FAE 2011 Where to begin

FAE_UCH

Hello all,

This thread may be a little premature but after that disaster of a paper on Saturday, I figure i better start doing a bit now while i'm still slightly in study mode. I did a masters so i feel at a huge disadvantage as i did not have to come through CAP 2. Is there any point in me now going back and trying to look at CAP2 material or would that be much too technical for this.

Does anyone know what the best plan of attack to study this? I'd love to hear past Faer's advice, or people who have a plan to share it with us.

Jamesw2

after that disaster last Saturday. Its beyond comprehension that one would be expected to read a detailed long question, think about it, come up with correct journal entries and adjustments and then provide an answer in 5 mins. Wish I was a computer... the whole experience has left me empty. If they expect that kind of thought in the finals I'm out. WHAT ACCOUNTANT DO YOU KNOW WHO MAKES DECISIONS IN FIVE MINUTES. Makes you realise why this economy is the way it is if professional accountants are rushing things through.. hmmm.

ahtfulal

FAE_UCH wrote: »

Hello all,

This thread may be a little premature but after that disaster of a paper on Saturday, I figure i better start doing a bit now while i'm still slightly in study mode. I did a masters so i feel at a huge disadvantage as i did not have to come through CAP 2. Is there any point in me now going back and trying to look at CAP2 material or would that be much too technical for this.

Does anyone know what the best plan of attack to study this? I'd love to hear past Faer's advice, or people who have a plan to share it with us.

Failed on Business Leadership last year. Spent too much of my study time reading through the books and on calculative questions (very little calculations required, all seem case related that ya can't really study for bar FR). Think the best approach is to just keep practicing the case studies as there is a load of writing to be done in the exam and you have to prepare for this IMO

Innervision

Would anyone recommend the Chartered Grind School grinds?

Saint Sonner

Agree with ahtfulal. I wasted too much time going through books last year - case study like f*ck!!!! For all your worth - only way i reckon!

skmck

I did the new FAE exams last year - I was also a masters student & felt totally out of my depth as I hadnt been in study mode for a while & felt lik I was at a disadvantage coz I didnt do the CAP2.

All I will say is honestly - dont stress. Go to as many classes as possible - granted some of them can be so so boring but they really will stand to you. The comprehensive case study classes are very good as they prepare you well for the approach you should take & how to spot primary indicatiors, etc.

I would say concentrate on technical knowledge - computations will only form a small part of marks - in your spare time, go through as many IAS's as possible & try to know them as best as possible as financial reporting is a huge part of the exams.

As for the chartered grinds school, I attended the case study day & the auditing elective day - the manuals they give you are very good & I do believe that the CGS benefited me. The lecturers are very helpful and they know what areas to focus on. I know they are doing the lecturers differently this year at the CGS, there is more of them now than when i done them last year but I believe it will stand to you to attend which ever ones are relevant to you.

If anyone needs any further advice, I'll be happy to help as I know what a stressful time it can be. Good luck!

Clanno

skmck wrote: »

I did the new FAE exams last year - I was also a masters student & felt totally out of my depth as I hadnt been in study mode for a while & felt lik I was at a disadvantage coz I didnt do the CAP2.

All I will say is honestly - dont stress. Go to as many classes as possible - granted some of them can be so so boring but they really will stand to you. The comprehensive case study classes are very good as they prepare you well for the approach you should take & how to spot primary indicatiors, etc.

I would say concentrate on technical knowledge - computations will only form a small part of marks - in your spare time, go through as many IAS's as possible & try to know them as best as possible as financial reporting is a huge part of the exams.

As for the chartered grinds school, I attended the case study day & the auditing elective day - the manuals they give you are very good & I do believe that the CGS benefited me. The lecturers are very helpful and they know what areas to focus on. I know they are doing the lecturers differently this year at the CGS, there is more of them now than when i done them last year but I believe it will stand to you to attend which ever ones are relevant to you.

If anyone needs any further advice, I'll be happy to help as I know what a stressful time it can be. Good luck!

PM snet

Spoofer123

ahtfulal wrote: »

Failed on Business Leadership last year. Spent too much of my study time reading through the books and on calculative questions (very little calculations required, all seem case related that ya can't really study for bar FR). Think the best approach is to just keep practicing the case studies as there is a load of writing to be done in the exam and you have to prepare for this IMO

You can fail business leadership on missing an indicator coupled with a wrong opinion given on something. Difficult to study for that and absolutly sickening to wait a whole year for the repeats.

FAE_UCH

Spoofer123 wrote: »

You can fail business leadership on missing an indicator coupled with a wrong opinion given on something. Difficult to study for that and absolutly sickening to wait a whole year for the repeats.

If Business Leadership has the highest fail rate,anyone know what is the best way to study it.. Are the notes we get in the resource pack enough?

