Hi I'm Libby and I'm a tutor with BPP professional
education, now you might have heard that from February 2014
the computer-based examinations for the knowledge modules
and foundations in accountancy diploma are going to change
so in this presentation we are going to focus on F3
and I'm going to talk about all of those changes as well as that
all-important exam technique, so we'll be looking at certain key skills which are going to
help you pass the exam
but before we do that let's have a look at the exam itself. So the exam
is still going to be two hours long there is still not going to be any
reading time and it's still going to be worth in total a hundred marks
but here's where the change is, it's now going to be two sections rather than one section
so you'll see that in the first section we have a lot of objective test
questions
whereas in the second question there's going to be multitask
questions, which as it says means there is going to be questions which have multiple
tasks within them
so let's have a little look in those two sections.
Section A is going to be worth 70 marks in total and there's going to be 35
questions
so each of them will be worth two marks, in Section B we're going to have just two
questions
and those are going to be worth 15 marks each, so 30 marks in total
now don't worry, those 15 marks are going to be spread up into loads of little
different tasks
so you're not going have to just answer one question for the full 15 marks.
Phew! As well as that the pass mark is still going to be fifty percent, so
now we've had a look at the exam, let's go through some of the key skills which you need
to pass the exam
So when we're looking at the ACCA
you need to be thinking of all the knowledge you need, but also you need to know
how to utilise that knowledge
well how on earth are you supposed to manage all of that? We've got a four key skills which
we think will help you
pass the examination and just keep these skills in mind throughout your
studies
because that's going to help you maximise your chances of passing.
So, key skill number one, we're going to be looking at
learning and understanding the syllabus, now
that's broken down into two key parts, the first bit is learning, so we are going to
need to read and review the material in the syllabus
but unfortunately it's not just going to be a case of
learning and then churning that out in the exam, we are actually going to have
to apply
that knowledge in certain situations, so this is where the
understanding comes into it, the understanding is where we're going to take that
knowledge
and apply it to a number of scenarios within the exam
and the all-important, new, multitask questions are going to focus on this key
skill
so when you are doing question practice for this particular examination
make sure you focus on also the definitions and the factual questions
but as well as that, the application questions as well
to give yourself a full knowledge of the syllabus. Key skill number two
is all about time management, so what we don't want to happen
in the exam is you to run out of time, so it's really important you stick to
the minutes per mark.
Now it is a two hour examination
and there is going to be a hundred marks available in total, so that means there's
going to be
1.2 minutes per mark, now just think about how that relates to each section
of the exam, section A there's going to be two marks per question
and section B there's going to be fifteen marks per question.
Now obviously it's going to take a lot of time for you to keep on looking up and
down at the clock to see exactly how much time you have left
and where you should be in the examination, so we don't expect you to do
that
what we expect you to do is to maybe split the exam up into four sections
half an hour slots and then think at each
half an hour have I got to the point I expected?
Have I done enough questions so far? That gives you an idea of how far you are and
how long you've got left to go
but also be aware when you're getting closer to the end of the examination
that you still have section B to do, now as that's two questions worth 15 marks each
that's going to be total of 36 minutes so make sure you do leave
adequate time to get those all-important marks for section B.
In terms of timing as well we also find it best not to jump around the exam
paper too much because that in itself can waste some time
so go through them in a logical structure and maybe a question at a time
but that doesn't mean that you have to answer every single question that you
come to in the exam,
if you don't know the answer to one question right at that very moment
then just move past it and then come back to it later.
You can use all the functionality in the exam to have at look to see what questions
you have
answered and which questions you haven't answered yet.
Okay so that's the first two, let's move on to number three now
number three is going to be tackling objective test questions
so we're going to be focusing in on section A now and there's going to be a
number of questions which they could give you
so we're going to be going through each of these questions in turn
just picking out some key points which are going to help you answer these questions in
the exam.
The first type of question we have is a multiple choice question
so as you can see on the slide now we've been given the question at the top
and then we've been given four answers to choose from,
all we're going to need to do is to select the right one
answer from each of those answers and that's going to get us the marks
so we either get it 100% right or unfortunately a 100% wrong
so we need to make sure we have checked the correct answer.
