Other questions specifically ask for a calculation (economic value added).
However, here part (a) of the question specifically asked you to look at the appendix where all the numbers were already calculated. The issues were how to interpret the variances, both possible inter-dependencies and also planning and operation effects. There were not really any more calculations for you to do. If I had been writing the answer I would have included more specific reference to the figures in the Appendix, quoting some of them.
Sorry I can’t be more definitive.
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