CAP 2 - Financial Reporting

Pisco Sour

Hi Guys,

I've been wondering how are people going about studying this subject?

Sandra Gleeson's notes for all the standards have no solutions in them whatsoever. Loads of questions to help explain each standard, but no solutions:eek: Without these solutions I cant study the notes on the standards as its very jagonny and hard to understand. Without proper practical examples I just cant understand whats going on in most standards.

I tried looking at the book (the one with a whole 1100 pages in it) and its full of so much rubbish and waffle and is not user friendly whatsoever. I tend to try and stay away from most books as they never seem to make life harder rather than easier for the student in my opinion.

So I've really hit a brick wall. I just dont know how to go about studying this subject. My study lacks any sort of structure or direction. With the other 3 subjects I know how to go about studying them and have a routine, but with Financial Reporting I cant get my head around how to go about doing it. I've been studying for 3 weeks now and feel that I have achieved nothing.

Are the old Prof 3 past papers any use for studying? Any advise or suggestions would be most helpful? Is there anybody else out there who feels the same as me about this?

Also if anybody miraculously has these solutions could you please upload them if its possible at all? Would be greatly appreciated.

Really starting to freak out about this particular subject now.

Ciara471

I'd say the best way to go about this subject is to look at the course outline on the ICAI website.
The solutions to a lot of the questions are in the Ciaran Connolly book but she's changed the names so read the questions instead of looking for the names.
If you go by the course outline it starts with IAS 16. Then go to the chapter in the book (Connolly) on IAS 16 and there are exam standard questions at the end of most chapters.
If there are no exam standard questions at the end of the chapter then I figure it's not that important and whatever is going to be asked will be made obvious when you get to doing exam questions.
That's the way I'm doing it anyway.

Hope this helped

I'm having the same problem with SFMA. I don't know where to start or what to do

suckslikeafox

On a general note, are people getting heavily into the study already?

I wasn't planning on starting until the end of next week at the earliest, amd even then the first few days will be all about printing notes and getting organised, etc.

How hard is everyone else working?

Hanley

suckslikeafox wrote: »

On a general note, are people getting heavily into the study already?

I wasn't planning on starting until the end of next week at the earliest, amd even then the first few days will be all about printing notes and getting organised, etc.

How hard is everyone else working?

I've done sweet FA. Just haven't got the fear yet. Don't feel so bad now!

suckslikeafox

Hanley wrote: »

I've done sweet FA. Just haven't got the fear yet. Don't feel so bad now!

Cheers, glad to know I'm not alone!

Cookie89

Hi, I've done nothing yet hoping to print of a few notes in work this week, but the notes up for the carlow lectures are very poor if anyone could put up a link particulary for auditing notes it would be greatly appreciated. Hoping the fear hits me next week:D

seven-iron

does anyone else think that financial reporting is quite simple. i could sit that now and get at least 70%. I have done every q given in the notes and sample papers without much stress. Theres a lot in audit so will focus on that

suckslikeafox

seven-iron wrote: »

does anyone else think that financial reporting is quite simple. i could sit that now and get at least 70%. I have done every q given in the notes and sample papers without much stress. Theres a lot in audit so will focus on that

Simple might be overstating it but it does seem to be straightforward enough.

From the lectures I was at and the mock, it seems to be all Consolidation, Cash Flow and Construction Contracts and a bit if theory which you can just read on the day.

Although saying that its gonna take me a few days and a lot of coffee and cursing before I can do consolidation!

seven-iron

yeah straight forward is a better way of describing it.

Coffee goes without saying!

Hanley

How are people approaching answering the consols??

Questions from the book and then onto exam papers?

Hackysack

Hanley wrote: »

How are people approaching answering the consols??

Questions from the book and then onto exam papers?

Yeah I know next to nothing about these, and I haven't the slightest on where to actually start on them...

HeinekenTicket

The prof 3 past papers are still relevant - the syllabus has not changed to any significant extent and the standard of knowledge required is the same as was for Prof 3.

ezypzy

Well I am seriously freaking out about the consols....in waterford/limerick the lecturer had his own way of doing the consolidations but if I tried to do past exam questions the solutions are done a completely different way which makes it so confusing plus id say half the solutions have mistakes which would drive you to drink as you dont know if u genuinly are wrong or if it is the solution thats wrong Does anyone have any good notes on how to approach these questions as I think if we have a good method going into exam we should fly through the question

Hackysack

Sandra Gleeson's notes in Dublin are pretty good.

