Examiner’s Approach Interview: P2 - Corporate Reporting
Interviewer: Welcome to the P2 examiner’s approach interview.
The following is an examination approach interview for Paper P2,
Corporate Reporting.
The content of this interview has been prepared by the examiner,
working with the Qualifications team at ACCA, and is presented by
actors representing an interviewer and the examiner in discussion.
For more detail on the examiner’s approach, please see the article
produced by the examiner in the February 2007 archive edition of
student accountant.
The examiner is Graham Holt. Graham has many years experience
in financial reporting lecturing at a leading UK university. He
qualified as an accountant with Price Waterhouse and his main
higher educational and academic background is in corporate
reporting and audit.
He has been an ACCA examiner for several years.
Interviewer: I suppose it would be most appropriate to start off by asking where
P2 fits within the overall structure of the ACCA Qualification.
Examiner: The Professional Level of the ACCA qualification syllabus is divided
into two modules – Essentials and Options, with Essentials coming
before Options. Both these modules have been set at an
intellectual level equivalent to that expected of a student taking a
Masters degree.
The focus of the syllabus at the Professional level is to build upon
the technical skills already acquired, and to explore more advanced
professional techniques, skills and values which are required by
the expert accountant acting in an advisory or consultancy role at a
senior level.
P2 is included as an Essentials paper as it is ‘essential’ that all
professional accountants have mastery of this subject before they
can qualify as ACCA members.
Interviewer: From what you have just said, P2 is connected to other papers
within the ACCA Qualification. What are the links with other
papers, or with other components?
Examiner: The fundamentals of financial accounting are first introduced in F3
Financial Accounting. F7, Financial Reporting, develops this
basic knowledge; introducing areas such as business combinations
and interpretation of accounts. P2 takes the subject into greater
depth and contextualises the role of the accountant as a
professional steward and adviser or analyst.
All the knowledge and capabilities acquired in P2 will be applied,
in context, within the Practical Experience Requirements. The
performance objectives which are particularly relevant to this paper
are optional objectives 10 and 11 and essential objective 1.
Interviewer: What is the overall concept or theme for P2 as a paper?
Examiner: P2 is a paper which is primarily based on the practical application
and impact of accounting standards and exploring key issues and
concepts affecting the modern day financial accountant. There is a
strong technical focus. Knowledge of current issues and
developments in corporate reporting are also examined.
The following quote sums up the practical application aspects of P2:
‘Tell me and I will forget; show me and I will remember; involve
me and I will understand.’
The involvement in scenario based application is designed to
achieve better learning.
Interviewer: The syllabus for P2 is structured into eight main sections. Can you
briefly explain the main content of these syllabus sections please?
Examiner: Section A deals with the professional and ethical duties of the
accountant. Students need to understand how a professional
accountant should react in certain situations from an ethical and
social perspective.
Section B looks at the financial reporting framework and requires
students to have the capacity to critically evaluate principles and
practices.
Section C looks at the standards which underpin the reporting of
financial performance, with section D taking this a step further by
requiring students to understand these standards in the group
accounts setting.
Section E contextualizes the standards by looking at financial
reporting within specialised entities.
Section F deals with the implications of changes in accounting
standards and their impact on financial statements, whilst Section
G requires students to interpret financial statements and
recommend to clients suitable accounting policies.
And finally, Section H looks at current developments in the
corporate reporting area.
Interviewer: Thank you for explaining the main content of the syllabus for us.
What can you tell us about how the exam itself is structured?
Examiner: First of all it is worth noting that as P2 is a Professional Essentials
paper, all students must sit this exam.
As with all papers at the Professional level, the writing time for this
exam is three hours. All ACCA three hour papers have been
allocated an additional 15 minutes reading and planning time,
within which students can read the paper, understand the
requirements and choose which questions to answer. An article
explaining how this time should be productively used has been
published in the student accountant magazine in the August 2007
edition which can be seen on the website.
Interviewer: What exactly can students do in reading and planning time?
Examiner: They can make notes and plan answers. This may only be done
on the question paper and not on the answer booklet. The answer
booklet cannot be used until the exam begins.
Interviewer: What kind of questions will appear in the exam?
Examiner: As the P2 paper is a computational and discursive paper, there will
be different kinds of questions. Students must be prepared to
provide numerical answers supported by calculations and
referenced workings. There will also be a requirement for written
explanations to support computational answers. Discursive
questions will require written answers involving analysis and
interpretation; perhaps commenting on views expressed in the
question and how principles and concepts are applied to specific
accounting issues.
Interviewer: Can you tell us how many questions there are in the exam and
what choice, if any, exists?
Examiner: Yes, of course. As can be seen here, the exam is divided into two
sections, A and B.
Section A contains one 50 mark case study question in a number
of parts. This case study can potentially assess any area across
the syllabus, and may typically assess capabilities from several
sections. It will deal with the preparation of consolidated financial
statements, including group’s statements of cash flows, and with
issues in financial reporting.
