CAP2 Exams

Mark1916

Hi,

Thought id set up a thread so people can air their views, problems, tips etc for the up comming exams!

Ill start off and say I think Cash Flows are a high possibility for the Financial Exam!

larry2009

does anyone have solutions for this paper?

Dell2009

I just tried to upload it but the file appears to be too large and exceeds upload limit allowed by boards. PM me and i'll email it to you.

You can download it from the Student Centre area of the ICAI website.

Dell2009

I have just tried to Zip the file. hope it allows you to download.

larry2009

Dell2009 wrote: »

I have just tried to Zip the file. hope it allows you to download.

Thanks for that. The link in the student centre was an SFMA paper!

Nidot

All the solutions which seem to be given out by the institute have errors in them, or atleast contradictions in what you'd expect from the notes from lectures/book.

Or maybe thats just me???

SL10

No an awful lot of stuff have errors in them...is very annoying!

prinz

Nidot wrote: »

Or maybe thats just me???

It's not just you.:mad:

Mark1916

I think we all realise that the institute are a joke of an organisation and how they get away with giving out sub standard answers. If the ICAI themselves cannot work things out correctly how are we meant to? And if we doing something the way we seen in an answer and apply it in the exam and its wrong we get penalised. Joke.

Hackysack

Mark1916 wrote: »

Ill start off and say I think Cash Flows are a high possibility for the Financial Exam!

I really don't think so. The only way they could really come up in my mind if they appear as a part of the Case Study (which would = really bad news imo).

I can't see them justifying a Section B question for Cashflows, particularly if you have a good template for them, because it'd just be a matter of throwing your template in and whacking the figures in.

With the open book exam, Cashflows just become a bit too easy imo.

larry2009

what is everyone studying for this? Might leave out WACC as it came up in the continuous assessment.

Would working through previous papers be enough for this??

larry2009

Mark1916 wrote: »

I think we all realise that the institute are a joke of an organisation and how they get away with giving out sub standard answers. If the ICAI themselves cannot work things out correctly how are we meant to? And if we doing something the way we seen in an answer and apply it in the exam and its wrong we get penalised. Joke.

Its pointless studying solutions that are wrong....but im hoping they are more than 50% right

Mark1916

larry2009 wrote: »

what is everyone studying for this? Might leave out WACC as it came up in the continuous assessment.

Would working through previous papers be enough for this??

I wouldnt exactly be leaving out WACC, its too big a topic to leave out, company valuations as a whole is a very topical subject and it could easily come up!

SL10

I dont think I would leave anything out for this subject as going on past exams they can basically put whatever they want in. I'd say there is a good chance that there will be some form of WACC on the paper

gerrymadden1

How are people fixed for them at this stage lads? I cant help but feel underprepared at this stage, have people finished the courses and doing exam papers yet? I plan spending the last 2 weeks doing exam papers. is this too late??

SL10

I am nowhere near finished the courses! I have been doing questions as I have been going along tho- mainly Prof 3 ones. I'm gonna try start doing some CAP2 exam papers next weekend

Coldplayer

I wouldn't say its too late to do anything, I've been doing questions along the way. I do think we have very few questions to work off though. The prof 3 questions are not up to the standard I think we are going to face at all.

Have an awful feeling we are going to have a cashflow incorporated into question 1, which would be an absolute disaster imo.

gerrymadden1

ya prof 3 q's are rubbish i cant bear to think how hard these feckin exams will be!! I suppose we all go by with 2 weeks in college exams and did fine so a good solid 4 weeks will hopefully do the trick!!

Hackysack

If you're only starting studying for these exams (and you're sitting all 4) you're not gonna be able to get them all in one go.

larry2009

Hackysack wrote: »

If you're only starting studying for these exams (and you're sitting all 4) you're not gonna be able to get them all in one go.

we'll see about that. liking the positivity

Hackysack

Well i've sat them already and I'm repeating one. And along with a lot of other people who were studying for the entire period of study leave last year, they're still repeating this year.

There's quite a rake to get through over all four subjects. So unless you're gonna chain yourself to the desk for 12 hour days and have a perfectly honed study technique, I really can't see anyone passing all four in one sitting, especially if they haven't started studying at this stage.

Pro-tip. Spend most of your time with Financial. Tax can be done in about a week. Auditing, around another week. SFMA will need a good bit of solid work and a bit of luck to pass in the exam. Financial... well I can't really comment on that since that's the one i'm repeating.

larry2009

Hackysack wrote: »

Well i've sat them already and I'm repeating one. And along with a lot of other people who were studying for the entire period of study leave last year, they're still repeating this year.