She's uploaded a huge bumper edition of notes (190 pages that cover all of the IAS') and solutions to do it as well. (another 200+ pages).

They focus on certain topics individually. For example IAS27 is Consolidated Financial Statements and there's a good 20 questions on how to do Consolidated Income Statements and Consolidated Balance Sheets, and the technique she uses is consistent and it gives you practice (which is similar enough to the sample papers/solutions).

I missed all of her lectures on it, and i'm teaching myself the topics through those notes which is handy.

The 'drawback' with them I suppose is that they only cover each topic individually. Looking at those questions in IAS27 will only show you how to tackle the calculation of Goodwill, Minority Interests and Fair Value Adjustments. You'll have to look to the other areas of her notes to get practice on Construction Contracts, Discontinued Operations, Leases, Depreciation etc.

Badboy21

Hanley wrote: »

I've done sweet FA. Just haven't got the fear yet. Don't feel so bad now!

Well you said you ahve done sweet ****, i dont believe you one bit, if u ahvent well then the chances are that u will fail!!

Id say the pass rate for these cap2 exams will be 50% or less!!! Trust me !!

Prof 3 pass rate without comp would have been around 30%!!

Hackysack

He made that post at the beginning of May btw...

Pisco Sour

Badboy21 wrote: »

Well you said you ahve done sweet ****, i dont believe you one bit, if u ahvent well then the chances are that u will fail!!

Id say the pass rate for these cap2 exams will be 50% or less!!! Trust me !!

Prof 3 pass rate without comp would have been around 30%!![/QUOTE]



I am doing my FAE's in September 09, i passed my Prof threes first time, that was nice . But there were hard as nails literally i spend the last 4 weeks studying twelve hrs days, they were the hardest exams i had evr done in my whole life. MABF was the worst i studies this subject four weeks straight but still failed it and had to compensate. What a nightmare subject. As for the FAE's i think it will be easier the prof three pass rates last year was around 66% . That means 1 in 3 people didnt mange to pass them all.



You must have been in the other 70% so!!

Hanley

Badboy21 wrote: »

Well you said you ahve done sweet ****, i dont believe you one bit, if u ahvent well then the chances are that u will fail!!

Id say the pass rate for these cap2 exams will be 50% or less!!! Trust me !!

Prof 3 pass rate without comp would have been around 30%!!

Lol date reading fail.

Ideo

04072511 wrote:

As for the FAE's i think it will be easier the prof three pass rates last year was around 66% .

Was that 66% including those who compensated? I've talked to a lot of people who sat the P3s last year and the majority, if not all, compensated! With no compensation this year, I think the number of people repeating at least 1 will be huge!

Hanley

Ideo wrote: »

Was that 66% including those who compensated? I've talked to a lot of people who sat the P3s last year and the majority, if not all, compensated! With no compensation this year, I think the number of people repeating at least 1 will be huge!

Agreed.

Especially since we're coming into the papers blind.

Ideo

Yeah I'm finding it very hard to find an examinable standard of knowledge with some of the course material. P3 papers seem too easy, nor indicative of the course, compared to the sample papers yet the FAEs seem too difficult! Anybody else feel the same?

Hanley

Ideo wrote: »

Yeah I'm finding it very hard to find an examinable standard of knowledge with some of the course material. P3 papers seem too easy, nor indicative of the course, compared to the sample papers yet the FAEs seem too difficult! Anybody else feel the same?

Yeah deffo +1

Even the consol questions in the Ciaran Connolly (he's our examiner btw!) book don't seem representative either.

prinz

I really hate this subject, :mad: and the way it's being presented and examined.

been spending most time on it, reading, studying etc but can never put it into practice doing the questions. Would prefer more questions on the paper with less information in each, reading some of them as they are puts me way off without a clue where to even start.

