2014 CAP2 thread

yourhero

Thought it might be worthwhile having a thread with the right year on it!

Thoughts on progress to date - Am doing all 4.

Just wondering how people are getting on so far in the year and was looking for some opinions and opening the floor to get some discussion going.
I have 2 weeks study leave beforehand (elevation so no one to blame!) and at this stage I think I need to focus on all except tax. Am afraid that studying for tax will drag down my result in the other subjects - wise or foolish?

In terms of the Continuous assessments I think have been very good and helped people get off to a good start - key questions are how they'll mark the audit CA and why there isn't a tax CA?

I asked on the 2013 thread but I'll ask here too - does anyone have a link to the solutions for the mock papers( if available?)

One other question/favour I would have is for someone in the big4 to provide the material that they get in the special classes that are put on? I know there's a lot of competition and rewards in these places but I'm sure there's a generous sole out there no danger of me being placed!

Cheers and best of luck studying!

miii

Hi I was wondering if anyone would be willing to send me notes for CAP 2 exams for Audit, FR and SFMA I was to sit these last year but was having a baby so deferred to this year sat tax and Audit but failed audit!! I'm a bit lost as I have no notes for this year at all and would appreciate anybodys help. Thanks

Alfred Borden

Is tax the worst out of the Cap 2's?

miii

No def not, other 3 are awful, Audit is so confusing I thought I done ok but turned out I did awful I have so much work to do and havent started yet hopefully I can pass at least 1 cant believe its only 8 wks away!! wud u be willing 2 send me ur notes?

Alfred Borden

miii wrote: »

No def not, other 3 are awful, Audit is so confusing I thought I done ok but turned out I did awful I have so much work to do and havent started yet hopefully I can pass at least 1 cant believe its only 8 wks away!! wud u be willing 2 send me ur notes?

Sorry i have no notes, im thinking of attempting them or doing a masters next year and have a few friends doing tax that say its a nightmare.

autumnbelle

Tax is by far the best of the four exams. Learn the conditions and do questions in advance. With it being closed book I found it more straight forward

TitianGerm

Hi guys, I sat FR and SFMA last year. I did a total of 10 hours study for each as I moved house twice, including buying my first house, and job twice in the 3 months before the exams. I was lucky enough and passed SFMA but got 44% in FR, I was really annoyed with myself after as I felt if I had just done enough study I would have got through FR easily.
I'm now in a training contract and should be getting 3/4 weeks study leave for Auditing, FR and Tax. The plan is to get down to study Wednesday and get a good bit out of the way before leave.
If somebody needs notes I can forward you on Tax or Auditing but I don't believe they have changed much from last year.

jus_tin4

miii wrote: »

No def not, other 3 are awful, Audit is so confusing I thought I done ok but turned out I did awful I have so much work to do and havent started yet hopefully I can pass at least 1 cant believe its only 8 wks away!! wud u be willing 2 send me ur notes?

Did you get your results for the mocks or what results are these?

Personally, Im an elevation student(no work atm) find tax straightforward for the most part, mock really showed i need to learn the theory element and do a bit more study and hopefully it might be okay

im also doing audit and thats a complete minefield for me anyways! that book really is of no use, you either get it or not imo and id say working in it will be the really difference tbh. I'm currently finishing up a part time course( as i said no job so needed something else to do) so hopefully that will leave me in and around 6 weeks study. but audit is really a wobble for me

iluvfatfrogs

Average mock results in Galway:

Financial Reporting 13%
SFMA 28&

iluvfatfrogs

Average mock results in Galway:

Financial Reporting 13%
SFMA 28%

Whoisin thehouse

The Chartered Grind School Financial Reporting course is on this weekend at Independent Colleges on Dawson Street, note the venue as it changed

CIARAN_BOYLE

iluvfatfrogs wrote: »

Average mock results in Galway:

