ISA and IAS for P7

As alkemist said above, it is not important for you to remember the names of the standards, just remember what they require and you will be fine. I have just read the examiner’s article on exam technique for risk assessment and it says that no credit is awarded for merely remembering the names of the relevant standards.

As for the professional marks, these are potentially four very easy marks to obtain and could be the difference between a pass and a fail in such a tough exam.

If the question asks for briefing notes, which is the most common layout they will ask for, you should do the following:

1) Start your answer with a title ‘Briefing Notes’

2) Include the following lines underneath – From: (make sure to say ‘Audit manager’ or whoever the question says you are, do not use your real name)
To:
Subject:
Date:

3) Add an introduction which summarises all of the question requirements. ‘In these briefing notes, I will [question requirement A], [question requirement B] and I will also [question requirement C].’

4) USE SUB-HEADINGS. I cannot stress This enough. Your introduction should have it’s own sub-heading. Each individual risk you point out should have it’s own sub-heading. Not only will this score you a professional mark, but it will be much easier to mark and so the examiner will be on your side.

5) Make sure your answer is logical and coherent, and that it flows naturally. If one specific paragraph of the scenario gives rise to two separate risks, describe them one after the other if possible. Don’t let your answer jump all over the place if you can help it as this will require additional effort on the examiner’s part.

6) Add a conclusion (with it’s own sub-heading). This is easy to forget as it would be added right at the end, usually I run out of time to add a conclusion, however it’s generally worth a whole mark so try not to miss it. This should simply state something along the lines of “the above briefing notes show that ‘X Co’ is a high-risk engagement, we should do ‘Y’ to mitigate these risks where possible”.

The format for a report is more or less identical with only one or two small changes, I would recommend learning the above as a basic template and looking at the answers to Q1’s in past papers to learn the differences between briefing notes and the other layouts.