Just thought I'd get that out there to people who know the subject. No one else has a clue what I mean.

annom04

In response to the post to the person who thinks...not knows... that only 50% of people will pass Cap2...get real!:mad:
At times like this I think people should be positive about the exams. Ya theres alot of work to do and alot of people needed to pass with compensation last year but thats why we had the assignments...to help ease the pressure a little bit.
The reason I think the cap2 sample papers are harder is to prepare us for the worst,the exams will not be as difficult. Plus everyone I have spoke to did quite well in the assignments
......so if they wanted to scare us they would have given us bad results. They know people (in some cos)are going to get fired if results are bad plus its a new course so lets be positive people...I know u cant put your head in the sand but come on dont give up yet.
At the end of the day nearly 70% passed first time round last yaer.......:cool:

wardso84

I agree with the positive attitude.

However, I will say CAP1 only had a pass rate of 55% first time round. Do people think CAP2 will be higher/lower?

As long as they don't go too off the mark and they ask pretty standard corp tax/consolidation etc questions as the biggies, it should be mostly ok....

I hope!

prinz

If you care to bottle that optimism, I'll take 10! Just not feeling it personally.

IMO the ICAI won't care how many people do badly and suffer because of it, their primary loyalty lays with already qualified accountants not the trainees, and when times are bad the less moving along the line to qualification the better for them, plus it gives the firms the perfect excuse to get out of contract, I'm just to cynical to believe the Institute would watch my back!

Hackysack

I'll take a note to come back and thank that optimistic post on Tuesday if the optimism turned out to be beneficial.

Cookie89

annom04 wrote: »

Ya theres alot of work to do and alot of people needed to pass with compensation last year but thats why we had the assignments...to help ease the pressure a little bit.
The reason I think the cap2 sample papers are harder is to prepare us for the worst,the exams will not be as difficult. Plus everyone I have spoke to did quite well in the assignments
......so if they wanted to scare us they would have given us bad results. At the end of the day nearly 70% passed first time round last yaer.......:cool:

I'm just curious what assignments did you get in Financial coz we got none on our course. And in the mocks on my course 60 peple sat the paper with only 10 passing so were not being pessimatic just realastic!!
And in the CAP 1 last year there was a high fail rate the institute don't really care about trainees in fact at the moment they are trying to cull the amount of accountants qualifing.

Pisco Sour

prinz wrote: »

If you care to bottle that optimism, I'll take 10! Just not feeling it personally.

IMO the ICAI won't care how many people do badly and suffer because of it, their primary loyalty lays with already qualified accountants not the trainees, and when times are bad the less moving along the line to qualification the better for them, plus it gives the firms the perfect excuse to get out of contract, I'm just to cynical to believe the Institute would watch my back!

Also how much does it cost to repeat an exam? More fails = more €€€€€€€€€ for the ICAI. Just a thought eh?!

annom04

Toooooooo negative for me I'm afraid,people are reading into things way to much.Look if you study and deserve to pass then u'll pass,if you deserve to fail then you should fail.

prinz

annom04 wrote: »

Toooooooo negative for me I'm afraid,people are reading into things way to much.Look if you study and deserve to pass then u'll pass,if you deserve to fail then you should fail.

Care to update that in the light of the exam papers we've seen?

DC86

In the class we had 3 weeks ago to advise us on how to tackle these papers, we were told to concentrate on the sample papers which is what we shoud expect.

I have yet to see similar content on an exam that we had on the sample papers.

Questions 2 and 4 werent too bad on todays paper but question 1 was so complicated. I think there was too much information in the notes, too much going on to get your head around.


Tax is going to suffer for me tomorrow, I wish it had of been the frst exam and audit last.

I will most likely be doing all 4 in october again. If I had another month to study I dont think I would have done any better than I already have.

prinz

DC86 wrote: »

question 1 was so complicated. I think there was too much information in the notes, too much going on to get your head around.

That's what got to me too. One look and all logical planning and method of answering went out the window. So much going on. Ended up a complete mess jumble of numbers all over the page and just confused myself so much I gave up.

Hanley

DC86 wrote: »

If I had another month to study I dont think I would have done any better than I already have.