Financial Reporting 13%
SFMA 28&

I'm not in galway but I am happy to say I beat both of those

iluvfatfrogs

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

I'm not in galway but I am happy to say I beat both of those

Think there might be might have been a lot of 0% where people were forced to just turn up.
Would distort the average marks significantly

TitianGerm

Does anyone know if the section a question in FR is still related to single companies ? I know it changed to this last year and left consolidation to section B

DonnaCap2

Hi all,

I'm currently studying for Cap 2 FR and SFMA as I split CAP2 into 2 modules, and have tax and audit already completed. The key to passing tax is simply keep going over the exam papers.. I found that if you spend too much time going through text books often it becomes overwhelming.. whereas it's easier to learn doing question after question. even if you get them wrong, over time you will learn from mistakes and your speed in questions will pick up..worked for me anyway, and I can't say that I spend too much time studying being a working mum with four kids!

But cant wait till these exams are over, Roll on July..

Santi101

What was your study plan for audit? As in time, method?

I'm trying to lay out my folder at the minute and go through some past papers on the p&l/balance sheet items as I go through.

Very strange subject to study.

Santi101

Leaving FR until I go to this CGS thing at the weekend, then plan to split next week between FR and SFMA.

For SFMA I'm starting to look at different areas, then do as many questions as I can. Only started on Standard Costing so far but will lay out my folder like that Std. Costing, NPV, WACC, Company Val, Divisionalisation etc etc with notes and questions done.

If I can get through it that is!:eek:

DonnaCap2

I never really liked audit either, but when I really couldn't motivate myself to look at exam papers I streamed the recorded sessions with CAI. Again, when you keep looking at exam questions, you'll pick it up soon enough..don't worry!
Would have liked to do the FR course this weekend too but can't this weekend. Let me know how it went, think I may do the SFMA one.

Santi101

emmetkenny wrote: »

Does anyone know if the section a question in FR is still related to single companies ? I know it changed to this last year and left consolidation to section B

yep q1 will be single co, consol in q2.

Santi101

FR course was good, especially on the standards and ias1 question. Long enough days, moreso because you're trying very hard to be switched on when you spend money on these things!.......:pac:

Thinking FR will need some good solid days over the next few weeks. Might do an hour or two of audit/tax in mornings and rest of the day on FR/SFMA for the next week or two.

Santi101

Finally getting a decent run at the study - so much material though!

How are people approaching audit? Anyone do audit last year with some tips on how to get through it?

iluvfatfrogs

Santi101 wrote: »

Finally getting a decent run at the study - so much material though!

How are people approaching audit? Anyone do audit last year with some tips on how to get through it?

I found Audit a very strange subject. You can know all the information, but it all depends onn the way you put it down on paper.

I wolud look closely at the way sentences are phrased in previous papers. I knew the material last year and used good English in the exam but just scraped a pass.

It seemed they were looking for exact/specific words/phrases to be used - so just be familiar with previous answers and they way they are worded!

jus_tin4

Just recently got my mock results, and got 28% in audit(not including mid term) from what i can see is that i included a lot of generic(check to general ledger etc) answers and only got marks for basically specifics, i find audit hard to study for as it seems like you either have it or not!

As for tac i got 28 1/2%, some stupid mistakes and lack of theory really let me down tbh, couldn't answer q1 so think i could have gotten a high 40 if i knew how to do it........

prettyrestless

jus_tin4 wrote: »

Just recently got my mock results, and got 28% in audit(not including mid term) from what i can see is that i included a lot of generic(check to general ledger etc) answers and only got marks for basically specifics, i find audit hard to study for as it seems like you either have it or not!

As for tac i got 28 1/2%, some stupid mistakes and lack of theory really let me down tbh, couldn't answer q1 so think i could have gotten a high 40 if i knew how to do it........

I think the mock tax paper was quite fair. I failed it, but if I had studied it would be have been very manageable. My lecturer said that the real thing would be quite a bit harder.