There's quite a rake to get through over all four subjects. So unless you're gonna chain yourself to the desk for 12 hour days and have a perfectly honed study technique, I really can't see anyone passing all four in one sitting, especially if they haven't started studying at this stage.

Pro-tip. Spend most of your time with Financial. Tax can be done in about a week. Auditing, around another week. SFMA will need a good bit of solid work and a bit of luck to pass in the exam. Financial... well I can't really comment on that since that's the one i'm repeating.

thanks for the pro tip! but some people are naturally good in exam situations and dont have to study as much as others.... so to say its impossible to pass all 4 in over 4 weeks is a bit negative!

prinz

larry2009 wrote: »

we'll see about that. liking the positivity

Sorry buddy, but having sat CAP2 already I have to agree. Starting to study now it is extremely extremely unlikely anyone will pass all four papers, no point in giving people false hope.

Hackysack

I suppose it is a bit negative, but I recall myself being optimistic last year and well, two sittings of these horrific exams really put a dampener on those optimistic feelings of mine!!!

How are you going about studying for them?

prinz

Hackysack wrote: »

I suppose it is a bit negative, but I recall myself being optimistic last year and well, two sittings of these horrific exams really put a dampener on those optimistic feelings of mine!!!

Any tips for getting the optimism back? I know what we're going to face and it's affecting my studying now.

larry2009

Hackysack wrote: »

I suppose it is a bit negative, but I recall myself being optimistic last year and well, two sittings of these horrific exams really put a dampener on those optimistic feelings of mine!!!

How are you going about studying for them?

well 4 weeks and 4 subjects so a subject each week should do the trick...maybe less than a week for auditing

prinz

larry2009 wrote: »

well 4 weeks and 4 subjects so a subject each week should do the trick...maybe less than a week for auditing

Good luck with that.

SL10

Wow Larry I wish I had your optimism!

I've been studying for 3 weeks at this stage and plan and putting in a solid four weeks and I still don't think I'm gonna get all four!

Having sat the CAP1's last year (studying for the entire leave and still having to repeat 2!) I think its really important that people know what they are heading in for. These exams are no where like college exams and even if you have studied and put in all the hours there is still only a 50% pass rate so a lot of us are going to be disappointed in August.

Hackysack

prinz wrote: »

Any tips for getting the optimism back? I know what we're going to face and it's affecting my studying now.

You have two to do right? SFMA & Financial (if I remember correct?). It's tough though, but i'm getting myself geared up for it all. I'm doing a bit here and there but I went through what I need to do and set myself a timetable for the period of my study leave that outlines all of the topics I need to do.

For Fin. Rep, i'm gonna be heavily relying on the giant question pack to teach me the basics for all of the standards and then work on Sandra Gleeson's question notes for the year (they seem to be of a high standard and to a lesser extent Barry Smith's revision notes).

If I cover off the standards quickly enough I can then fly through the basics of what's necessary in each standard. I'm only allocating about 3 days to work on exam papers (it's gotten to the stage where i remember the actual figures needed in the solution rather than the technique for getting them).


For SFMA last year I focused heavily on getting Portfolio Valuation nailed along with Variance Analysis. I covered ratio analysis really well and had very concise notes made for the topic that explained each ratio and how to calculate in a brief manner. The way I looked at it in the end of the day, I didn't think there was a lot they could ask calculation wise in the Management Accounting side of the course - Transfer Pricing & Variance Analysis. The theory was fairly blag-able. I didn't bother with working on the FX stuff. I couldn't get my head around it, and I had a feeling it was gonna be an option (it was. Both times). but i figured i'd spend too long trying to learn it and there was never any decent questions to practice it. I figured I'd waste a lot more time doing it that way.

Tax was simply a matter of doing the Prof.3 papers that Ciara Deane gave out as lecture notes. I had a small folder with around 50 or so questions in it. After trying all of them, I felt I had a really decent grasp on the topics.

Auditing, i don't really know how I passed it to be honest. I did very little actual study. A lot of it was blagging, which I was able to do because of my job.


But anyway to address the question re optimism/motivation. I felt that putting everything into my timetable and how to deal with it in manageable doses made me realise my limitations and it gave me an idea of what topics I needed to cover.

prinz

Hackysack wrote: »

You have two to do right? SFMA & Financial (if I remember correct?). It's tough though, but i'm getting myself geared up for it all. I'm doing a bit here and there but I went through what I need to do and set myself a timetable for the period of my study leave that outlines all of the topics I need to do.

Have three to do, all except SFMA. The only one really bothering me again is FR, and that's dragging the confidence down when it comes to Audit and Tax.

