Examiner’s Approach Interview: P1 - Professional Accountant
Interviewer: Welcome to the P1 Examiner’s Approach interview.
The following is an Examiner’s Approach interview for Paper P1,
Professional Accountant.
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 November/December 2006
archive edition of student accountant.
David Campbell is an accounting lecturer at a UK based university.
He has many years of lecturing and supervision experience and of
examining undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. His academic
background is in strategic management and accounting, ethics and economics.
He was appointed as ACCA examiner in January 2006.
Interviewer: I suppose it would be most appropriate to start off by asking where
P1 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.
P1 is included as an Essentials paper. 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, P1 is connected to other papers
within the ACCA Qualification. What are the links with other
papers, or with other components?
Examiner: P1 develops the knowledge examined in F1, Accountant in
Business where governance and ethics are introduced as business
concepts. These and other aspects were also developed upon in
F8, Audit and Assurance, such as audit independence and in F9,
Financial Management, such as managing financial risk.
When students are eligible to sit P1, they are recommended to
take the Professional Ethics module, which covers a range of
ethical theories and models. All new students must complete this
before they are admitted to ACCA membership. This module also
requires the student to apply what they have learned within a real
world audit situation, through analysing a case study. It also
includes some ethical dilemmas and some self-review and
reflective exercises, to test learning.
Finally, all knowledge and capabilities acquired in P1 will be
applied, within context, in all other Professional Level papers and
as part of the Practical Experience Requirements. The first three
Performance objectives relate specifically to the ethics and governance areas.
Interviewer: What is the overall concept for P1 as a paper?
Examiner: P1 is a paper which shows that duality in accounting is not
restricted to debits and credits, but applies in a much broader and
deeper business sense. The paper is based primarily on the idea
that a two-way agency relationship exists between stakeholders
and business managers, including directors and accountants.
By this, we mean that while directors or accountants have power
and authority vested in them, they in turn have responsibilities
towards others. Although they have certain rights granted to them,
they also have obligations; and every potential reward obtained, or
business opportunity identified, can carry a related risk.
P1 is concerned, therefore, with exploring this duality, and the role
that the professional accountant plays in the management of this
often quite complex relationship.
The following quote sums up this idea. ‘Every right implies a
responsibility; for each opportunity there is an obligation; and all
rewards carry related risks.’
Interviewer: Are there any other broad themes which run through the P1 syllabus?
Examiner: Yes. As I mentioned, P1 is essentially about the agency
relationship and the dynamics which exist between the business
stakeholders and their agents, the directors, and of course
accountants. Other themes include Accountability, recognising
that all accountants must always behave, and be seen to behave in
the interests of the major stakeholders, but above all, should act in
the wider public interest.
Directors and accountants also have responsibility for looking after
business assets and for managing business performance and must
act as stewards on behalf of stakeholders.
The Professionalism theme is about accountants always behaving
to the highest standards, in accordance with a set of fundamental
principles and values.
Finally, Judgement is an aspect of professionalism that sets aside
the professional from the technical expert. Exercising judgement is
the ability to evaluate and synthesise often quite complex and
unstructured information to arrive at an appropriate decision in the
stakeholders’ best interests. Judgement is, therefore, underpinned
by professional competence and values, but it can also be
influenced by someone’s personal ethics.
Interviewer: What main subject areas does the P1 syllabus cover?
Examiner: The first, and broadest, syllabus section is corporate governance.
Students will need to know – and thoroughly understand – the
main principles and the main reports of governance codes, but not
necessarily the line by line detail. These principles of governance
will be examined in a generic sense, so students can use their
knowledge of local codes, legislation, or regulation to answer
questions from their own national or regional perspective. They
will be rewarded for this accordingly.
Interviewer: What is internal control and compliance?
Examiner: Internal control is about how governance is complied with and
implemented, how systems are monitored and how fraud can be
detected and prevented. The syllabus also covers how risk is
identified, assessed and evaluated, and how it can be avoided,
mitigated or transferred.
Finally the syllabus covers corporate and personal ethical codes
and models and the professional values that underlie aspects of the
other syllabus areas.
More detailed information about the content of the paper is
available in the syllabus and study guide available on the ACCA website.
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 P1 is an 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: P1 is a wholly discursive paper, so students must provide written
answers to all questions and there are no calculations required.
Interviewer: Can you tell us how many questions there are in the exam and
what choice, if any, exists?
Examiner: 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 which can potentially assess any area across the syllabus,
and may typically assess capabilities from several sections.
Section B contains three 25 mark questions which are usually
shorter scenarios divided into two or three parts. Each Section B
question will normally assess one discrete section of the P1
syllabus, but could in some situations draw from more than one section.
The student must answer two from three questions from Section B.
