CAP 2 Exams 2012

Anerak

How are people feeling with around a week left to go?

ted2767

Anerak wrote: »

How are people feeling with around a week left to go?

Can't f***ing wait to get them over with at this stage to be honest.

fmcattack

FR - So unprepared and I don't want to sacrifice other subjects by continuing to study for it. Will be back in September for it. Tried to nail down consolidation too late, should have looked at it first. Think I will leave consol cashflows out and hope they don't come up

SFMA - just doing past exam questions. Hard to know what will come up

Audit - doing exam questions - How are you guys studying for it?

Tax - have not looked at it for about 10 days. Plan on spending all Sun/Mon on it and hope that is enough

Why did I not start studying earlier

At this moment I would be happy if I got 2 out of the 4

lauma

Anerak wrote: »

How are people feeling with around a week left to go?

I am so tired and exhausted at this point. Still having trouble with some parts like hedging, fx consolidations or disposals . Do any of you guys noticed that in SFMA in summer there is always question on variances and in autumn on transfer pricing?

Padkir

ted2767 wrote: »

Can't f***ing wait to get them over with at this stage to be honest.

Completely agree, could spend another 2 months at it and still wouldn't feel overprepared so might as well jsut get it done and out of the way!

Then roll on the Ocean Race!!!:D:D

Mark1916

How is everyone doing the consolidation questions? I preferred the t account method but the lack of t account answers for past papers etc are worrying me as my retained earning calcs never really agree to what the answer says!! Is it too late to go to the columner method

Anerak

Mark1916 wrote: »

How is everyone doing the consolidation questions? I preferred the t account method but the lack of t account answers for past papers etc are worrying me as my retained earning calcs never really agree to what the answer says!! Is it too late to go to the columner method

Go with what your comfortable with if only a few calculations dont work out you will still get majority of your marks,I wouldn't change as you will feel more at ease in the exam doing the question with your t accounts. In that small book we have by Paul Mahony the do both methods to the solutions if you haven't looked at it!

I am dreading FR i just cant seem to get my head around all the adjustments.

Has Foreign Operations come up much in the past?I cant seem to see much on it?

Anyone any ideas what we might get in the FR Exam?

EDudder

Anerak wrote: »

Go with what your comfortable with if only a few calculations dont work out you will still get majority of your marks,I wouldn't change as you will feel more at ease in the exam doing the question with your t accounts. In that small book we have by Paul Mahony the do both methods to the solutions if you haven't looked at it!

I am dreading FR i just cant seem to get my head around all the adjustments.

Has Foreign Operations come up much in the past?I cant seem to see much on it?

Anyone any ideas what we might get in the FR Exam?

I'd imagine that with 6 past papers, and then the sample papers, if something hasn't come up it wouldn't be fair to have it in the exam for anything more than a few marks.

That's just my personal opinion, but I think if I tried to get comfortable with every single obscure part of the course I'd be here all year. You'd imagine they wouldn't be THAT unfair.

Anerak

EDudder wrote: »

I'd imagine that with 6 past papers, and then the sample papers, if something hasn't come up it wouldn't be fair to have it in the exam for anything more than a few marks.

That's just my personal opinion, but I think if I tried to get comfortable with every single obscure part of the course I'd be here all year. You'd imagine they wouldn't be THAT unfair.

Thanks

I seriously hope they wont be that unfair last paper I seen it in Q1 was Summer 05, it looks like a bloody nightmare so I will be leaving it out.

EDudder

That's just my opinion/ approach btw.

I'd be interested to hear other peoples insight.

On another note - Am I right in hearing that tax usually has the highest pass rate? How in the hell is that? It's the one that I'm fully expecting to fail miserably.

ted2767

Mark1916 wrote: »

How is everyone doing the consolidation questions? I preferred the t account method but the lack of t account answers for past papers etc are worrying me as my retained earning calcs never really agree to what the answer says!! Is it too late to go to the columner method

Stick to what you know best.

Just pick up the marks as you go along and make sure that any workings are clearly referenced.

And if it doesn't balance just move on and keep picking up the marks.

That will be my approach at any rate.

myshirt

I hope to god there isn't a foreign operations question on the Financial Reporting paper.

Guys, the volume of work for these CAP2's is unreal.

I think I am going stone crazy..

How do people feel about the open book thing?
I don't think it is going so well for me - I am terribly organised for a start. Regardless, I can't see myself reading through a folder or a book on the day.