Also is Business reading actually worth while.. As absolutely anything can come up how likely are you to connect the exam paper to something you read about in the FT?

NewSue

Hi I watched a few FAE revision classes of the live streaming online but have not got the revision notes. Wondering if anyone could post here the address bar on the top of the page of the revision material from the icai. Many thanks NewSue

Hackysack

Bump.

I'm going to be heading on study leave shortly myself and i'm starting to think about how exactly i'm going to approach studying for this thing.

Has anyone got any advice on how they're approaching studying for this? For anyone who has sat it last year, is there any tips that they can share?

What did people find as the hardest topic to prepare for? Did people work off the competency statement? Also, is there much overlap between the audit elective and the audit core?

ManwitaPlan

Does anybody know if there are solutions to any of the ethics cases? The ones in particular are Bgoode and Malisse and all the ones in the toolkit...cant see solutions anywhere.

Thanks.

Bec_Boop

Re the ethics cases I'm not sure if there are solutions available this year but I'm pretty sure that for last years FAE the ethics case-study solutions were not provided and the cases were apparently designed to enable discussions at the lecture. This doesn't seem much use for people who are going to attempt the case-study as you have no solution to check your answer against!

Mocks in three weeks...what areas are people going to focus on? Seems like so much to try and cover in so little time!

FAE_UCH

Here's the solutions for Malais and BeGoode.

Have no idea where to start or even how to go about starting.. Still trying to put my notes in order.

Is it better to dive straight into cases or try get a bit of theory done first??

Bec_Boop

thanks...they must have made them available this year so...I heard people weren't happy last year that they didn't provide the solutions alright.

No idea where to start studying...thinking of focusing on financial reporting and auditing elective and looking at the case-studies too.

skmck

God I cant believe its round to that time of the year again - I done the FAE last yr so know how you all feel!
I actually failed most of my mocks & was so terrified then that I would fail the actual exams but thank god I passed with flying colours.
I started by concentration on what was detailed in the competency statement but time was getting tight so I thought the best thing to do in the last month or so was to concentrate on case studies - case studies, case studies, case studies - I definately believe that doing lots of case studies really stood to me in the exam.
Try to know as many standards for financial reporting as possible as these come up on a regular basis. Corporate governance is also a very good area to know about especially the combined code. In relation to marketing, change managment & IT, if you have a general knowledge of these areas, you will be fine - dont get bogged down into the nitty gritty details. If you are doing the auditing elective, you will be well covered for the core.
Also if you have a general knowledge of tax you will also be fine in this area - I know last year the tax book we were given was only about 30pages long - if you summarise this book, you will be well covered.
Overall, the FAE is about knowing a little of a lot - you really dont need to go into grave detail with most things. Also whatever you do - dont bring suitcases upon suitcases into the exam without knowing what exactly you have with you. You need to know exactly what you are bringing with you & where exactly you have that book stored so that you can quickly get to it if you need help. I know many people last year got bogged down in the exam looking at their reference material & wasted so much time flicking through books so please dont let yourself be one of these people.
Most of you should be going off on study leave now soon so you have a couple of months to really knuckle down & ace these exams.
I also attended the CGS which I found helpful and would not hesitate in recommending it. Although this year it seems there are many more classes - dunno if they're just trying to many money or if there is a method to their madness but it did benefit me.
So to complete, if anyone needs any words of wisdon dont hesitate in contacting me! best of luck to you all!!

Hackysack

Thanks for the response skmck. Quick question, how did you go about preparing for Corporate Governance type questions. Did you find yourself reading the Combined Code?

SL10

I'm starting my study today. Not really sure where to go from! Think I'm gonna spend this week sorting notes,watching a few lectures (particularly sean murrays for auditing as I didn't make it to any this year) and making a start by going through the books we were given this year to kinda get an overall idea of what needs to be done/what is on the course!

I'm thinking of starting with business leadership topics cos they are the new subjects this year and tax as it is my worst subject and also maybe going over some consolidations as I am very rusty on them.

Its 3 weeks today to the mocks so hoping to try and get most subjects covered for them and also going to try and do some of the old FAE papers for tax and multi-D. Then I'm thinking after that to just continuously do case studys and exam papers then for the last 8 weeks.

I'm trying to decide whether it is worthwhile to go to my last block release too which would take a week from study. Have people found the block release helpful? I'm planning on moving home for study leave so its a bit annoying having to come back up to dublin in the middle for a week of lectures!

skmck

Hackysack wrote: »

Thanks for the response skmck. Quick question, how did you go about preparing for Corporate Governance type questions. Did you find yourself reading the Combined Code?