I think with audit, you have to focus on the basics. I hadn't really studied going into the mock, but I had good notes for each area of the SPLOCI and SOFP which focused on the basics and it really helped. I had examples of assertions for valuation, completeness, etc. I think with audit, more than any other subject, you have time to make good use of open book materials, if you have them properly prepared.

TAA_ICAI

Hey,

Has anyone has a chance to look at the taxation revision material in the zip file? I tried to open it but it was just showing blank pages. Can you guys maybe check to see if it is doing the same? Could possibly be something wrong with my laptop either not sure :-/

Thanks :-)

miii

Hi Just wondering if anyone would be willing to email me your notes for Audit SFMA and FR for this year as I am resitting and have no access to notes, any help would be much appreciated, thanks x

iluvfatfrogs

miii wrote: »

Hi Just wondering if anyone would be willing to email me your notes for Audit SFMA and FR for this year as I am resitting and have no access to notes, any help would be much appreciated, thanks x

I can email you some lecture notes if you private message me your email address.

Accountant81

Guys I am doing the FAEs this year but just wanted to throw my hat into the ring in terms of what I learned from doing the CAP2s.

When it comes to tax - questions, questions, questions. Obviously you have to know the basic material but dont get too bogged down in it. Practice every question you can. I have a friend who spent a week writing notes on each of the chapters in the book and failed because he didnt do enough questions.

Audit I didnt really study for, I found it so difficult to study for it, but I have a bit of auditing experience so that definitely helped. Make good notes on controls, audit reports etc and have them to hand, in particular the controls, and practice past papers.

SFMA - do as many questions as you can get your hands on and just do them over and over again. Know variances inside out, the institute love their variances.

FR I strongly recommend going through each of the standards examinable one by one and learning the key points from each of them and then practicing questions on that standard. I took this approach and got 68% in FR. It will put you in a good position for the AAFRP next year then too.

But really what I will say is that you need to be doing as many questions as possible in each of the subjects. Yes you need to have the technical knowledge but dont get too bogged down by the books. Use the toolkits and past papers as that is where I did a lot of my learning. Hope this helps. Best of luck!

Phathaus

Accountant81 wrote: »

FR I strongly recommend going through each of the standards examinable one by one and learning the key points from each of them and then practicing questions on that standard. I took this approach and got 68% in FR. It will put you in a good position for the AAFRP next year then too.

I agree with that, I found it was a lot easier to get through the CAP2 FR and FAE by having a summary of the standards in front of me. You can buy summaries from Chartered Education, or just create your own. It'll help you remember them as well.

Whoever said they spent a total of 10 hours studying for CAP2 exams, well done, but I don't think that's an idea study model to follow. Be sure to practice plenty past questions, or at least read them in detail (say if the tax law has changed). I found it could be tricky to understand the examiner's requirements at times. It's something that can be achieved with practice.

yourhero

Right now I am debating the pros and cons of doing the CGS Tax revision course. I didn't do the mock as I had a lot of classes to catch up on. - anyone with experience of doing this course?
In terms of the other 3, I came very close to passing the Audit and SFMA mocks and with my interim results would have gotten over the line. FR was poor but I wasn't well prepared and took in the CAP1 book by accident!

For the audit assessment I got 69% - I can honestly say if you prepare good notes (loads available from Big4 people!) you'll be well on your way. One quick favour I have - does anyone have a copy of an unadjusted summary sheet as i work in a bank (think what you will !!!) and don't have access to one.

Also wanted to say thanks to the last 2 posters for taking the time to look at a Cap2 thread!

conor1979

yourhero wrote: »

Right now I am debating the pros and cons of doing the CGS Tax revision course. I didn't do the mock as I had a lot of classes to catch up on. - anyone with experience of doing this course?

Do it. Well worth the money. I did it last year after having a terrible lecturer through out the year in Chartered.

The three days in CGS were brilliant, solid notes and I was a lot more confident after doing them than beforehand.

I'm doing the CGS sessions again this year for me FAE's.