Any time I do out exam questions I barely made the time. So I definitely will not be able to look up something in the exam hall.

I just have a load of mind maps I got online for different topics (one pagers) and some templates for computational questions.

Hopefully it is in the brain somewhere on the day and it will be sparked by the mind map.

EDudder

Having 1 paper that isn't open book is a whole head ****.

As much as people say 'study as if you won't have the book' that's impossible to do. You study at a quicker rate knowing you have the back up of referring to the book to remind you if you need it.

And then the one subject that it would actually be helpful to refer to material....is closed book. It's all been said before, but I just can't understand that decision.

Anerak

EDudder wrote: »

That's just my opinion/ approach btw.

I'd be interested to hear other peoples insight.

On another note - Am I right in hearing that tax usually has the highest pass rate? How in the hell is that? It's the one that I'm fully expecting to fail miserably.

No I agree,
Tax is generally high but last year results for passing in Summer were Audit 66%, SFMA 62%,FR 56% & Tax 64% but Tax(NI) was 77%

ferike1

Anerak wrote: »

EDudder wrote: »

That's just my opinion/ approach btw.

I'd be interested to hear other peoples insight.

On another note - Am I right in hearing that tax usually has the highest pass rate? How in the hell is that? It's the one that I'm fully expecting to fail miserably.

No I agree,
Tax is generally high but last year results for passing in Summer were Audit 66%, SFMA 62%,FR 56% & Tax 64% but Tax(NI) was 77%

Tax being closed book is especially stupid when you consider faes are all open book

EDudder

And the fact that any tax office in the world is littered with Tax books.

Who wants your tax specialist to refer to recent legislation when you can get one that can still remember bits and pieces from their out dated CAP2's?

lauma

Spent so much time on hedging and still can't do them . Any suggestions on How to approach these type of questions ?

Anerak

lauma wrote: »

Spent so much time on hedging and still can't do them . Any suggestions on How to approach these type of questions ?

Same as you just can't seem to get it right no matter how much time i spend on it.

Clarise123

Hi Guys,

In regards to SFMA Variances, it says in the Competency Statement - 'planning and operational variances for material, labour and sales'.

Has anyone ever come across P&O Variances for sales and if so what it the formulae? Or do they exist?

I would be grafeful for any comments/replies!

ted2767

Clarise123 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

In regards to SFMA Variances, it says in the Competency Statement - 'planning and operational variances for material, labour and sales'.

Has anyone ever come across P&O Variances for sales and if so what it the formulae? Or do they exist?

I would be grafeful for any comments/replies!

Never seen it asked but basically for operational you compare what actually happened against the new standard.

For planning then just compare new standard to old standard if the new standard brings in less/more its adverse/favorable.

Hope that helps

Anerak

Clarise123 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

In regards to SFMA Variances, it says in the Competency Statement - 'planning and operational variances for material, labour and sales'.

Has anyone ever come across P&O Variances for sales and if so what it the formulae? Or do they exist?

I would be grafeful for any comments/replies!

I have never come across them either only ever did material & labour in our lectures

Clarise123

ted2767 wrote: »

Never seen it asked but basically for operational you compare what actually happened against the new standard.

For planning then just compare new standard to old standard if the new standard brings in less/more its adverse/favorable.

Hope that helps

Hi,

Thanks for that. I was thinking that maybe there are other formulae for Sales P&O. The above makes sense!

ted2767

Clarise123 wrote: »

ted2767 wrote: »

Never seen it asked but basically for operational you compare what actually happened against the new standard.

For planning then just compare new standard to old standard if the new standard brings in less/more its adverse/favorable.

Hope that helps

Hi,

Thanks for that. I was thinking that maybe there are other formulae for Sales P&O. The above makes sense!

Well basically for op variances all you are doing is comparing op performance against the revised standards.
For planning its all about comparing the old and new standard.
Glad to help.

ecos88

Hi guys,

was wondering if someone could help, im just looking at FR q1 in the autumn 2011, I done the question out myself and then had a look at the solutions posted by the institute. Can anyone tell me how they got the figure of €4,544 in the NCI of Cattle at the date of acquisition? I got €4,994?? I must have missed something, its probably something very obvious.