Yea most of the indicators that come up about Corporate Goverance relate to the Combined Code so if you know the majority of this & have the code to hand on the exam day - you should fly through it!

peter redmond

skmck wrote: »

God I cant believe its round to that time of the year again - I done the FAE last yr so know how you all feel!
I actually failed most of my mocks & was so terrified then that I would fail the actual exams but thank god I passed with flying colours.
I started by concentration on what was detailed in the competency statement but time was getting tight so I thought the best thing to do in the last month or so was to concentrate on case studies - case studies, case studies, case studies - I definately believe that doing lots of case studies really stood to me in the exam.
Try to know as many standards for financial reporting as possible as these come up on a regular basis. Corporate governance is also a very good area to know about especially the combined code. In relation to marketing, change managment & IT, if you have a general knowledge of these areas, you will be fine - dont get bogged down into the nitty gritty details. If you are doing the auditing elective, you will be well covered for the core.
Also if you have a general knowledge of tax you will also be fine in this area - I know last year the tax book we were given was only about 30pages long - if you summarise this book, you will be well covered.
Overall, the FAE is about knowing a little of a lot - you really dont need to go into grave detail with most things. Also whatever you do - dont bring suitcases upon suitcases into the exam without knowing what exactly you have with you. You need to know exactly what you are bringing with you & where exactly you have that book stored so that you can quickly get to it if you need help. I know many people last year got bogged down in the exam looking at their reference material & wasted so much time flicking through books so please dont let yourself be one of these people.
Most of you should be going off on study leave now soon so you have a couple of months to really knuckle down & ace these exams.
I also attended the CGS which I found helpful and would not hesitate in recommending it. Although this year it seems there are many more classes - dunno if they're just trying to many money or if there is a method to their madness but it did benefit me.
So to complete, if anyone needs any words of wisdon dont hesitate in contacting me! best of luck to you all!!

PM Sent

SL10

Does anyone know where I could find the Metro Water Case Study? I have the solution but cant find the actual case study anywhere. Trying to do it as there is a lecture on it!

Thanks

Ciara471

There are 18 case studies in the resource pack. Then there's the 2 new FAE sample papers, 2010 mock, 2010 exam. Is this enough case study practice? It doesn't seem like a lot. Where would I find more cases?

Also my plan at the moment is:

Auditing: I'm not going to do any study for this as it's still fairly fresh in my head. I think through doing the cases I'll realise if there's more work I need to do for this

Tax Planning: I'm not too sure where to start on this. I was talking to someone who passed the FAEs last year and he said if I do the questions from the skinny book (not really sure what book he's talking about. I should really look for that) that should be enough

Business Leadership: Again, I wasn't going to study this at all, just depend on learning it through the case studies. I might try to find some summary pages on strategy though as this seems quite big. Also I might spend a while reading the Combined Code too.

Finance: I'm doing the chartered grind school class on this so hopefully that should be enough.

Information management principles: Lecture 1 & 2 are on in 2 weeks during my block release. I'm hoping this will be enough. Also I was told that the best way to study this is through doing the old FAE muli disciplinary paper so I'm going to do these papers from 2003.

Performance Measurement: For management accounting this is part of the finance chartered grind school course that i'm doing so hopefully this will be enough. Also, there is a management accounting and finance cases book but I've heard it's really time consuming and you don't learn much from it so it's a waste of time. I'm probably going to take this advice and not look at it at all. For financial accounting I'm also doing a 2 day chartered grind school course. I'm also going to do the whole book of financial accounting cases as I've heard this is really good. Most of my study is going to be financial reporting.

Elective: I'm doing the APM elective. I think I have a question bank of cases somewhere which I'm going to root out. My friend did this last year and said that I'd photocopied his question bank and that if I do those then I'll be sorted for the calculations side of things. Then for the theory he said he brought the book that was really tabbed and they didn't seem to mind copying straight from the book. I think this is a bit risky though. He said he didn't study the elective for more than a week so it doesn't take very long.

That's my rough approach and some words of wisdom from people who passed it first time last year. I'm not sure if this is enough. It seems a bit over simplified but I'll start off with it anyway. I hope to spend maybe a week or two covering everything that needs to be covered here and then launch into the case studies. It's getting quite scary now! Any other words of advice or criticisms of my method are welcome too.

Clanno

Ciara471 wrote: »

There are 18 case studies in the resource pack. Then there's the 2 new FAE sample papers, 2010 mock, 2010 exam. Is this enough case study practice? It doesn't seem like a lot. Where would I find more cases?

Also my plan at the moment is:

Auditing: I'm not going to do any study for this as it's still fairly fresh in my head. I think through doing the cases I'll realise if there's more work I need to do for this

Tax Planning: I'm not too sure where to start on this. I was talking to someone who passed the FAEs last year and he said if I do the questions from the skinny book (not really sure what book he's talking about. I should really look for that) that should be enough

Business Leadership: Again, I wasn't going to study this at all, just depend on learning it through the case studies. I might try to find some summary pages on strategy though as this seems quite big. Also I might spend a while reading the Combined Code too.

