acca

This presentation intends to provide guidance to students on exam techniques relevant to the ACCA Exams.

As you prepare for your exams it is important to have a structured study plan. For every paper that you are taking you should develop a time table clearly allocating time to studying the study text, doing practice questions from different sources including revision kit, checking the questions and analysing the mistakes. You must also take time out for relaxation.

As you prepare for your exams, there are number of resources available to assist you in your exam preparation. These include resources that are available on the ACCA website. These include syllabus, study guides, examinable documents, examiners interviews, examiners approach articles in different issues of Student Accountant, examiners comments in Student Accountant ,articles in Student Accountant, pilot paper and past exam papers. All these resources would facilitate effectual exam preparation. Other resources including study text and revision kits are also useful resources.

Critical to exam success is practice. The more you practice, the more confident you are in the exam hall. Practice makes you perfect. Practicing number crunching questions is essential but equally essential is practice of questions involving analysis of information, scenario based questions or theoretical questions. Practice writing memos and reports.
Critical review of examiners comments would benefit students. Examiners have clearly outlined poor handwriting, irrelevant answer and ineffective question planning as reasons for students not doing well in the exams.
So what kind of exam technique you should try to adopt in the exam hall.


You should aim try to Impress and thus excel that is where:

I stands for Instructions
M stands for Manage Time
P stands for Presentation
R stands for Relevance
E stands for Easy Marks
S stands for Survival
S stands for Success



INSTRUCTIONS
Arrive at the right place at the right time.
Read instructions carefully; how many questions are to be attempted; how long do you have?
Read the requirements for each question carefully; underline key words; look for the verb in the requirement – more on this under intellectual levels shortly.


MANAGE TIME
Allocate the correct time to each question and requirement. Attempt all parts of the question. Stick to the time allocation. Look at how many marks are available for each question.
All 3 hour papers now have an additional 15 mins Reading and Planning Time.

During this time, students may only write or make notes on the question paper.

To use this additional 15 minutes most effectively:

• carefully read and understand all question requirements, making an informed choice about which optional questions to attempt where applicable
• read through and highlight relevant information and financial data, noting why it is included
• take note of the marks awarded for each question and the allocation of marks between different requirements within a question
• start to plan your answers, particularly for discursive questions
• think about the order in which to attempt questions
• make preliminary calculations.

PRESENTATION
Plan your answer.
Format and layout is important. The answer should be properly structured with headings, sentences, paragraphs and bullets.


RELEVANCE
Students tend to spot question and not give a relevant answer. It is vitally important that the question asked is answered rather that what you know. If the question asks about outlining the effectiveness of internal controls of an organisation, students should not write what they know about internal controls but should use the information in the question to appropriately answer the question. Read the requirement at least twice Don’t just write down everything you know about a topic Don’t forget Professional Marks where available.


EASY MARKS
Go for easy marks first. Look at what marks are available for each question/part of question. Have a plan to attempt the paper. There are students who prefer numerical questions and then there are students who prefer discursive questions. Whatever your plan is, do complete the paper. All the questions should be attempted.


SURVIVAL
Don’t Panic !!!
Keep going …. Move on


SUCCESS
Revision – be prepared for the exams. Question practice and mock exams – don’t let the real exam be the first exam!



You must work hard and do your best in the exam with the confidence that you’ll get through.
Best of luck!

ACCA HELP Team

__________________