(also anyone notice this in the solution in working 5 for consolidated R/E)

"Group share of post acquisition element of CATTLE’s
retained earnings
(3,130+ 420 -1,985) * 60% 687

Amazing how the institute cant even tot their figures correctly on the solutions!!!

ted2767

ecos88 wrote: »

Hi guys,

was wondering if someone could help, im just looking at FR q1 in the autumn 2011, I done the question out myself and then had a look at the solutions posted by the institute. Can anyone tell me how they got the figure of €4,544 in the NCI of Cattle at the date of acquisition? I got €4,994?? I must have missed something, its probably something very obvious.

(also anyone notice this in the solution in working 5 for consolidated R/E)

"Group share of post acquisition element of CATTLE’s
retained earnings
(3,130+ 420 -1,985) * 60% 687

Amazing how the institute cant even tot their figures correctly on the solutions!!!

For goodwill remember the nci only owns 10% pref shares

osc 5000
shr prem 1000
fair value adj 3000
ret e 1985
10985 x 40% = 4394
Pref shares 1500 x 10% = 150
Total 4544

As for retained earning it should read (3130 - 30 - 1985 + 420) x 60% = 921

That should do it for you

lauma

ecos88 wrote: »

Hi guys,

was wondering if someone could help, im just looking at FR q1 in the autumn 2011, I done the question out myself and then had a look at the solutions posted by the institute. Can anyone tell me how they got the figure of €4,544 in the NCI of Cattle at the date of acquisition? I got €4,994?? I must have missed something, its probably something very obvious.

(also anyone notice this in the solution in working 5 for consolidated R/E)

"Group share of post acquisition element of CATTLE’s
retained earnings
(3,130+ 420 -1,985) * 60% 687

Amazing how the institute cant even tot their figures correctly on the solutions!!!

My understanding is : share capital 5000 + premium 1000+1985 RE + 3000 FV =10985@40% + 150 pref shares = 4544

lauma

Sorry posted the same solution didnt see ted's reply

ecos88

Thanks guys

My head is fried, completely missed that!!

Shane732

lauma wrote: »

Spent so much time on hedging and still can't do them . Any suggestions on How to approach these type of questions ?

Ehhh.... what is there in hedging to do?!

A couple of quick calculations and theory - I didn't really think there was a whole load of stuff in hedging.

EDudder

I've noticed one of the past paper solutions deals with interest rates hedging in a very weird way. I've decided to ignore the solution. Too many mistakes in other solutions to base my method on one.

lauma

Shane732 wrote: »

Ehhh.... what is there in hedging to do?!

A couple of quick calculations and theory - I didn't really think there was a whole load of stuff in hedging.

Well for me it is a disaster anyway.I read the chapter maybe three times at this stage and still can't do questions without looking at solutions .

DonnaDarko09

In the same boat, can't get my head around hedging at all, if anyone has some guidance on how to approach would be much appreciated!

Shane732

lauma wrote: »

Well for me it is a disaster anyway.I read the chapter maybe three times at this stage and still can't do questions without looking at solutions .

The chapter is pretty poor in fairness.

Looking at past papers it's a very unusual paper.

Tricky1979

Can somebody PLEASE help - very confused.

For the indirect method the standard layout starts with the 'Profit before taxation' under Cash flows from operating activities.

However, looking at solutions to q's, (i.e. Monkey and Sword) the solutions always start with the Operating Profit when calculating Net cash flows from operating activities.

Please can somebody clear this up for me?

HeinekenTicket

Tricky1979 wrote: »

Can somebody PLEASE help - very confused.

For the indirect method the standard layout starts with the 'Profit before taxation' under Cash flows from operating activities.

However, looking at solutions to q's, (i.e. Monkey and Sword) the solutions always start with the Operating Profit when calculating Net cash flows from operating activities.

Please can somebody clear this up for me?

Starting with 'profit before taxation' is the more common approach.

However, it is acceptable to start with either profit before taxation or operating profit.

Tricky1979

Thks HeinekenTicket!

One final q on this depending on your approach how then to you treat loss or profits on disposal etc ?

lauma

Tricky1979 wrote: »

Thks HeinekenTicket!

One final q on this depending on your approach how then to you treat loss or profits on disposal etc ?

Add back or deduct any loss/profit generated from disposal of non-current
assets, or from non-operating activities, as this will be treated under the
Investing or Financing activities.

Tricky1979

Gotcha - cheers

lauma

Tricky1979 wrote: »

Can somebody PLEASE help - very confused.

For the indirect method the standard layout starts with the 'Profit before taxation' under Cash flows from operating activities.

