why I have failed P2?

Hi Browen,

I came across your comment and am sorry to see you are struggling with P2, I do not want to take Chris part but I will give you my advice as an ACCA student who pass 71 first attempt and by the way I have struggled with P1 and was looking for any sort of help especially from a student point of view as what I should do to clear it.

here what i did I relied very heavily on open tuition and Kapalin revision kit along so much reading around particular topics, lease revenue etc, I read lots of articles published by PWC and EY as they gives more details than any textbook out there.

You need to know your knowledge very well and know how to use it, the question scenario will never give what standard to use, also each scenario will indicate or gives hits and you must be able to pick them up from the scenario. for example, the scenario might include something the company is doing wrong and therefore might be sued or a legal penalty might be imposed- this clear indication for ISA 37, if the event took place prior or after year end this is an indication to ISA10. might be an adjusted or non-adjusted event.

In your answer, use the words because a lot as you need to bring the scenario into your answer, take the following example, PPE ISA16 requires capitalising initial cost pluse all direct cost to bring assets into its usable condition.

for example, ISA 23 borrowing cost, when it needs to be capitalized? the scenario will tell you dates and what happened only- your job is to pick the correct dates from the question and say the following; the company xys need to capitalise the cost from x date to x date because in accordance with ISA23 the borrowing cost need to be capitalised, and stop capitalise them on X date because in accordance with ISA 23 borrowing cost need to stop be capitalised in the earlier of 3 occasions hence xys need to add this cost and amortise them over x years

hope you have got the jest of what I am trying to reach to you.

try past exam question and try to establish a logical reasoning of the examiner question and answer why the examiner provided such answer in wide details how and why did he link the question to answer etc.

with consolidation, nothing can be better than question practice, your best shot is watching the open tuition lecture and then try past exam question keep doing the same question over and over again untill you master it and yes the same question does not memorise- I know it is not a pleasant feeling but you need to understand rather memorise or rely on luck

best of luck and I hope my advise will give you some sort of a frsh start.

I think the problem is, there is no one out there can give you an answer to your question in term of the how much you need to write in order to score good mark.

Here what I did, one relevant point per mark, but you may ask what is a relevant point?

the point has to be concise informative drown from the standard itself.

Think of financial reporting as being Statement of financial position SOFP and profit and loss P &L.

SOFP has the assets and liabilities
P&L has income and expenses

what you need to know is the definition of assets and liability for the balance sheet.

think of intangible assets ISA 38 what you need to know and what are the relevant points? assume company bought a licence to fish in the sea for 4 years.

from the definition of the assets you always can get 2 points.

1- Assets is controlled by the enterprise as a result of past event invoice or you pick up information from the question indicating that the company bought the assets, for example, the company paid the government money to obtain the licence.
2- future economic are expected to follow into the enterprise, using it to fish and sell the fish.

the standard itself.

recognition and measurements.

how can you measure it? purchase price plus direct costs in accordance with the standards what are the cost and what is the total value to go to the balance sheet?

subsequent measurements, amortisation over its useful life on a street line basis charged to P&l

disclosure, what are the disclosure requirements disclose the value of the licence and remaining and amortisation policy.

now you think of a liability.

what is the definition? how can you measure it? what is the subsequent treatment ?

let’s say provision, a present obligation arising from past event, this will cause an outflow of cash, ISA 37 and any other liability, such as redundancy, creating a valid expectation.

future dismantling cost, measured using present value and then unwind it as a finance cost.

with P&L items think of income IFRS15 and expenses accruals matching principles employee benefits, for example, it need to be expensed over the service cost.