Which Optional P exam to choose?

Hah, I’m going through almost same situation as you. Well to be honest i will most certainly take P4 and I’m leaning towards P5. It really depends on which field you want to pursue like if you want to become an auditor then go for P7 where as if you’re interested in going for management then do P5.

There have been a number of articles written that can help. However, they are all from lecturer/Examiner view point rather than student.

If I understand you have one paper to take (going to presume you pass P4). So of the 3 left I can comment on P5 and P7 – the ones I’ve taken:

P7 – I got my best mark out of all my exams (75%) I found it very straight forwarded. I think this is because:

1) English is my first language and this is 95%+ written exam.

2) About 20% of the paper is running a firm of accountants (something I was not aware of before I started the studies. I work in professional practice (law) and everything covered in this area (advertising, liability, money laundering etc) is exactly the same. So depending on your industry that could be useful.

3) The examiner is very fair.The Question papers are very repetitive and the questions clearly explained.

4) It is all about technique. There are certain techniques that you learn for each type of question and you apply those techniques to the scenario. For example the first part of the first question is always write a report on a group of companies you are about to audit. With the first part being identifying risk. The risk will either be business risk or audit risk. Usually the examiner puts plenty of risks in the question so it is just the technique of identifying and explaining the risk. Once you learn how it is very simple.

P5 I have just taken (so still waiting for the results). I found the subject very interesting and parts of it more relevant to my role at work.

However, since the change in examiner the pass rate has fallen. This is partly because he has moved away from number calculation with a little explanation of what they mean at the end, to giving you the calculations and asking you to explain in detail.

In theory this I have no problem with as at the Option level we should be doing this. However, of all the exams I have taken this examiner is a) the most unclear in his requirements b) examines obscure parts of the syllabus for large amounts of marks c) obviously an academic with little experience of the real business world d) seems to want to trick you as a way of showing how superior he is to you.

To give you an example, in the recent Dec 2014 exam q4.

This question is about business failure. The first part he lists two models and their results. This first model is one that you have been taught and the second is made up. They both measure financial ratios to see if a company could fail. Each look at similar ratios but in different proportions. It would appear that you need to look at the different ratios they measure and how appropriate they are in judging if a company is at risk of failure.

However, in the examiners answers, he totally ignore what they measure and you only look at what they were designed for. So all the detail he put in is only there to trip you up.