Question type number two is our multiple response questions which are
similar to the previous type of question where instead of having just one answer
we might have to give
two or more answers, so in this particular example we've said that we need to show two of
the following errors and we have to select those two
errors out of four, now this is where the difference between
section A and section B comes into play, with section A
we do not have partial marking which means we are we either going to get the question
right and pick up all of the two marks
or we're going to get it wrong and pick up no marks
so when it comes to this particular question we're going to have to choose the two
correct
answers in order to pick up two marks, if we only select one of
the right answers we're going to pick up no marks.
Moving on to the next type of question, we have our multiple response
matching, so this is where as the example shows, we're going to be given a
listing of statements on the left of the question
and then there's going to be columns over on the right hand side
and what we need to do is we need to match the statement to the
columns, now the example that we've shown you here in the slide relates to a true
or false question
but that might not always be the case we might have to pick a financial
statement line-item and then match it to the financial statement it should be
included in
such as the statement of profit or loss, the statement of financial position or even
the statement of
cash flows, so just remember it's not always true or false.
So when we're answering this type of question again remember in Section A
it's either 100% right or 100% wrong
so we're going to need to make sure that each statement is correctly included in the
right column
to get the full marks, also just a quick note
just because they give you a number of columns doesn't mean
that you going to have to have an answer in each of those columns
one column could be left completely and utterly blank
so for example in this particular question all of the statements could be
true
that's absolutely fine. Moving on to the next one
we've got question number four which is going to be our number entry
and this is where we're going to have to do a calculation ourselves
and then enter a number into the answer box.
Now the tricks of the trade is all to do with how we're typing in the number
into that answer box, there are certain rules that we're going to need
to follow
for instance we are only going to be able to use a decimal place once
to signify decimal places and we have to use a full stop
in order to generate that decimal place.
If we're talking about large numbers we're not going to be allowed to use a
comma
so anything in terms of thousands or 10,000 we're going to leave the comma out.
When it comes to representing a negative figure we're not allowed to use brackets
we're only allowed to use a minus sign, so please remember all of those rules when
you're generating your answer
for example if the answer to this question was 10,234.35
we would be able to use the answer on the left with the minus sign and the full
stop
but we would not be able to use the answer on the right including
brackets and a comma, the computer just won't be able to recognise it
so please make sure you do follow those rules
and just a quick hint on the decimal places, if there is decimal places
required in the question
the question will tell you exactly how many decimal places you need to write
in your answer. So that's all for Section A of
the paper, now we can move on to tackling the multitask
questions which we'll see in section B, now
section B can include all the different types of objective questions
that we've just seen
in part A, but the one key difference between section A
and section B questions, is in the marking
section B is where we get a chance to have a look at partial marking now
so we don't need to get the question 100%
accurate in order to get us some of the marks.
So I'm just going to use the example which was our multiple response question
just to show you how this will work,
now in this question if you remember, we said that we needed to pick
two answers out of the four to get us to the full marks.
In section B we can get part marks, so if we only get one of them right
we get half the marks, however we need to make sure we have ticked
the appropriate number of answers, that is very very important
so for this particular question it says we need to pick
two of the following answers, selecting two
answers will make sure we've picked the right number, if one of those is then
right we will pick up half the marks.
So that was the partial marking but another exciting bit about section B
is also what other types of questions we could be asked
so there are two new types of questions which we could have for this particular
section,
first one is going to be the gap fill, now gap fills are going to be where we're
including a number within the box, as we've seen previously
but we could also use a pick list as well
so we'll have a drop-down box, a selection of answers which we need to
choose one of those.
We've also got another new type which is the hot spot questions, now these aren't
included
in the F3 exam, so I'm going to just concentrate
on the gap fill questions.
Now I have an example of this over on the next slide
so for this task we had to generate a statement
of profit or loss and as you can see a number of times throughout
this particular answer they've given us a pick list
which is where we have the box with the arrows on the right hand side.
Now just to give you an example of how this will work, if you go down to the
equity owners of Keswick Co. you'll see now that I've opened up the
pick list box and you'll be able to select one of the answers
out of those, remember when you're picking an answer make sure that is
the answer that shows up
in the box after you shut the drop down box
because we need to make sure we've put the right one in there to get the marks.
