CPA P1 April 2009

roll with it

Anyone doing P1 next week? Interested to know how ye are set? I'm stressing at the moment. So much to do in law and auditing. How do they expect you to learn so much theory? As for Corp Reporting, does anyone else think a consolidated cash flow is likley??

Shurwhynot

I'm supposed to be sitting P1 Law and Auditing, got exemptions from all others. I have decided to just do Law this time round and face Auditing in August. I'm just going to tell my employers that i failed Auditing (presuming i pass Law!). They don't take much of an interest in how i do in my exams anyway so i could tell them anything!

I'm doing the BPP Home study for Law and i must say i've found it quite helpful. I've just been doing sample questions all week and i find myself taking in a lot more than i would in lectures. There isn't enough time in the day to study both Law and Auditing in my opinion! There is just too much in them. So i'm hoping to pass Law handy enough and then use the same method for Auditing in August, before hopefully facing into P2 in the winter.

Any tips in Law then on whats coming up?? The BPP Law lecturer hasn't got back to me yet.

roll with it

Do you not have to get at least 35% in both to carry any subject? i.e you have to sit auditing and get at least 35% or you can't carry law to August as a pass?
I think law of agency will probably feature, and maybe somehing on the article re shareholder rights and remedies.
I hae no idea how i'm going to pass four! AAGGG panic!

Shurwhynot

I don't think so? According to the Exam Guidelines, if you pass all but one in Formation 1 or Formation 2, and get over 30 in the one you failed, you can resit it. A "Credit Accumulation" system applies in Prof 1 apparently. If you have passed at least one exam at this stage and have got over 30 in the exam not passed, you can resit the other.
Now i got exemptions from 2 Prof 1's so does that count as having passed them?? I failed both Law and Auditing last April and was unable to take the repeats in August, so would this have a bearing?
I'm in a bit of a panic now as i haven't looked at Auditing yet and had no intention of doing so. I've emailed CPA as well.
If any other CPA's know anything they might be able to help me too??

steelbar

As far as I know you have to sit all remaining P1's at the same time, you cannot split them like in P2.

I'd check it up, as I had a run in with them last year about a medical exemption and I won my case eventually but it wasn't easy.

Trying to motivate my self to study here, am struggling, you think the fact tham Im doing all 4 P2's would help but it isnt!!

Shurwhynot

Even if you have attempted them already? Or do you have to sit them all no matter what? I am pretty well prepared for Law tomorrow week so do you think it is remotely possible for me to start Auditing now and get a mark of over 30 in it? Would doing past exam questions be sufficient?

Murty Boy

Think you will have to sit the two . . and yeah if you dont need to study much more law and can get past papers done in auditing you should get the 30% and may even scrape the fifty . .

Shurwhynot

Ok thanks lads...head down bright and early tomorrow morning so!

steelbar

Did you apply for the exam? If not you may get on to the CPA asap and see if they will help.

Shurwhynot

Yes i am registered for it, i just decided last week i wouldn't do it and simply concentrate on one. I didn't realise that the credit accumulation applied.

Fishyfreak

Doing all the P1's next week:

Auditing is so difficult to study. Most of the past exam questions i'm finding it hard to decipher what the question even is?

There is a lot to do in Law too.

All in all i'm really bricking it at the moment, so much to go through and just can't motivate myself at all.

Really hope the Indirect Method Cashflow doesn't come up but it probably will. (Corp Reporting)

roll with it

I know auditing is so hard to study for, and so much to so in law. i reckon the cash flows are pretty likely alright, probably a consolidated question. Anyone have any idea what the pass rates are like?

Shurwhynot

Do you think that doing out all the past exam papers is in any way sufficient to get over 30 in Auditing? Wouldnt be too pushed if i failed it, as long as i get over the required 30 and pass Law. Spent the day doing out all the Question 1's (Internal Control) from my BPP past paper kit, and a lot of it seems to be common sense.I do a lot of Audit work with my job too, so hoping this will prove beneficial too.Rollwithit, may i ask how you think agency will come up in Law?