That's the real kicker. You literally COULD NOT prepare for some of the things that have come up so far...

prinz wrote: »

That's what got to me too. One look and all logical planning and method of answering went out the window. So much going on. Ended up a complete mess jumble of numbers all over the page and just confused myself so much I gave up.

That's what was killing me too... I think pretty much the last 5 or 6 notes all related to EPS or ethical issues so I didn't even try to integrate them until it was time to do part B and C.

I found that doing my two strongest short questions first and the case study last was the best method for me.

DC86

I also cant get my head around why these are so difficult - maybe im being naive though.

At uni, you studied topics, practiced questions and out of a possible 10 topics you got asked 4-5 topics and the all the questions you practised, bits and pieces of them were reflected in the final exam you sat. At the end of the day you would not get a similar question. (By the way I know this is a step up, but the structure and expectations are brutal).

Having the books in with you are of no real advantage, at the end of the day you still have to know how to do the stuff. Im beginning to think that the examiner is under the impression that you have the time to go off and hunt for the information or to read parts of chapters to see how to deal with very specific adjustments, time which you dont have!

I have never failed an exam in my life, the saying goes that there is a first time for everything and it has now come, all of them at once.

prinz

DC86 wrote: »

Im beginning to think that the examiner is under the impression that you have the time to go off and hunt for the information or to read parts of chapters to see how to deal with very specific adjustments, time which you dont have!

+1, I reckon they're coming at this from the angle that we're all full time students with a part time job and not the other way around. I came from a non business or accounting degree background, and have really made the extra effort all this year at getting stuck in to the material to pass CAP2 because I found it heavy on the computational aspects but still to no avail.

I also thought all year that the weekend lectures weren't working, the result was work and study suffered from just sheer lack of a normal life, ended up in dull patterns of work,study,early nights and looking 2 and even 3 weeks ahead at times for a feckin day off from accounting. Every complaint is coming out now :pac:

I really don't know what more they expect from us tbh.

MrMatisse

i wonder does the person setting the paper realise that by setting such crappy papers he is potentially throwing a lot of young people on the dole in the middle of a recession.

DC86

I would say not!


Everyone seems to be having the same problems, and 90% of the people I have talked to think they have failed most, if it turns out to be the case, nothing can be done about it, can there?

I know there is the procedure of emailing complaints before monday, but will it really make a difference?

You would think that it would reflect bad on the institute that a lot of people fail, though on the other hand they may argue that they are producing a better quality student.

I think a lot of what we are studying, we wont understand it until later years when we have gained a bit of experience. At the minute its the fact of thats the way the book does it. Though im sure the institute will want us to understand the topics more than just by the way the book does it.

This would appear to be the case by the questions they are putting on the paper, so why not teach us to do that or write books to reflect this and not just the generic treatment of items - or is that just a spiral effect?

I've clearly got too much time on my hands, need to get back to tax, lol!

prinz

DC86 wrote: »

I think a lot of what we are studying, we wont understand it until later years when we have gained a bit of experience. At the minute its the fact of thats the way the book does it. Though im sure the institute will want us to understand the topics more than just by the way the book does it.

Exactly what I was thinking too. I found CAP1 ok because it was based around what I was doing at work, so it automatically made sense, now they expect us to have in depth knowledge of FX, group consolidations etc which I have no practical experience of whatsoever. Plus the books are terrible. To me the books, especially Fin Rep, are written more like revision aids for people who know the subject already and need to brush up or revise and are not helpful at all for people studying these things for the first time in their lives, so I had to rely more on lecture notes which werent always helpful either.

Motivation for tax went out the window at 1 pm today.:D

DC86

You're right, I take very little out of the financial and sfma text books.

I think part of the problem may lie with the lecturers, do they really know what we are to be asked? Doesnt look like it when the sample papers were created.

It may be a case of lecturers not wanting to change, simple fact of life that no one likes change, equally as tough for us as students also so we are both in the same boat there. I think that lecturer's may have a little chip on their shoulder and wont want to change, or take the view that the examiner is not going to tell them what to do.


I feel disgusted with myself but to be honest, I have worked, harder even than for any exams I have ever done before and when i've done the exams now it feels like i might as well not have bothered.

Tax will seriously suffer tomorrow, I cant remember the half of what I had clearly in my head this time last week, my head is fried!