Now in terms of this particular answer as well we need to be thinking of 'what
happens if we make a mistake
oh no! is that going to affect the rest to the question?' well good news guys
it's not! So the great things about these particular types of questions
is that they have been developed so that each box is going to be
independent of the one that has come before it
which means, yes if we do you make a mistake right at the top of our pro forma
it's not going to have an impact later on and using that drop box
this gives us a really good example, we just need to tell them
how the profit is going to be calculated, so that means we can't get that answer
wrong if the profit was incorrect in the top of our calculation,
that's nice to know. So there are a couple of other things that we're going to need to
look at within this type of question but we'll come back to those in a moment
the next thing I want to focus in on is the functionality of these particular
questions.
So, this is a specific question which is on one of the specimen papers
you'll see on the ACCA websites
and as you'll see on the slide at the moment we have the background right at the very top
and then we've got rather large task one and if we continue to scroll down the
page
we then see task two and task three
and then finally task four and task five, it's a rather long question
now if we need to generate the answer in task four
but using the information in task one, that's going to
mean we're scrolling up and down the question quite a long way.
Now this is where the functionality is going to help because as you can see in this
particular question at the moment
each of the tasks has a heading bar, and on the heading bar there's either going be a
negative or a positive sign
now if it's a negative that means that it's going to be showing you the whole of
the task, but if you click that negative sign it's going to minimise that
all into that one line, so you don't need to have a look at everything
which is really, really good because then, if I move onto the next bit
we can have a look at task one and if I minimise task two and task three
that means I can get to task four a lot quicker, so this means your
navigation skills are going to be a lot easier,
okay, great functionality.
So things to watch out for guys, there are another two things which I want to mention and
then also a reminder of some of the other things that we've spoken about
throughout the rest of the presentation, so the first thing is
when to use a negative sign?
Now in one of the previous questions that I showed you on the screen
this pro forma, we can see that there are administration costs
and also distribution costs, now you and me know that those are expenses and that
those expenses need to be deducted
from the income, so you would assume that you need to include a minus sign
in that answer box to get to the right answer, however
please be careful because as you can see in the pro forma
there is a word next to the administrative costs which says less
and if it says less that means we are going to need to deduct
the balance and as such we don't need to include the minus sign within that
answer box,
so just be careful about that. In the same way if it
does say add then we don't need to have a positive symbol there as well
so be careful. Another thing relating to this question as well is what kind of
balance we're going to be including in the pro forma,
now right at the very top you'll see that it says thousands
it says thousands of dollars which means we can work in thousands of dollars
but that might not always be the case throughout the exam so please do
be careful about that.
For example in the next question that I've just put on the screen now
it says that we need to give our answer in just dollars, so
be aware, make sure you're putting the correct figure in there as well.
A couple of other things to watch out for some of which we've already seen
remember to read the question very, very carefully
sometimes the wording can be a little bit odd
but don't worry you will get used to that when you do lots and lots of question
practice
but we need to read the question carefully to ensure we know what the
examiner is actually asking us for
so that's key tip number one, but also a couple things to remind yourself is mainly the numbers
so what are we going to need to input?
Remember there's only going to be one decimal point
we don't use commas to signify thousands
and we don't use brackets for negatives only the minus signs
and decimal places will be given to us in the question as well so just watch out
for those as well.
So finally guys, what are the next steps? Well
question practice, question practice, question practice, that is the best way
to get you to that final pass mark in the exam,
get yourself used to what questions could come up in the exam paper.
Now make sure you don't just rely on the definitions and the facts questions, make
sure you also have a look at the application questions as well
because both of those are going to get tested in the exam.
As well as that, you need to utilise all the resources possible so
get yourself a practice and revision kit if you can
to have a large question bank for those questions
and then also you'll find on the ACCA website there are specimen papers so you
can see
what the exam will actually look like, now the good news for F3 is that there's
going to be two
for the February 2014 papers and onwards.
There's going to be one which is a full exam with section A and section B
and then there's also going to be one dedicated to multitask questions
and that's going to have an additional two multitask questions in there for you to practice.
Just remember guys that you need to be aware of all the support that you've got so
if you do need any extra help then please go to your leading provider
and they will be able to help you through this process
and last of all guys good luck for all of your examinations, I hope it goes well.