ACCA-P1 Exam tips2011年6月【大家论坛】

P1 Exam tips for june 2011 BPP Various aspects of risk were examined widely in December 2010 but risk remains a key area. You may be asked to identify and categorise some key risks in a scenario. Over the last few months the role of the board of directors has remained at the forefront of the news. There have been changes to the code of corporate governance in the UK with diversity at board level receiving much attention. Make sure that you are comfortable applying the principles of good corporate governance to non-corporate organisations such as schools and hospitals/. You should make sure that you can discuss and apply ethical theories. Don’t neglect the less glamorous areas of the syllabus, corporate governance or risk and control disclosure could always be tested. The topic of stakeholders is important with wide application. First Intuition Kohlberg, Risk assessment and TARA risk framework. Role of audit committee, chairman, CEO. Corporate social responsibility Gray, Owen and Adams, normative, and Instrumentalists view of stakeholders. Risk quantification ATC History shows that the “well prepared candidate” stands by far the highest probability of passing examinations. Exam Tip Being well prepared means, at the very least: Working through all of the sessions within your study system (on the basis that a good study system covers the whole syllabus and not just a “best guess” 70%). Working through all past examination questions and completing all monitoring/progress tests and mock examinations under full examination conditions. Reading all of the examiner’s and other subject articles – they do not write for fun. Note that examiners no longer write articles for the forthcoming examination – so articles that are at least six months old could be very relevant. Careful study of the examiner’s reports on past examinations. These contain excellent tips of what students should NOT be doing. Ignoring “Exam Tips” that are just a list of somebody’s favourite topics. For re-sit students, being aware of the changes made to the syllabus for June 2011 – read the examiner’s excellent articles on these changes (all you need to know about them) ….. and be aware of the change in name for the paper! I have read on various social pages, discussion of which tuition provider is the best at “tipping” – none of us are! It is a myth – as this is P1, is it morally and ethically acceptable for a provider to mislead students into thinking that if they “go for” the tips, they will pass? At the recent 2011 ACCA Teachers’ Conference ALL examiners, whilst understanding the desperation of students for examination tips, clearly stated that such tips were a danger to a student’s ability to pass and MUST be ignored. If you are not prepared to become a “well prepared student” then I suggest you buy a Euro Lottery ticket. You will have a 1 in 75m chance of winning the jackpot and never needing to be well prepared for any further ACCA examination – good luck! Exam Tips – June 2011 Session David Campbell, the Examiner The examiner, Dr David Campbell, has now settled into his style and format. No changes are expected. Therefore attempting the last four real examinations under exam conditions and then reviewing your answers along with the relevant examiner’s report is an essential pre-examination exercise. David has made it perfectly clear that following “examination tips” is a sure way to fail the examination. He stresses the importance of having covered the whole syllabus but even then, students should not expect a pass just from being able to rote learn theory. Far too many students, for example, are able to list and describe ethical theories, but then completely fail to apply such theories to a practical scenario. Without real world thinking, exam tips are totally irrelevant. Do not be surprised to see a scenario within at least one of the questions, especially Q1, that you may recognise from a past corporate event. The examiner makes it very clear that he bases his questions on real life – and the credit crunch/banking crisis of the last few years provides plenty of sources to cover just about every area within the syllabus! Exam Technique The difference between passing and failing is only 1 mark. Ensure you attempt ALL parts of Q1 and of the two questions you select from Section B. If you are not sure, write something that appears sensible, reasonable and is related to the requirement – that could be the mark that gets you 50%. A significant number of students fail because they do not get all of the available presentation marks. If a report format is required, do a report (NOT a letter). Make sure you understand what a press report looks like (there are plenty of examples on the internet) and lastly, look through the past exams to find examples, e.g. D07_Q1d, J08_Q1d Ensure you read through all of the past examiner’s reports – there are plenty of examples of what not to do. Exam Tips – June 2011 Session Areas to concentrate on: • Corporate governance (CG) concepts, underlying fundamentals and arrangements • CG in other organisations, e.g. public services, NGOs • Types and forms of CG, e.g. rules based, principles based, insider, outsider systems, UK Corporate Governance Code, Sox • Agency theory, stakeholders, Mendelow • Board structures, CEO/chairman, directors, NEDs, committees • Internal control and business risk, Turnbull • Ethical theories and business codes – Kohlberg, Gray, Owen and Adams, Tucker, AAA • Professions and the public interest • Corporate social responsibility, corporate citizen, footprints and sustainability • Social and environmental auditing That just about covers the syllabus Kaplan tips • Risk appetite and ALARP. • Ethics – moral development. • CSR. • Audit committees. Tips about examiner’s approach Looking over past papers, examiner David Campbell said he had been asked to tell delegates what was done well by P1 candidates, but in truth he felt it would be easier to talk about what was not done well! His paper pass rate is 50%, plus or minus 3%. Overall, Campbell feels that this is “quite good”. His Q1 cases are often thinly disguised real cases, because he’s trying to make his exam as relevant as possible. “These things really happen,” he stressed. In 2009, question 1 was on internal control failures at a global bank. He felt that question spotting by tutors was often well meaning but, ultimately, unhealthy. In December he went online to see what the tutors had tipped and one had just one thing right. Overall, Campbell felt people are happy with the core corporate governance themes. There is also little evidence of PQs struggling for time. Most candidates also organise the material well. Students now have seven live diets and one pilot to look at. You should be working all these past papers, said Campbell. Candidates should also rehearse the use of common P1 verbs and question types – words like ‘evaluate’, ‘construct’ and ‘assess’. He also suggested that students read each question and the case itself. In P1 you get marks for analysing the case. It is vital PQs study real-life situations (FT/BBC) in which governance, risk and ethics are prominent as part of placing the main themes into context. Reading Chris McDonald’s blog was one suggestion here. Campbell pointed out that P1 has to remain relevant; it is an important paper, more so now that the prophets (should that read profit?) of doom have been proved right. The new name also reflects the new importance of risk. That new content includes the dynamic nature of risk assessment, management’s response to changing risk assessment and risk appetite. There is also ALARP, risk and subjective risk perception and acceptable levels of risk. Finally, candidates were reminded they should take their calculators into the exam hall. “I might use numbers in an exam to explore analysis in this paper,” he said. P1 examiner David Campbell has been the examiner since the paper’s inception in December 2007. A senior lecturer in accounting at Newcastle University Business School, he has been an academic since 1992. He teaches corporate governance, business ethics and research methods to both undergraduates and post graduates. P1 Exam tips for june 2011