Hackysack

DC86 wrote: »

I feel disgusted with myself but to be honest, I have worked, harder even than for any exams I have ever done before and when i've done the exams now it feels like i might as well not have bothered.

Tax will seriously suffer tomorrow, I cant remember the half of what I had clearly in my head this time last week, my head is fried!

I agree. I'm not disgusted with myself though. I put the work in. I just feel that by busting my balls for the last month and a half, I have very little to show for it. It's very annoying.

cannns

DC86 wrote: »

You're right, I take very little out of the financial and sfma text books.

I think part of the problem may lie with the lecturers, do they really know what we are to be asked? Doesnt look like it when the sample papers were created.

It may be a case of lecturers not wanting to change, simple fact of life that no one likes change, equally as tough for us as students also so we are both in the same boat there. I think that lecturer's may have a little chip on their shoulder and wont want to change, or take the view that the examiner is not going to tell them what to do.


I feel disgusted with myself but to be honest, I have worked, harder even than for any exams I have ever done before and when i've done the exams now it feels like i might as well not have bothered.

Tax will seriously suffer tomorrow, I cant remember the half of what I had clearly in my head this time last week, my head is fried!

Its worth pointing out that the examiner created the sample papers.

Laying attack at the lectures is rubbish.

One thought on the paper - it was difficult, but less computational and many of the adjustments were less time consuming and therefore enabled students the opportunity to complete the paper within the time permitted.

DC86

According to lecturers they were not created by the examiner!

Mat85

yeah i think the examiner did one and the lectures did the other one or two

Hanley

The really weird thing is how radically different it was to the CPA paper's he's written..

Tbh it's done at this stage, que sera!

MrMatisse

cannns wrote: »

Its worth pointing out that the examiner created the sample papers.

Laying attack at the lectures is rubbish.

One thought on the paper - it was difficult, but less computational and many of the adjustments were less time consuming and therefore enabled students the opportunity to complete the paper within the time permitted.

worded as if written by a lecturer.

cannns

Really-Stressed wrote: »

worded as if written by a lecturer.

Sorry to disappoint but I’m no lecturer, I wish I was..

I am merely just trying to be objective. I sat the paper myself and I will be tight to pass. If they are very tough on the awarding of marks in part c of the case study and question three...I think I’m screwed...

MrMatisse

Well your definitly the only person ive heard of who doesnt think the lecturers are crap!

cannns

Really-Stressed wrote: »

Well your definitly the only person ive heard of who doesnt think the lecturers are crap!

Well with regard to Financial Reporting I had Sandra Gleeson and I think, and I know others also think is quite a good lecturer. I most certainly have no complaints on that front.

Auditing on the other hand was a mixed bag from my perspective having had two lecturers. Terribly boring subject to either lecture are receive a lecture in.

I didn't do SFMA this year, but from what I heard a lot of messing going on. Definitely appears that the institute has made a few mess ups.

I'm a strong critic of some of the institute’s administration staff. The attitude of some of them is a disgrace and communications is a farce!

But regardless at the end of the day if I fail, I am responsible and I cannot or will not blame anyone else for my failure.

prinz

cannns wrote: »

But regardless at the end of the day if I fail, I am responsible and I cannot or will not blame anyone else for my failure.

IMO I did everything humanly possible in my situation to prepare... the responsibilities of (a) rubbish exam papers and (b) obvious lack of coordination between examiner and lecturers, does not lie with me tbh.

cannns

prinz wrote: »

IMO I did everything humanly possible in my situation to prepare... the responsibilities of (a) rubbish exam papers and (b) obvious lack of coordination between examiner and lecturers, does not lie with me tbh.

A: Rubbish exam papers, questions 2,3 and 4 were all pretty much covered in the sample papers. Question one, the start of it was weird and unussual and the ethics part seemed a little out of place. The rest of it largely reflected in the sample papers. Every year, looking at the Prof 3's there was something unique or different on the papers. What do you want the papers in advance?

B: Explain the lack of cordination between the lecturers and the examiner? In both financial and audit the lectuers on numerous occasions in their lectureres discussed their meetings with the examiner and communicated back what was discussed. What do want a video recordings of the meetings?