Successful ACCA exams strategy

How to write the answers to score high marks?
How to allocate sufficient time for all questions in a paper?
Why apparently well-prepared students performed badly in the actual exam?
Whenever a student marginally failed, they would insist that they did not understand why.

There are some good advices to prepare for successful passing ACCA exams:

1. Cover the complete syllabus

ACCA provides some amendments in their syllabuses every year. If you use the materials of your friends or colleagues from previous years, you should search for update materials to complete the syllabus.
There are some free materials !

2. Practice your handwriting in three hours sessions

The summary of ACCA P1 Governance, risk and ethics

Governance

Agency theory - directors act as agents of shareholders
Potential problem - strategy to benefit directors, not shareholders, different attitude to risk (not their investment), short-termism
Goal congruence - incentives to align interests (profit related pay and share option schemes)

Rules or principles-based approaches
Rules - SOX, legally enforced, section 404 ICFR penalises SMEs
Principles - UK Combined Code of CG, comply or explain, SMEs more leeway, not legally compulsory, market benefits or penalties for non-complier

CG concepts - HAIR DRIFT
Honesty- truth, not misleading
Accountability - directors accountable to shareholders, stakeholders
Independence - NEDs free from conflict of interests
Responsibility - directors responsible to stakeholders
Decision taking - improve wealth of an entity
Reputation - ability to comply with CG concepts
Integrity - honesty and balance, trustworthy
Fairness - take into account legitimate interests
Transparency - full disclosure of material matters

CG purposes -PIGCREW

Practice methods - governance provides practice methods to aid those who are managing a company
Investment - governance creates assurance and trust thereby attracting investment
Growth - governance creates conditions for growth of the economy
Control - it is set in place to control excessive behaviour in the organisation
Rules - it creates rules within which the organisation is operated
Employment - it creates employment as well as deals with several employment issues
Wealth - it supports a wealth-creating capitalist system

Chairman - role (Higgs report) - RAISE DIP
Run the board
Active engagement by board members
Induction programme
Sufficient time for complex decision
Effective communications with shareholders
Development needs for directors
Information provided accurately and timely
Performance evaluation

Useful Mnemonics for ACCA P1 Governance, ethics and risks

Preparing for exams, I have noticed that such enormous amount of new information is not able to be retained in my mind (!) How to improve the memory? The answer of this question is given by mnemonics. Many of teachers at Opentuition, BPP & LSBF use this technique in their lectures to improve the memorizing of their students.

I have collected some useful mnemonics for ACCA P1 Governance, ethics and risks. Hope it facilitates you to remember the relevant. :)

Ethical principles
PrOFIT

Probity
Openness
Fairness
Integrity
Transparency


Internal controls - categorisation
OPA SPAMS

Organisational Controls

• Control over the organisation structure including managers having specific responsibilities and delegations tasks.

Authorisation

• Controls to ensure that transactions do not proceed until an appropriate individual has given approval.

Physical

• Protection of assets against theft, unauthorised access or use.

Supervision

• Oversight of work of other individuals to ensure tasks are carried out correctly.

Personnel

• Controls in place to ensure the suitable people are employed.

Arithmetic Accounting

• Checking accounting transactions for accuracy, includes use of accounts and reconciliations (e.g. bank reconciliation).

Segregation/rotation

• Different people for each transaction to – Authorise, Record, Maintain physical custody of any assets (i.e. petty cash), pay for it.

Management Controls

• Control actions taken by management depending on the contents of reports received. Managers should be involved in the day to day supervision of staff.

Internal control - objectives

SCARE

Safegard Assets

Comply with Laws&Regulation

Accurate Financial Information

Reduce Fraud

Efficient Business

Corporate governance - concepts

HAIR DRIFT

Free past exam questions of ACCA F8 Audit and Assurance

Hello to everyone!

Preparing for an exam ACCA F8 Audit and Assurance (Int) I found the video with analysis and resolving past papers exam.

The lecturer Low Chin Ann - Kolej Bandar, Citypro (www.acca2u.com)  writes by hand the answers of questions in the answer sheets. This may be a very good example for students who are needed in time management in exam. This video helps to get the skill of fast navigation into the task and to present the answers clearly and precisely.

Low Chin Ann gives the recommendations about how many to write to gain more marks on exam.

Free video of ACCA F8 revision

ACCA F8 Audit and Assurance - free lecture of substantive procedures

Hello to everyone!

I am preparing for ACCA F8 Audit and Assurance (Int). Searching in Youtube I found an excellent lecture on Substantive procedures. As you know, Substantive procedures is one of the most popular themes of ACCA F8 exam.

The lecturer teaches ACCA F8 at CityPro Institute (Johor, Malaysia).
The theme of this video - Substantive procedures and Non-current assets.

The lecturer handwrites the answers in the worksheet in ACCA F8 exam style. It is a very good example of presentation to score high marks on exam.

After watching this video I am sure you can write easily substantive procedures for PPE (Property, Plant and Equipment). Just use COVE (Completness, Ownership, Valuation and Existence) plus Disclosure!

See free video Substantive procedures and Non-current assets

Free LSBF lectures of ACCA F8 Audit and Assurance with Martin Jones

Today I found some video lectures of ACCA F8 Audit and Assurance with Martin Jones, London School of Business and Finance. This lecturer tells us about such a boring subject as an audit in easy manner with humor :)

1. Introduction to the paper F8 part 1
2. Introduction to the paper F8 part 2
3. Past exams analysis 
4. Substantive tests

Статистика на образовательном проекте Coursera

Доброе утро, мир!

Сегодня статистика просмотров показала 500, и это прекрасно )))

Но речь пойдет сегодня о курсе статистики "Statistics: making sense a data", который был предложен University of Toronto на сайте Coursera. Курс ведут Alison Gibbs, PhD, senior lecturer и Jeffrey Rosenthal, PhD, professor, автор канадского бестселлера Struck by Lightning: The Curious World of Probabilities (Удар молнии: загадочный мир вероятностей).

Курс разделен на 8 недель, включает видеолекции, тесты в лекциях, 7 еженедельных тестов и 2 оценивания одногрупниками (peer assessment). Предложены учебники для самостоятельного изучения:

• OpenIntro Statistics, by David M. Diez, Christopher D. Barr, and Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel
• Online Statistics Education, by David M. Lane, David Scott, Mikki Hebi, Rudy Guerra, Dan Osherson, and Heidi Zimmer
• HyperStat Online, by David M. Lane
• StatPrimer, by B. Burt Gerstman