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While practicing past exam papers I see topics everyday that are neither in the BPP book, nor in the Opentuition lectures or notes. For example in 2019 2nd Exam, following topics were used by examiner in Answers which I never heard before:
1.IFRS 13: Valuation of Unquoted Shares
2.IAS 38: Revenue based amortisation of Intangible Assets
3.IFRS 15: Valuation of Non Cash Consideration
4.Current Changes to IAS 19 (mentioned in book but not in opentuition lectures)
With so many new things coming up with every new past paper I attempt, I feel like my preparation is not good enough. What is it that I am missing? Are they writing too much in their sample answers to past papers and that much is not really needed in the actual exam? Even if that is true, still I feel there is big disconnect in my preparation and their expectations.You have to be realistic in how much you can remember for the exam.
The OT notes are designed to get you through the exam not to get you 100%. Bear in mind that the prize winner will probably only get 70%.
IFRS 13 – you have to apply the principles to whatever asset the examiner suggests – so unquoted shares would be a level three input
IAS 38 – amortisation of intangible assets is something that you learnt in the lower exam financial reporting – you can use the time basis or you can use the basis linked to expected revenue
IFRS 15 – for non-cash consideration the examiner is often seeing what your views are
IAS 19 – the changes in pension accounting were very minor – use the BPP book as they summarise the changes – but this is not really still a current issue.In order to pass you need to make sure that you can produce for reasonable answers in the time and that your explanations are fairly clear and half right!
So you will pass if at this stage you are practising all questions against the clock and seeing if each question you have got roughly the right idea. Most people who fail have not practised time allocation it’s all you have to do.
Hmm, I think I was going too much towards perfection and I believe that much perfection is not needed. Just one more thing. In areas where the examiner is testing my views, like Non cash consideration in IFRS 15. How should I answer such topics. Should I go like ‘As per IFRS 15 Non cash consideration should be treated like this’ (even though I have not seen that written anywhere in the books), Or should I say ‘IFRS 15 does not talk about treatment of Non Cash Consideration, So the given scenario should be treated as per Framework (Relevance and True and Fair View).
1. Most importantly do not refer to accounting standards in the exam. You will run out of time and not impress anyone.
2. You just need to say how do you think the non-cash consideration should be measured.
3. For measurement we normally think of fair value as a first idea.
4. Then clarify whether you mean the fair value of the consideration that you are receiving or the fair value of the goods or services that you are giving.
5. Try and be specific even if your answer turns out to be wrong. Just telling the directors that the figure should be relevant and true and fair would not help them at all.In fact somewhere at the back of the IFRS 15 that is an example of non-cash consideration but students would not realistically know that example or many of the others 50 at the end of the standard. The official answer is that theoretically you should use the fair value of the consideration that you are receiving if that is possible.
Finally, be calm.
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