FAE 2018

AtticusFinch86

The toolkit is definitely harder than the past papers. Although the questions are quite technical in the exam itself, the toolkit questions are about 30-40% more difficult than the exams. There's no reason that, with the right prep, you can't bring a competent into the main exam. The key is to prepare well, practice papers and to keep calm on the day. Getting stressed will just cloud your mind and cause you to panic and make mistakes.

thefox1982

AtticusFinch86 wrote: »

The toolkit is definitely harder than the past papers. Although the questions are quite technical in the exam itself, the toolkit questions are about 30-40% more difficult than the exams. There's no reason that, with the right prep, you can't bring a competent into the main exam. The key is to prepare well, practice papers and to keep calm on the day. Getting stressed will just cloud your mind and cause you to panic and make mistakes.

I don't mean to scare anyone, but I reckon that they made the questions in the toolkit hard as they reflect the level that will be in the exam, in particular section 1. I say this as the markings have changed for question one as they are giving you credit for your workings and not just the end result. This makes me think that this section will be harder than previous exams.

Best of luck to everyone tomorrow.

Brownbread88

Yeah I was thinking that myself thefox1982 with the new marking scheme. But speaking to students who sat the exam last year apparently the Toolkit questions were much more difficult then too. So here’s hoping they won’t be overly difficult compared to prior year exams.

It would be a great boost if tomorrow goes well but at the end of the day if it does not we can make it back up next Summer

Best of luck to everyone.

shanmo

Good Luck!

The J Stands for Jay

Will they start serving behind the bar once they've collected all the exam papers?

fishy_fishy

Thoughts?

Seemed fair to me. Very PPE type standards heavy. Was glad to see the DB pension question on it, it's nice and straight forward. Would guess that most people will come away with a decent mark.

Any idea when results are out?

Galwaygal01

Didn't think the questions were the worst but timing was a huge problem for me. Always panic in these exams and made some very silly mistakes which is frustrating as I feel I put in a lot of work before this assessment but I think I'll be lucky to get 4/15% at this stage. Any idea how this will affect my overall mark? Is it still possible to pass FAE core with a really low mark in the AAFRP?

The J Stands for Jay

fishy_fishy wrote: »

Thoughts?

Seemed fair to me. Very PPE type standards heavy. Was glad to see the DB pension question on it, it's nice and straight forward. Would guess that most people will come away with a decent mark.

Any idea when results are out?

Very fair, and always great to see a DB question.

For the question with the incentive payment for taking a lease, does anyone know how that should have been dealt with? I just netted it off the finance charge.

fishy_fishy

Galwaygal01 wrote: »

Didn't think the questions were the worst but timing was a huge problem for me. Always panic in these exams and made some very silly mistakes which is frustrating as I feel I put in a lot of work before this assessment but I think I'll be lucky to get 4/15% at this stage. Any idea how this will affect my overall mark? Is it still possible to pass FAE core with a really low mark in the AAFRP?

Yeah it definitely is. If you got zero in the AAFRP you would need 59% in summer to pass, which is still very doable. Plus, now that it's gone to just sufficiency rather than needing 3 Cs in FR, I think it's easier to come back from a bad result in the interim.

As for the incentive thing... I have no idea how that should have been treated! I'm not even going to say what I did because it was just guesswork

GoldFour4

McGaggs wrote: »

Very fair, and always great to see a DB question.

For the question with the incentive payment for taking a lease, does anyone know how that should have been dealt with? I just netted it off the finance charge.

I put the incentive payment to deferred income. I then subtracted the incentive from overall lease commitment for the 4 years and then divided by 4. That's what the charge to P&L should be in each year. So thats the full rent payment (€5k I think?) being debited and then offset by the release of 1 years worth of the deferred income to the P&L to give an amount of €4,250 for the year for rental expense in p&l.

That could be completely wrong but thats what I did anyway!

fishy_fishy

malistheman wrote: »

I put the incentive payment to deferred income. I then subtracted the incentive from overall lease commitment for the 4 years and then divided by 4. That's what the charge to P&L should be in each year. So thats the full rent payment (€5k I think?) being debited and then offset by the release of 1 years worth of the deferred income to the P&L to give an amount of €4,250 for the year for rental expense in p&l.