Fishyfreak

I think past papers are a good way to go, not a lot else you can do as the course is so vast.

Also check out CPA site, the Auditing examiner put up an Article recently on "External Confirmation", might get you those much needed marks!

brutusthebarber

roll with it wrote: »

I know auditing is so hard to study for, and so much to so in law. i reckon the cash flows are pretty likely alright, probably a consolidated question. Anyone have any idea what the pass rates are like?

Do you think a cash flow will come up? They're usually an august question arent they.

Would have thought a consolidated I/S was a cert.

Nini123

Hi guys, I'm doing 4 P1's as well. Am getting very worked up over them as I have had very little study leave from work! I heard there are new Examiners for all the subjects bar Managerial Finance. Makes it much harder to predict the paper!

brutusthebarber

Good luck tomorrow!

Anybody here doing Corporate Reporting tomorrow. Any ideas what the paper will be like with a new examiner??

Fishyfreak

brutusthebarber wrote: »

Good luck tomorrow!

Anybody here doing Corporate Reporting tomorrow. Any ideas what the paper will be like with a new examiner??

Yeah, No idea. Not even going to hazard a guess at what will come up.

The article on Leases on the CPA website is about all we have to go on...

Good luck.

Fishyfreak

Corp. Reporting: Not the worst paper i've ever seen but not my best subject either.

Q1 & Q2: Took up a huge amount of time. Particularly Q2 (I.Statement / B Sheet/ SOCE & a Memo to the Company!!!)

Q3: MCQ's, Anybodys guess. I've got 3 that i'm 90% sure I got right, as for the rest........ flip a coin.

Q4: Leases, I knew it would come up up made a bit of a mess of the question, just drew a blank with the presentation part.

Overall, it's a tight one. Hopefully I did enough but wouldn't be surprised to see a 48-49% on the results.

How did everyone else do?

brutusthebarber

Fishyfreak wrote: »

Corp. Reporting: Not the worst paper i've ever seen but not my best subject either.

Q1 & Q2: Took up a huge amount of time. Particularly Q2 (I.Statement / B Sheet/ SOCE & a Memo to the Company!!!)

Q3: MCQ's, Anybodys guess. I've got 3 that i'm 90% sure I got right, as for the rest........ flip a coin.

Q4: Leases, I knew it would come up up made a bit of a mess of the question, just drew a blank with the presentation part.

Overall, it's a tight one. Hopefully I did enough but wouldn't be surprised to see a 48-49% on the results.

How did everyone else do?

Same regarding time!Felt it was an extremley long paper, actually had to leave the Balance Sheet unfinished so I could do the multiple choice (at 1.15)!!

I did the provision question, thought that there was too many ways to mess up the lease q.

Again I wouldnt be surprised to see a 48%. Hopefully i did enough to scrape it. Anyone know the date of the results??

Fishyfreak

Results are Fri 12th June.

(Popped a little note in the "CPA Examview" about the time constraints as a result of Q2, ya never know it might be marked a little easier if enough people complain!)

brutusthebarber

Fishyfreak wrote: »

Results are Fri 12th June.

(Popped a little note in the "CPA Examview" about the time constraints as a result of Q2, ya never know it might be marked a little easier if enough people complain!)

Thanks!! Yeah I just left them an essay to read:) If that point is raised again and again they might factor it in in the marking.

Shurwhynot

So whats everyone banking on in Law?? Hoping theres nothing much on securities or Sarbanes Oxley in the Corp Gov section...havent really looked at it as it seems to be very complex and i dont really have the time! I've got all the chapters summarised in points form to help my revision for the night. Gona watch Champions League first though!!

Fishyfreak

Shurwhynot wrote: »

So whats everyone banking on in Law?? Hoping theres nothing much on securities or Sarbanes Oxley in the Corp Gov section...havent really looked at it as it seems to be very complex and i dont really have the time! I've got all the chapters summarised in points form to help my revision for the night. Gona watch Champions League first though!!