SL10

Hackysack wrote: »

For Fin. Rep, i'm gonna be heavily relying on the giant question pack to teach me the basics for all of the standards and then work on Sandra Gleeson's question notes for the year (they seem to be of a high standard and to a lesser extent Barry Smith's revision notes).

Which Question pack are you using Hackysack? I have a consolidation question pack and an IAS question pack but not too sure if they are any good or not so haven't looked too much at them.

The first question in the consol pack is Pandar and in the IAS pack is Sandown...is it the same question pack by any chance?

Hackysack

Hmm. I don't think it's the same one. The actual question names aren't particularly familiar. I might have a different one that was given out last year. It's around 160 pages worth of questions that cover all of the IAS' and around 200 odd pages of solutions. (of course it'd be pretty useless for IAS1 and the small changes that were brought in for IAS 27)

Some of them are very easy but each question seems to cover a different 'trick' so to speak, so it's very good for learning each standard/complexity in a step by step process.

I don't have it on my home comptuer at the moment, but I think I have a copy of it on my laptop in work.

Hackysack

prinz wrote: »

Have three to do, all except SFMA. The only one really bothering me again is FR, and that's dragging the confidence down when it comes to Audit and Tax.

Yeah FR is an absolute mare. If I was in your position, I'd probably devote say 3 days a week to Audit/Tax and 4 full ones to Fin Rep. I find that if you do well in the other two it gives you a good bit of confidence. But last year for the repeats I got a bit sidetracked and overly-focuses on SFMA & Tax, while neglecting Fin. Rep.

Do you have that giant Question pack that I described in the post above?

prinz

Hackysack wrote: »

Do you have that giant Question pack that I described in the post above?

I have a question and answer pack but I don't think it's the same one, it only has about 15 questions and solutions in it, covering all the IAS's.

I don't know what the problem is. I should be alright at audit and tax but even studying them is proving hard enough :pac: just got a niggling doubt left over from last year that I need to get rid of asap.

Coldplayer

Any chance someone could post that giant pack? I have worked through that crappy consol pack and IAS pack described above, don't think they are any use.

I've been studying for about 3 weeks now, and did some for the mocks. if someone can study all four courses in 4 weeks i am astonished, i must clearly be a lesser form of human being . . .

Anyone got any study tips for auditing, i don't work in it so have little exposure to it. Ive just been reading the book and Q&As. Is that all there is to do?

Hackysack

The Fin Rep. Question/Solution pack files are too big for me to upload here. PM me your email addresses and i'll send the files I have.

Vaioer

Quick one.

See for Syllabus point 4.2 for SFMA "Performance Measurement Decisions". What are people using to revise for this? I can't seem to find any notes in the lecture notes or in Clarke or Drury for this.

Coldplayer

Loads of stuff in the toolkit on that section, and Ratios are a big part there as-well. Like Q1 in last years summer paper was on unit performance.

SL10

Coldplayer wrote: »

Anyone got any study tips for auditing, i don't work in it so have little exposure to it. Ive just been reading the book and Q&As. Is that all there is to do?

For Audit, I have just been doing questions from exam papers- doing all the prof 3 at the mo and then gonna move on to some FAE ones and the CAP2 ones. I have the advantage of working in audit tho so I kinda have a fair idea of most things. But I would say doing exam questions over and over is prob your best bet.

Coldplayer

SL10 wrote: »

For Audit, I have just been doing questions from exam papers- doing all the prof 3 at the mo and then gonna move on to some FAE ones and the CAP2 ones. I have the advantage of working in audit tho so I kinda have a fair idea of most things. But I would say doing exam questions over and over is prob your best bet.

Cheers yeah thats what i think i'll do. Really don't feel like im doing half as much for auditing as i am for everything else.

SL10

Does anyone know where you can find solutions to the challenging questions at the end of the chapters in the FR book? I know they are based on past exam questions so are people just using the papers for solutions or?

Dell2009

@ SL10

Book Solutions in Financial Reporting Cap 2 thread

Coldplayer

SL10 wrote: »

For Audit, I have just been doing questions from exam papers- doing all the prof 3 at the mo and then gonna move on to some FAE ones and the CAP2 ones. I have the advantage of working in audit tho so I kinda have a fair idea of most things. But I would say doing exam questions over and over is prob your best bet.

Hey just looking online for the prof 3 papers? couldnt find them anywhere? Are they available for download?