Students will be required to answer two out of three questions in
Section B. The three 25 mark questions will normally comprise
two questions which are scenario or case-study based and one
essay question. Each Section B question will normally assess one
discrete section of the P2 syllabus, but could in some situations
draw from several sections.
For more information about the exam itself and how it is structured
there are past papers available on the ACCA website.
Interviewer: Thanks for explaining that. What would you say are the key
features of the P2 examination paper?
Examiner: First, students will be examined on the application of concepts and
principles, and on their ability to question and comment on
proposed accounting treatments. Students should be capable of
relating professional issues to relevant concepts and practical
situations.
The evaluation of alternative accounting practices and the
identification of and prioritisation of issues will be a key element of
this paper. Professional and ethical judgement will need to be
exercised, together with the integration of technical knowledge
when addressing corporate reporting issues in a business context.
The paper also deals with specific technical knowledge relating to
the preparation and presentation of consolidated and other
financial statements, taking into consideration all relevant
accounting standards.
Interviewer: There are professional marks available in this paper. What are
professional marks?
Examiner: Professional and ethical judgement will need to be exercised in this
paper. Between 4 and 6 professional marks will be awarded
across the paper for the form and tone of an answer, for its
structure, and for the strength and persuasiveness of arguments
put forward. In P2, it is possible that there may be two or three
marks available for each question in Section B, rather than any
professional marks in Section A. There is an article which was
published in the October 2007 edition of student accountant
explaining what professional marks are awarded for. This article
will give more information on the awarding of these marks.
Interviewer: And are Ethics examined in this paper?
Examiner: Ethics may be examined somewhere in this paper within a
business or accounting context. A good example can be seen in Q1
of the pilot paper. There is also an article on how this is assessed
in the September 2007 edition of student accountant.
Interviewer: What advice would you give about revising effectively for, and
passing, P2?
Examiner: I would recommend the best strategies to adopt in the revision
phase and in the exam itself are to focus on the key standards and
current issues. The world of corporate reporting is a fast changing
one, with new or amended accounting standards being issued
regularly. It is important that the correct documents are studied,
as they soon become out of date. ACCA publishes a list of
examinable documents for each examination sitting, which is
available on the website.
Key areas to focus upon are group accounts, financial instruments,
employee benefits, leases and ethical issues.
Interviewer: What would your main exam tips be?
Examiner: Read the question carefully and answer the question set, not the
one you hoped would be set. Marks can only be awarded for
points that are relevant to the question.
Answer every part of every question.
Understand the main principles of standards and don’t simply rote
learn them. As previously mentioned, the P2 examination will test
application, not just repetition of knowledge.
And show workings for calculations. If a number presented as an
answer is incorrect, it cannot attract any marks unless the marker
knows the process behind its calculation. Method marks are
available and can mean the difference between a pass and a fail.
Interviewer: What do you believe to be the main potential pitfalls in preparing
for and taking the P2 exam?
Examiner: The main pitfalls I have seen students fall into are the following:
Students who are not adequately prepared for the exam. It is
important that students have a thorough grasp of the practical
implications of the accounting standards and read widely.
Time management. Students often do not finish the paper;
spending too much time on question one – the 50 mark question.
This results in the remaining questions not being given sufficient
allocation. Remember, the first marks achieved in a question are
often easier to attain than the last ones.
The discursive parts of the paper are really important as they can
constitute up to 40 marks if question 4 is attempted by students
(question 4 is a written question normally). Students often
concentrate on the computational and technical parts of the paper
and do not give due regard to the discursive parts. Candidates
need to develop skills in answering discursive questions.
Interviewer: It is clearly important to follow the above tips and avoid any
common pitfalls in exam revision and performance. What further
information about student performance would you give which
might help students prepare for exams?
Examiner: After each examination session, all ACCA examiners are required to
produce an exam report. These reports highlight key issues arising
in the last exam and focus on where students performed
particularly well or badly. These are published in February and
August and can be found under paper resources for each paper
which can be accessed through the website.
In addition, after each exam session has been completed, the exam
review board meets. This is a board consisting of ACCA internal
Education staff and six representative members of the approved
learning partner community. Minutes from this board summarise
the comments made by tuition provider representatives, report
survey results about the exams from student questionnaires and
detail the responses. Again, the minutes from the exam review
board are available on the website.
Interviewer: And finally, what would be your concluding advice about the P2
examination paper?
Examiner: First, students must always read the question scenario and
requirements as carefully as they can, identifying and
understanding the instructional verbs contained within each
requirement.
Second, it is important to properly think about the scenario,
looking at the dates, locations, business activities and people
which make up the scenario. Take a minute or two to digest and
comprehend the situation before starting to write an answer. Doing
this will help the answer to make sense in the context of the
scenario.
Finally, don’t forget that answers given should relate to the
question actually asked, not the one that a candidate would have
liked to answer.
Interviewer: Thank you very much for sharing your insight into this exam paper.
I’m sure it has given students and tutors lots of useful information.
Examiner: Thank you.
