ACCA P2 dec 11 exam

phunkymonk

Sitting this for my first time in Dec, just wondering what areas most people are covering extensively?

Im doing this home study as ive covered much of it before through aca but its not gonna be easy, will give it a good go and if not ill look to lectures next semester..

is cash flows likely?possible non current assets q's- ias 36?
does EPS topic need to be covered in great depth?

also the current issues question 4, do they come from technical articles written or just random?

any help appreciated(or lecture tips) to help narrow down syllabus

SBWife

Have you purchased one of the prep books?

I passed in June using home study and the Kaplan book - I think it's pretty straightforward if you do the prep and a bunch of practice questions.

I'm not a believer in trying to guess what's going to come up especially given the number of times I've seen the hints being completely off the mark, so would say the current issues question could come from any of the technical articles published over the past 3-4 years.

phunkymonk

SBWife wrote: »

Have you purchased one of the prep books?

I passed in June using home study and the Kaplan book - I think it's pretty straightforward if you do the prep and a bunch of practice questions.

I'm not a believer in trying to guess what's going to come up especially given the number of times I've seen the hints being completely off the mark, so would say the current issues question could come from any of the technical articles published over the past 3-4 years.

Thanks for the reply and congrats,ya i have kaplan books that im using just been looking over some of the standards again,some questions are straight forward then others i dont have a breeze...i have yet to start consolidation but hopefully a refresh will get the brain tickin again...

im not really trying to guess...well sorta but if some of the standards were examined in june how likely is it for them to reappear?as both papers are written in feb?did you use any online resources that you found good?

SBWife

ACCA have been known to test the same information two sessions in a row. A couple of diets ago they tested linear programming in F5 in both December and June, it's not a huge part of that syllabus so many had assumed it wouldn't reappear.

Online Open Tuition can be useful. I also Googled several of the standards and read the actual standard as well as it's exposure draft. This was particularly handy for understanding the current issues as they tended to lay out the problems with the previous treatment as well as the expectation for how the new standard would mitigate these problems.

Also for P2 it's important to remember that although it's one of the more numerate of the papers 50% or more of the marks will come from discursive elements. So focus on both.

idontsleepever

cashflow prob not likely to come up. its been regularly examined every second year in december (204,6,8,10) but you never know. i will have a look at it, but wont practice much, maybe just one question

idontsleepever

Q4 is always topical issue relevant to current econimical environment (bare in mind that the exams are set like a year in advance). i think i remember my lecturer saying that revenue recognition could be likely to come up

other than that, he recons we could get SOFP & IS in Q1 possibly disposal of FX subsidiary. fx was examined last sitting, but the examiner just coppied another previous question (including some of the numbers, literally only changed the names of companies and the numbers) and got lot of critique for it. so my lectureer thinks Q1 will be quite hard but will be marked better than an easy q would be

clc01

Hi, I just finished a BPP course on P2. Our lecturer seemed to think that cash flows are unlikely to come up but he said to have a good idea anyway just in case. He also thought that IAS 18 Revenue Recognition pretty likely to come in the current developments question and IAS 19 employee benefits was one he mentioned also. If you look up the ACCA website and go to technical articles there's a good article from an old student magazine on Revenue. Know the new proposals on IAS 18 under the ED June 2010.

I think deferred tax is pretty likely to come up in some shape or form, it appears as a full question on the BPP mock exam. I think our lecturer also said that Financial instruments is a favorite of the examiner.

Something I must do but haven't had a chance yet is look at the back issues of student accountant on the ACCA website, especially the ones from Jan to March as I think that's when the exam paper is written.

I think IAS 36 Impairment of assets is another good one to know, there's an exposure draft on that as well. Share based payments too. I think that comes up pretty often. Anyway don't take my word on it, cover as much as you possibly can!

pugwall

I passed P2 on my third attempt a few years ago. Looking back the main reason for failing on attempt 1 and 2 was a lack of understanding/knowledge of the accounting standards. I had passed the other exams on first attempt without ever really studying the standards. Third time around on P2 I actually read the actual standards on the course reading list. I thought about them and did my best to apply them to all pat questions. Also, be sure to know the Definitions of Asset Liability Income and expense. Sounds basic but you would be surprised how many students (and qualified!) can't define these...
Also, leave Q1 til last or if attempting it first, answer the theory part of it first, then attempt the numerate part but move on after the allotted time. It won't balance and most of the marks are for workings along the way. Nobody gets 100% on this one and you only need 50% of marks on the day to pass! I would actually advise 25 mins max on the numbers unless you are going for top marks. Spend the additional time on the theory questions where easy marks can be picked up , particularly the theory piece on Q1. Good luck to all attempting this paper and review all standards on the syllabus :-)

clc01

I totally agree with the above. The definitions are really useful to know, you can use them in nearly every question to back up an accounting treatment.

galloping

Just sat the 2011 dec P2 Exam and Question 1 seemed relatively easy! was a straightforward 2 subsidiary consolidation. Whats going on has the examiner developed a heart!?!. Anyway good luck to everyone who sat the exam

Smiley miley

Hi I failed P2 in Dec 2011 and I am going to sit it in June.I havent gone back to lectures for this class as I can't afford it but I have all the material.I just don't know where to start.Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated :-)