However, looking at solutions to q's, (i.e. Monkey and Sword) the solutions always start with the Operating Profit when calculating Net cash flows from operating activities.

Please can somebody clear this up for me?

take a look at this maybe you will find useful

HeinekenTicket

Tricky1979 wrote: »

Thks HeinekenTicket!

One final q on this depending on your approach how then to you treat loss or profits on disposal etc ?

simple example to illustrate the general difference:

operating profit (EBIT) 100
finance charge -10
profit before tax 90

If you started the cash flow with profit before tax of 90, you would add back the finance charge as part of the calculation of cash generated from operations.

If you started the cash flow with operating profit (100), you would not have to adjust for the finance charge because the finance charge is not part of the calculation of operating profit, i.e. it is deducted only after the calculation of operating profit.

When you are considering whether you need to adjust the profit figure or not for items included in the income statement (which seems to be your question), you check whether the amount (finance charge, profit/loss on disposal or whatever) is part of the calculation of the profit that you started with at the top of the cash flow. If it is, then you adjust for it. If it is not, then you don't.

Off the top of my head, amounts that would be included in profit before tax but not included in operating profit would be the finance charge, share of profit/loss of associate, profit/loss on disposal, perhaps impairment charges.

You can see from example above that, when you start with profit before tax, you are working your way back through operating profit anyway to ultimately get to cash flow from operating activities. Starting with the operating profit, if given, shortens the distance to the cash flow from operating activities figure, which is why I would start with the operating profit figure.

HeinekenTicket

lauma wrote: »

Add back or deduct any loss/profit generated from disposal of non-current
assets, or from non-operating activities, as this will be treated under the
Investing or Financing activities.

Just to clarify, it is the proceeds of a disposal that are included in the investing activities, not the profit or loss on disposal.

ecos88

HeinekenTicket wrote: »

Just to clarify, it is the proceeds of a disposal that are included in the investing activities, not the profit or loss on disposal.

Yeah its the proceeds from the sale that are included in the investing activities

muzzyizzet

Anyone have any advice for the best way to go about studying audit? Have given it very little time and I'm almost at panic stations now!

When I look at solutions the answers almost seem too obvious so I find it hard to sit down and actually learn them! Can only really afford to devote one full day to it tomorrow so I need to make sure it's productive!

EDudder

I'm the same, but I'm not too paniced about it.

Still have too much to do on the others. I'm planning on just stating the obvious as much as possible.

Badly need some kind of miracle advice on tax though. I'll be able to hit it sunday and monday, but I have to completely turn it around in them two days.

Shane732

Jes*s the more I look at the SFMA papers the more I begin to think that it'll be with the grace of God that I pass this exam.

It's absolutely ridiculous, you might as well make it up as you go along.

What was the pass rate in the SFMA paper in previous years?

Here's hoping variances come up - at one stage I was hoping they wouldn't come up and now I'm begging for them to come up!

mrsoneill

HeinekenTicket wrote: »

Just to clarify, it is the proceeds of a disposal that are included in the investing activities, not the profit or loss on disposal.

the profit or loss has to go into operating activities.

Shane732

mrsoneill wrote: »

the profit or loss has to go into operating activities.

What do you mean? The profit/loss is added back and the proceeds are taken account of.

ted2767

mrsoneill wrote: »

HeinekenTicket wrote: »

Just to clarify, it is the proceeds of a disposal that are included in the investing activities, not the profit or loss on disposal.

the profit or loss has to go into operating activities.

The profit or loss on disposal is deducted/added back and dealt with in investing activities.
Why?

Because the are not operational activities of the company which is what you are trying to arrive at

Shane732

ted2767 wrote: »

The profit or loss on disposal is deducted/added back and dealt with in investing activities.
Why?

Because the are not operational activities of the company which is what you are trying to arrive at

No........ Because the profit/loss isn't a cash inflow or outflow!

ted2767

Shane732 wrote: »

ted2767 wrote: »

The profit or loss on disposal is deducted/added back and dealt with in investing activities.
Why?

Because the are not operational activities of the company which is what you are trying to arrive at

No........ Because the profit/loss isn't a cash inflow or outflow!

Correct but you still have to get it out of operational activities.
Obviously any sales proceeds are a cash flow which will be included in investing activities.
The purpose of a cash flow statement is after all to break down cash flows into their constituent elements i.e. operational, investing and financing