Article on "Shareholders rights/remedies" is only thing to go on. The examiner did indicate that the questions will be more broad rather than whole questions on very specific parts of the course (as before), so that's encouraging. We'll see what happens I suppose!

Good luck to all.

Fishyfreak

Corp. Law & Governance

Really plodded my way through this paper, again I wouldn't be surprised to see a 48-49%. Was writing up until the very last minute again!! Gave a few vague answers and some questionable bullet points in some of my answers..........

If I do pass it will be thanks to the Debenture/Receiver question.

How did everyone else feel about it?

Shurwhynot

You'd want to be an awful harsh person to give someone 48/49 in fairness.

I didn't think it was too bad, but my one worry is whether i answered the questions correctly or not, particularly Q.2. I wrote nearly 3 pages (my writing is pretty small!) and included all the exceptions to the rule in Foss vs Harbottle, before mentioning the 2 statutory remedies and tieing them back into the question. Question 1 (a) was an awful balls i thought...i didnt know what was going on in it! Fairly happy with the receivers question and the question on exec/non exec directors. I'd never heard of a de facto director so i thought it was just a different name for one of the other directors. I asked the examiner and she rang some guy in head office about it and the reply was that i should know it but to write it as a little note on my paper. When i was leaving then, the examiner told me that loads of people had asked her the same question!

Anyway time for a nap before getting stuck into Auditing!

Fishyfreak

Shurwhynot wrote: »

You'd want to be an awful harsh person to give someone 48/49 in fairness.

True, but with two seperate examiners. One could give 34/70, to other gives 15/30..... (they will not be correcting the paper as a whole together) so it will be unlikely that the will go back over the paper to find an extra mark for you.

I gave a vague enough answer for De Facto Director and it turns out it was right (just checked) woo hoo!!!:D

Anyway, could be a late night tonight going over the auditing. Man, i hate the subject!

Best of luck tomorrow.

Fishyfreak

Happy enough with the Auditing paper. Answered every part of each question. One or two questions where I wasn't 100% sure what was being asked but I had a stab at them either way. Hopefully i've done enough to pass.

Shurwhynot

Yeah i must say im happy with it too. Despite going into it with not a whole lot done, i was able to attempt every part of every question as well. Some parts i wasnt too sure on but i had a good go off it too. Thats me done...hopeful i passed both now...would be gutted if i didnt pass at least one. Off to the pub!!

Fishyfreak

Managerial Finance:

Overall a decent paper with the great exception of the Q4 MCQ's.

Q1 in MCQ's asks to use the dividend growth model. Very easy, except they don't give the growth. We are expected to calculate it, which I have never seen before. How do you do it? Do you look at last years growth or use last two years averaged out?

Q3-Q5 MCQ's: This is the only practical question i've ever seen on Market efficiency. I knew all of the theory. Our book (Griffith College) has no worked example in it. Very unfair I thought.

Q6-Q8 MCQ's: This might be just me as I was never that great at variance analysis but I thought we were lacking some vital information to do this question. Namely, actual results.

(I'm open to correction on any of the above points, in particular the Variance Analysis one)

Not a happy bunny, CPA Examview have been sent a note.:(

Nini123

I thought the MCQ's were awful as well. Spent way too much time on the budget q and didn't have enough time to finish!! Thought Q1 in the law was horrible as well. Wasn't impressed with the error in Q2 in the auditing paper either. I won't even go there with the corp reporting!! I hope I pass some of them. Thank god they are over now!!!

Shurwhynot

Not long left now til the results guys! Does anyone know will they be online the Thursday night?

roll with it

I feel sick at the thought of the results. I really don't wana spend my summer glued to the books. I reckon for me, my downfall was Auditing, and probably financial Accounting also.

Shurwhynot

Can anyone confirm when the results will be online?

Shurwhynot

Passed Law and Auditing. Onto P2 i go!