P1 – exam tips – December 2013 (Kaplan, First Intuition, LSBF, Opentuition)

Exam tips are out! Enjoy but do not rely on them.

BPP

The format of this paper is quite straightforward – one compulsory 50 mark question and a choice of two from three 25 mark questions. Often, the compulsory question is set within a scenario based on real-life events allowing all three parts of the syllabus to be tested: you should therefore consider organisations with governance issues and how they control their exposure to risk and any resultant ethical dilemmas, often requiring some form of written or verbal communication.
Optional questions tend to focus on governance, risk and ethics more discretely, but we could still see some cross-over, for example, boardroom diversity is the subject of an article recently published by the ACCA and could quite easily fall into a governance-related question. The exam in June 2013 saw an approach like this, testing an article on environmental accounting and reporting, although articles have not always been tested so soon after their publication!
Candidates should ensure they are familiar with all the various theories introduced within the learning materials as they are frequently examined – good exposure to past papers will illustrate the kind of test most likely to be faced in December.

First Intuition

50-mark scenario question to include ethics, absolutism versus relativism, chairman and CEO powers need to be separate, also corporate social responsibility.

Optional questions to include:

• Importance of internal controls,
• NEDs and remuneration committee
• and structure of directors
• remuneration, business risks, Gray
• Owens and Adams.

Kaplan

• TARA and new elements of risk syllabus.
• Kohlberg’s moral development.
• Gray, Owen and Adams.
• Corporate code of ethics.
• Nomination committees.
• Separation of roles of Chairman and CEO.
• Influence of and intervention by institutional investors.
• Normative and instrumental view of stakeholders.

Becker Professional Education

• Corporate governance concepts underlying fundamentals and arrangements.
• CG in other organisations – public services, NGOs.
• Types and forms of CG, for example rules based, principle based, insider, outsider systems UK CG Code, Sox.
• Agency theory, stakeholders, Mendelow.
• Board structures, CEO/chairman, directors, NEDs, committees.
• Internal control & business risk, Turnbull.
• Ethical theories & business codes (Kohlberg, Gray, Owen & Adams, Tucker, AAA).
• Professions and the public interest.
• Corporate social responsibility corporate citizen, footprints and sustainability.
• Social and environmental auditing.

LSBF

Governance
1. Evaluate Governance Failures
2. Responsibilities and Roles of the Board of Directors
3. Role of the Chairman / Importance of the Chairman’s Statement
4. Legal Obligations or Reasons for a director leaving the company
5. AGM and Proxy Voting
6. Reasons for Institutional Investor Intervention
7. Governance in a Charity
8. Global Governance Standards
9. Scope of a CSR Policy
10. Stakeholder Classifications

Internal Control
1. The Role of Internal Auditors or criticism of their approach
2. Mandatory vs Voluntary Disclosure and Content of Disclosure

Risk Management
1. Role of a Risk Manager
2. Static and Dynamic Risk
3. TARA
4. Risk Audit

Ethics
1. Absolute and Relative Ethics
2. Normative and Instrumental Ethics
3. Grey, Owen and Adams
4. Kohlberg
5. Professional and Public Interest
6. IFAC Code of Ethics
7. Sustainability and Environmental Audit

Opentuition

• 5 part 50 mark question touching on risk, ethics, environment, internal controls with 16 – 18 marks for drafting a report / briefing notes / press release / magazine article
• Corporate governance with internal auditors and internal controls. Risk management, committee, mitigation
• Sub committees under corporate governance, their roles, functions, objectives, make up
• Kohlberg and attitudes to ethics compared with Gray, Owen and Adams and their 7 sub-categories.

De Monfort

* Board diversity.
* Chairman/CEO.
* Risk mapping/TARA
* Kohlberg
* Gray, Owen & Adams positions.
* Professionalism & public interest.

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Source: https://www.pqaccountant.com/
Very best of luck with your exams!
ansi