That could be completely wrong but thats what I did anyway!

I did that too, but i was only guessing at it. Really wasn't sure what the right way to deal with it is.

The J Stands for Jay

malistheman wrote: »

I put the incentive payment to deferred income. I then subtracted the incentive from overall lease commitment for the 4 years and then divided by 4. That's what the charge to P&L should be in each year. So thats the full rent payment (€5k I think?) being debited and then offset by the release of 1 years worth of the deferred income to the P&L to give an amount of €4,250 for the year for rental expense in p&l.

That could be completely wrong but thats what I did anyway!

I had that initially, but then I was thinking as it was unrefundable, it wouldn't be deferred income. I'm probably wrong, but I'm just interested in finding out the correct answer.

dublinjen

malistheman wrote: »

I put the incentive payment to deferred income. I then subtracted the incentive from overall lease commitment for the 4 years and then divided by 4. That's what the charge to P&L should be in each year. So thats the full rent payment (€5k I think?) being debited and then offset by the release of 1 years worth of the deferred income to the P&L to give an amount of €4,250 for the year for rental expense in p&l.

That could be completely wrong but thats what I did anyway!

This is the correct treatment

The J Stands for Jay

dublinjen wrote: »

This is the correct treatment

And it being nonrefundable means of the lease is cancelled, then the deferred income balance is released to p&l. D'oh!

The J Stands for Jay

If anyone feels bad about needing up a question, just remember it doesn't actually matter. Assuming madness are assigned in the same proportion as the recommend time, section 2 carried the most marks. Getting no marks for one of those questions means you miss out on 1.725% overall

pixie11123

Does anyone know when the results will be released?

Paper was straightforward, no big issues.

cgal17

pixie11123 wrote: »

Does anyone know when the results will be released?

Paper was straightforward, no big issues.

Results are released the 16th of February. Its a long wait

dublinjen

McGaggs wrote: »

And it being nonrefundable means of the lease is cancelled, then the deferred income balance is released to p&l. D'oh!

McGaggs wrote: »

If anyone feels bad about needing up a question, just remember it doesn't actually matter. Assuming madness are assigned in the same proportion as the recommend time, section 2 carried the most marks. Getting no marks for one of those questions means you miss out on 1.725% overall

^ this. You'd have half the marks for getting the accounts and the DR/CR right

Mckay66

Happy new year everyone! Now that the AAFRP is out of the way it's time to knuckle down again i guess!

I've been having a look at the Core Tax Assignment that's due on the 11th January trying to get back in to the swing of things.
Due to having to repeat some of the Cap 2's a number of times, it's actually been quite some time since I have looked at tax. I was hoping someone on here would be able to provide me with some useful guidance on how to approach this assignment.
Any help at all to ensure I am on the right path would be greatly appreciated as i'm finding it a bit difficult to know where to start with it. I'm assuming there is more than one tax involved? Thanks.

fishy_fishy

Mckay66 wrote: »

Happy new year everyone! Now that the AAFRP is out of the way it's time to knuckle down again i guess!

I've been having a look at the Core Tax Assignment that's due on the 11th January trying to get back in to the swing of things.
Due to having to repeat some of the Cap 2's a number of times, it's actually been quite some time since I have looked at tax. I was hoping someone on here would be able to provide me with some useful guidance on how to approach this assignment.
Any help at all to ensure I am on the right path would be greatly appreciated as i'm finding it a bit difficult to know where to start with it. I'm assuming there is more than one tax involved? Thanks.

What assignment is this?

I'm seeing a cross marking workshop on the 11th (moved from the 10th)

Mckay66

I was sent an email on the 15th December with a Core Tax ROI Assignment attached (Versatile Imaging Ltd). It's not a mandatory assignment but is there to help you with your studies and obtain feedback. It's due to be submitted on the 11 January.
I'm doing the Galway FAE Distance not sure if this makes any difference?

fishy_fishy

Mckay66 wrote: »

I was sent an email on the 15th December with a Core Tax ROI Assignment attached (Versatile Imaging Ltd). It's not a mandatory assignment but is there to help you with your studies and obtain feedback. It's due to be submitted on the 11 January.
I'm doing the Galway FAE Distance not sure if this makes any difference?