For more information about the exam itself and how it is structured
there is a pilot paper, and past paper, to refer to. These can be
found on the ACCA website.
Interviewer: What would you say are the key features of the P1 Exam?
Examiner: The most important feature of the exam is that it assesses
knowledge and understanding of areas of the syllabus – such as an
ethical model, a governance code, or a fundamental principle – in
the context of a case or scenario given. The questions always
feature the need for some form of analysis, evaluation and judgement.
Interviewer: How should students deal with a requirement that asks the
candidate to do something AND something else?
Examiner: Because some questions may ask the candidate to do something
‘and’ something else, the candidate may have to use judgement to
decide how much effort to devote to each aspect. This will be
based on the difficulty of different cognitive levels, for example
‘describe’ is usually easier than ‘assess’. However, markers will be
asked to exercise quite a lot of flexibility in awarding marks in this situation.
Interviewer: What are professional marks?
Examiner: Between 4 and 6 professional marks will be awarded within
Section A for the form and tone of an answer, for its structure and
for the strength and persuasiveness of arguments put forward.
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 how does the exam assess Ethics?
Examiner: As P1 is partly an ethics paper, ethics will always be assessed
somewhere in a business or accounting context. An article in the
September 2007 edition of student accountant gives more
information on how this works. Also, the pilot and past papers on
the website will give more guidance.
Interviewer: What advice would you give about revising effectively for, and
passing, P1?
Examiner: Remember the underlying theme of the P1 examination is about
agency theory. Most questions will involve some focus on, or
connection with, the stakeholders and how their agents act on
their behalf. All sections of the syllabus, whether dealing with
corporate governance, internal control, risk, ethics and professional
values will usually revolve around one aspect of agency or another.
Interviewer: Ok, so what is required to answer exam questions well?
Examiner: Most questions will require the candidate to operate from a starting
point of identifying who the relevant stakeholders are in any given
situation. This is best achieved by identifying what power or
interests stakeholders have, and to establish how well – or
otherwise – these are managed on their behalf by company
directors and accountants.
Many questions will require the candidate to act as, or adopt the
moral conscience of, the company and its managers towards those
who reward them. Developing this framework approach to all
aspects of the syllabus and in answering practice questions will be
the best form of preparation for the exam. Again, you will find
more information on using this kind of framework on pages 14-16
in the November 2007 issue of teach accounting.
Interviewer: What would you say is most important during revision?
Examiner: Remember that effective revision involves plenty of question
practice. There is no substitute for applying knowledge to
situations and using that knowledge within real business contexts.
This is demonstrated in the pilot paper and in exam style 1
questions. It is also worth dissecting relevant media news stories
and applying this form of analysis to these situations.
Interviewer: How important is time management in the P1 exam?
Examiner: Very important! Students must try and ensure that they manage
their time effectively, during both revision and the exam itself.
Spending too long revising detailed areas of the syllabus is less
productive than developing a proper understanding of the main
principles, ideas and concepts within each syllabus section and
subject area. Remember that students should maximise their
potential for earning marks and spend their time in proportion to
the marks available – then move on.
Interviewer: What else must students remember during the exam itself?
Examiner: Students must ensure that they apply their knowledge and
understanding to the case or scenario provided, where this is required.
Most marks will be available for application and analysis, for
assessing a situation, using judgement and for developing points
and arguments. This also applies to professional marks which were
referred to earlier.
Interviewer: What do you believe to be the main potential pitfalls in preparing
for and taking the P1 exam?
Examiner: Students continue to believe that detailed knowledge is the key to
exam performance. This is true to some extent, but the highest
marks are awarded for those who use their knowledge in the
proper context. The main pitfall here is that students feel the need
to demonstrate their knowledge, whether required or not. It is
because of this that many students fail to complete the exam.
Remember that writing 10 good points for a five mark requirement
is a 50% waste of effort.
Interviewer: Do students get rewarded for including bullet lists and diagrams?
Examiner: Very few marks are available for demonstrating knowledge in a
vacuum, or for bullet lists, or for diagrams. If a diagram is included
it should be properly explained. Candidates should ensure that
every point made refers directly or indirectly to issues within the
information made available. For this they will be well rewarded.
Interviewer: Are organisational skills important in the exam?
Examiner: Yes very much so. Students must try to ensure that they are
disciplined in answering once they have chosen which questions to
address. Although they can answer questions in any order, they
should try and answer each part of a question in the order written
and keep them together on the answer script. It is important that
the marker can tell which question is being answered by each point.
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 P1
examination paper?
Examiner: Firstly, students must always read the question as carefully as they
can; identifying clearly the instructional verbs contained within
each requirement.
Second, it is important to properly understand the requirements,
assessing how much the examiner is really looking for in each
question part. Students should also be fully aware of the marks
available for each requirement.
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.