Finance: I'm doing the chartered grind school class on this so hopefully that should be enough.

Information management principles: Lecture 1 & 2 are on in 2 weeks during my block release. I'm hoping this will be enough. Also I was told that the best way to study this is through doing the old FAE muli disciplinary paper so I'm going to do these papers from 2003.

Performance Measurement: For management accounting this is part of the finance chartered grind school course that i'm doing so hopefully this will be enough. Also, there is a management accounting and finance cases book but I've heard it's really time consuming and you don't learn much from it so it's a waste of time. I'm probably going to take this advice and not look at it at all. For financial accounting I'm also doing a 2 day chartered grind school course. I'm also going to do the whole book of financial accounting cases as I've heard this is really good. Most of my study is going to be financial reporting.

Elective: I'm doing the APM elective. I think I have a question bank of cases somewhere which I'm going to root out. My friend did this last year and said that I'd photocopied his question bank and that if I do those then I'll be sorted for the calculations side of things. Then for the theory he said he brought the book that was really tabbed and they didn't seem to mind copying straight from the book. I think this is a bit risky though. He said he didn't study the elective for more than a week so it doesn't take very long.

That's my rough approach and some words of wisdom from people who passed it first time last year. I'm not sure if this is enough. It seems a bit over simplified but I'll start off with it anyway. I hope to spend maybe a week or two covering everything that needs to be covered here and then launch into the case studies. It's getting quite scary now! Any other words of advice or criticisms of my method are welcome too.

thats sounds like a great plan. was wondering where to get more questions to practice as well.
not too sure how too approach these exams....

GirlWithBrain

Oh how I remember this thread! Sat the FAE last year and I don't envy anyone sitting it this year one bit. It's a horrible experience and they're probably the worst exam you'll ever do but I am living proof that it can be done! I don't work in a big firm so I was just about on study leave at this time last year so I can easily say you all have no need to panic - there's plenty time to sort yereselves out.

From my experience (and if I was to do it again - shudder at the thought!), the best approach is to do case studies. They're the best indicator of what you might get (though what you will get will probably be so far removed from anything you've ever seen you'll look back and think they're a pile of crap) and the most sure way of learning how to answer the case study style question. I'd stress the importance of becoming familiar with the answering technique but don't let the technical info slide either. Like, you need to be comfortable with a certain level of technical knowledge of the Financial Reporting/Management Accounting subjects but rather than, for example, rote learning an IAS I'd approach it from a case study perspective. We had a book from Derry Cotter last year which did cases so you might open one and see IAS16, IAS40, IAS2, etc. so you get a mix and learn to pick the important facts. I found those good as rather than trying the questions relating to an IAS following a review of those particular notes you have to think and doing the cases repeatedly allows you to learn to decide what you need to do very quickly.

Also, as one other poster mentioned, the previous Multi-D papers were very helpful for Business Leadership as I found the notes for those were either way too technical or very sparse. E.g. SWOT featured pretty heavily on those papers and again doing them a couple of times you can see the same issues are coming up and it's something that you can just throw down (relevant points only I caveat!! - still 'negative marking' for inappropraite ones?!!) and get going on something else.

Think I'm getting a bit long-winded so I'll leave it there. If anyone wants any other advice or anything just shout! And best of luck to everyone!

luco123

I dont know where to start to study the management accounting aspect of performance management and finance. Should i use the books provided for these two? should i review my cap 2 notes for management accounting. any advice on how to study for these subjects would be great. thanks.

aca101

Constant practicing of the case studies sounds like solid advice and is what im planning to do, but realistically after a few weeks of practice would you not run out of case studies to look at? There aren't that many there are they?

LightningBolt

Bear in mind when you do a case study you won't be able to do it again...

I'm a masters student so my plan is to get most of my technical stuff done by the last week in July and spend the last five weeks practising case studies under exam conditions.

Exam technique will be key to passing.

dchitz

Does anyone know where the solutions to all the case studies in the resource pack are? Have these been given out??

Vaioer

dchitz wrote: »

Does anyone know where the solutions to all the case studies in the resource pack are? Have these been given out??

Never mind the ones in the resource pack, does anyone have the solutions for the FR and the Finance/ManAcc Cases studies in the textbooks which don't have solutions.

I started doing a few of the Finance ones this morning(Investment Appraisal) and noted that there are errors in the answers. Same old Institute.....

concon3569

dchitz wrote: »

Does anyone know where the solutions to all the case studies in the resource pack are? Have these been given out??

These are on the student website. they were put up on the 20th may.

luco123

Does anyone know which of the Auditing ISA's have changed, i can see from the notes 12 have but im not sure which 12 have?
Thanks:)