I'm going to guess it's a distance thing. I've been on block release (Dublin) all week and nobody mentioned a thing about a tax assignment, but we were talking about cross marking workshop.

The J Stands for Jay

fishy_fishy wrote: »

I'm going to guess it's a distance thing. I've been on block release (Dublin) all week and nobody mentioned a thing about a tax assignment, but we were talking about cross marking workshop.

What did hey say about the cross marking workshop?

fishy_fishy

McGaggs wrote: »

What did hey say about the cross marking workshop?

Need to have read the case ahead of time but no need to prepare anything

https://www.charteredaccountants.ie/docs/default-source/Students/201718/fae/subject-materials/sanctuary-hotels-question.pdf?sfvrsn=4

The J Stands for Jay

fishy_fishy wrote: »

Need to have read the case ahead of time but no need to prepare anything

https://www.charteredaccountants.ie/docs/default-source/Students/201718/fae/subject-materials/sanctuary-hotels-question.pdf?sfvrsn=4

I'm getting a bit annoyed about the lack of communication in getting this year, and how bad the new website is.

OttoPilot

McGaggs wrote: »

I'm getting a bit annoyed about the lack of communication in getting this year, and how bad the new website is.

It's been like this for years. I used to be involved in the student society side of things years ago and even back then the communication/organization was known to be an issue.

However, I will say that I know Bogdan from UCD that they have hired as FAE head coordinator is quite good, hopefully he can implement change for future students. Also the website is getting better, even if the CA diary is still dog****.

Brownbread88

Hi all, just a general inquiry on how people are approaching studying for the core! I’m hoping to take a slow and steady approach and hopefully chalk down a small amount every week from here until study leave (hopefully!!). Only problem is I have no idea where to start....

Are people taking it subject by subject and going through CAP2/CAP1(where applicable) material? Or is it best to go straight into some case studies? There’s some CAP1 stuff I haven’t seen since college, but feel it possibly might not be the best utilization of time going through this?

Any advice or ideas other people have would be gladly welcomed! Thanks in advance

ACAguy

I would agree with everyone that the communication ahead of lectures and In general is awful. I would not have had a clue about that case study for the cross marking work shop.
I'm assuming everyone in groups B & C do not have this tax assignment and that's just distance. 
I haven't done Tax or audit in the last 2 years so I will be spending my next few weeks going over this.
I Definitely think a facebook group would be a good idea for anyone interested.
For anyone in group B was block release good? What is everyones general plan of action over the next 8 weeks or so. As by time march comes everyone will just focus on elective for a month.

dublinjen

Brownbread88 wrote: »

Hi all, just a general inquiry on how people are approaching studying for the core! I’m hoping to take a slow and steady approach and hopefully chalk down a small amount every week from here until study leave (hopefully!!). Only problem is I have no idea where to start....

Are people taking it subject by subject and going through CAP2/CAP1(where applicable) material? Or is it best to go straight into some case studies? There’s some CAP1 stuff I haven’t seen since college, but feel it possibly might not be the best utilization of time going through this?

Any advice or ideas other people have would be gladly welcomed! Thanks in advance

I'm going to assume you dont work in audit, time to study seems like something very intangible right now...

I would say like all these exams I'll start with exam papers, as i come across topics i dont feel too strong on i'll brush up on the material and then revert back to attempt the paper. Worked for me so far but i would say it's very personal...my biggest tip is these exams seem far more about marking schemes than what you know. If you have the format, tone, and be generally close to the answer you'll probably be fine. If you throw down a heap of material spewed out of a book with minimal reference to the cases presented you'll bomb.

ACAguy

Hi Everyone

I am just catching up on audit lectures at the moment and I am just wondering what text everyone got delivered to them with their book

I dont have the Martin Nolan book revised version or the Addendum so where could I obtain one?

I also don't have IAASA Ethical & Auditing Standards 2017 (ROI);Can this be printed off the IAASA website or do we have to get one off CAI.

I have emailed them twice to no reply they are no unhelpful

Reply would be appreciated. THanks