SL10

Yeah they are on the website. You have to log in to get them tho. If you go to Student Resources- Exams- Exam Papers- CAP2 at the bottom of the page is a link to the old prof 3 papers too

ananlin

I did FR and Audit last year, Filed FR and Passed it at repeat and got 67, the repeat is even harder, here are few tips:

• Start with the last two questions in the exams,that will build confident, if u did study then expect to finish those 2 Q in 1-1.5 hr. they are really not that hard, I did the case study first last summer ,spent 2.5 hrs on it and lead me to nowhere, leaving half the easy one didnt even answered.
• Analysis every standard, summrise every standard in the way u can understand, i know there are lots for every standards, but there is certain question type that came up every year.and make them easy to access, trust me u wont have time to look papers and books... have the DR CR stuff on paper.....
• Past paper is worth to look, but they may put a whole question in past paper as a part of case study, I.e Summer 09 Q1 EPS question was the excaly same as 2005 summer or maybe 2006, couldn't remember.
• From my analysis,the CASE STUDY is made up of 1.Lots standards. 2 One of the Disclosure, ie. 09 Summer is EPS. 09 Autumn is Discountinued Operation,so defintly gonna to be one disclosure small question,and also eithcal(which is easy for u guys and really hard for me as i dont speak english and hard to describ common sense LOL)
• I FOUND the CPA pofessional II Advanced Corp Reporting Paper is really really really similar as the case study , CPA use the IFRS as well, and they only have 1 case study quetion in the paper which is consolidate+standards + Rports + Eithis which took 100 marks, I did that in my repeat and I found it is extrimly good. here is the links to those papers http://www.cpaireland.ie/displaycontent.aspx?node=202&groupid=202&headerid=513
• To draw up the account PL BS)first,even before to do the notes, they took marks--- More than 4(which is in the marking schedule),didnt do in first sitting and did in repeat, makes lot diff.

hope that helps

Nidot

ananlin wrote: »

I did FR and Audit last year, Filed FR and Passed it at repeat and got 67, the repeat is even harder, here are few tips:

• Start with the last two questions in the exams,that will build confident, if u did study then expect to finish those 2 Q in 1-1.5 hr. they are really not that hard, I did the case study first last summer ,spent 2.5 hrs on it and lead me to nowhere, leaving half the easy one didnt even answered.
• Analysis every standard, summrise every standard in the way u can understand, i know there are lots for every standards, but there is certain question type that came up every year.and make them easy to access, trust me u wont have time to look papers and books... have the DR CR stuff on paper.....
• Past paper is worth to look, but they may put a whole question in past paper as a part of case study, I.e Summer 09 Q1 EPS question was the excaly same as 2005 summer or maybe 2006, couldn't remember.
• From my analysis,the CASE STUDY is made up of 1.Lots standards. 2 One of the Disclosure, ie. 09 Summer is EPS. 09 Autumn is Discountinued Operation,so defintly gonna to be one disclosure small question,and also eithcal(which is easy for u guys and really hard for me as i dont speak english and hard to describ common sense LOL)
• I FOUND the CPA pofessional II Advanced Corp Reporting Paper is really really really similar as the case study , CPA use the IFRS as well, and they only have 1 case study quetion in the paper which is consolidate+standards + Rports + Eithis which took 100 marks, I did that in my repeat and I found it is extrimly good. here is the links to those papers http://www.cpaireland.ie/displaycontent.aspx?node=202&groupid=202&headerid=513
• To draw up the account PL BS)first,even before to do the notes, they took marks--- More than 4(which is in the marking schedule),didnt do in first sitting and did in repeat, makes lot diff.

hope that helps

Excellent post ananlin, everybody doing these exams needs to remember that the pass mark is 50%, get to that and you're safe.

Financial Reporting is gona be the hardest exam and with all luck the two sample questions people choose will get them up to 25 or so, that would mean getting 65% in these two questions, which based on last years examiners report is achievable if you put the time into it.

I would repeat what ananlin was saying and do the two option questions first and they should take bout 1.5 hr if you crack into them straight away.

Anyway best of luck to everyone who's doing them. Work hard and you'll be fine.

Mark1916

Cheers for that post all of the above acutally make sense and im going to try that approach with my exam papers.

Going to this grind school on saturday and I have 2 A4 pages of questions to ask. I attempted the summer 09 consolidation question today - WTF??? Its brutal tough but the rest of the paper is doable!

Mark1916

Looks like we could be getting a foregin currency consolidation with the new notes that are up!

ahossain

Just to send a quick reply - i was studying the old prof 3 exam questions and they're an excellent source for consol questions

has anyone got any grinds / know anyone who offers grinds ?

thanks

Vaioer

Seee for SFMA, what sort of quantitative questions are people looking at

-Investment Appraisal(IRR, NPV, EVA, Residual Value)
-Variances
-Hedging
-Cost of Capital(WACC etc)

Am I missing anything else there?

Coldplayer

I'm covering Valuations and Transfer Pricing also.

Quantitative question could easily come up in Transfer Pricing