Leaving Cert accounting

Bobster24

I'm finding accounting really tough and am going into sixth year. Any advice on how to go about studying it or Any tips at all?

Oscar!

I am doing accounting myself and while it can be quite difficult at the beginning, once you get the hang of it, it really isn't that hard at all. In my opinion, the only way you can study and improve in accounting is by doing all the questions from your textbooks and doing every exam question. You will improve by attempting the questions, getting them corrected by your teacher, and learning from your mistakes. As you do more exam questions on each chapter, you will realise that the same type of adjustments are repeated a lot in that particular chapter.

Oh, and if you don't understand the basic principles of double-entry bookkeeping yet, I would start by learning them as they can really help out on understanding what you are doing and why.

Good luck!

yournerd

I got an A1. Do every exam paper you get your hands on. It's all repeated!

CookieMonster.x

Bobster24 wrote: »

I'm finding accounting really tough and am going into sixth year. Any advice on how to go about studying it or Any tips at all?

I loved accounting and got an A1. The key to doing well is to understand the double entry system and the accounts. Learn each type of account (asset, liability etc) and what happens when you debit an credit for each. If you don't understand something ask your teacher. Our class was small and anytime we had a question we would ask. If you are having trouble with accounting I would advise you to take the adjustments on their own and work them out. Say take a suspense working in Q1 and do that adjustment for each year. Take a topic, learn the layout inside out and then do each exam question. It's all very repetitive, same question just different figures. The most important thing to do ask your teacher if you don't understand something. Also, the Revise Wise book is very good for explanations (the A4 sized one).

ray2012

I did accounting too, and I found it really difficult in 5th and 6th year. I couldn't understand the subject at all (what goes where and also why). As well as that, I hated the subject so didn't study it much! What helped me so much in 6th year was buying the Revise Wise for Accounting. It truly saved me from failing the subject as it explains a lot of the course. Half the stuff I did for accounting (some adjustments etc) I never understood, and I still don't understand, but I just learned it. Just don't question the stuff! :P But yeah, as the others say, repeat exam Q after exam Q, and you'll see how repeated the questions are. In my first mock I failed (got like 37%) and then in my second mock like a month later, I barely passed (got 41% ). The weeks before the leaving cert my accounting teacher sat me down and told me just to learn it all off, cause if I didn't I wouldn't even get an honour in the subject. I did maybe 2 accounts per day with 2 weeks left, and it really paid off. I started doing well in my Q1's, and also the rest of the Q's after a bit (well, a lot! :P) of practice with them. But yeah, my advice is to work hard at it, and do maybe an account a night and learn where you got the numbers from, where the numbers go and bits of theory. If you start doing that from now you'll be bound to do well!

So I failed my first accounting mock, got a D3 in my second mock, and got a B2 in the actual LC! I was delighted with it, the work I had put in (in only the last few weeks before the exam) paid off! You won't regret putting the work in, you'll be glad you did.

Bobster24

Thanks for the help!

3raser10

might sound cliche but try to actually like the subject...may be that's why you are finding it tough. Don't think you 'have to' learn it and all but think you 'want to'!

redrebe81

3raser10 wrote: »

might sound cliche but try to actually like the subject...may be that's why you are finding it tough. Don't think you 'have to' learn it and all but think you 'want to'!

Can someone please please explain the idea of revaluation of assets.i know when an asset increases in value we dr the asset ac cr the revaluation reserve ac.then when when we sell a revalued asset we dr the revaluation ac and debit the revenue reserve ac.can soneone pls put into english whats happening here!! Also what exactly are the revaluation reserve and revenue reserve acs.any help would be appreciated.

Squidgy Black

You just need to remember the system of entries. Everything goes in twice. Learn the Debit/Credit rules for t accounts and workings, they'll save your balls when you're doing a question and don't know what's up.

It genuinely is just going back and doing question after question. Also, don't forget the theory, all those marks add up.

Are you doing the 120 marker question 1, or the 2 60 marks Q2-4?

redrebe81

_Tyrrell_ wrote: »

You just need to remember the system of entries. Everything goes in twice. Learn the Debit/Credit rules for t accounts and workings, they'll save your balls when you're doing a question and don't know what's up.

It genuinely is just going back and doing question after question. Also, don't forget the theory, all those marks add up.

Are you doing the 120 marker question 1, or the 2 60 marks Q2-4?

Thanks tyrrell!i have a good idea if the DE system.im just struggling with figuring out what the revaluation reserve and revenue reserve accounts actually are.i know if an asset goes up in value,we need to dr the asset ac.this means we must cr an account,but why the rev reserve???and when we sell an asset, why are we cr the rev reserve??
Many thanks

The Book Thief

Hi there, it's a while since I did leaving cert accounts but I am nearly a qualified accountant so hopefully I can try to explain this one!

When your asset goes up in value you want to show that increase in your accounts but you also don't know until you sell it whether the value will change again so you increase the asset value by debiting it and then your credit has to go either in the income statement or the statement of financial position.
You can't credit the income statement because you haven't actually sold the asset so you haven't received any income from it yet and you don't know how much you'll really get until you actually sell it.
You know then that your credit has to be in the statement of financial position (the balance sheet). A credit there can only be either a liability (and you know this isn't a liability as it's an increase in value, not something you owe) or a reserve.
The revaluation reserve is simply an account where you keep the extra value in your balance sheet until you sell the asset. At that point you'll receive actual income from the sale so you'll want to include it in your profit. The way to do this is to debit the revaluation reserve and credit the revenue reserve which will then go in your income statement.

Hopefully this makes some sense- if you have more questions just ask!

redrebe81

The Book Thief wrote: »

Hi there, it's a while since I did leaving cert accounts but I am nearly a qualified accountant so hopefully I can try to explain this one!

When your asset goes up in value you want to show that increase in your accounts but you also don't know until you sell it whether the value will change again so you increase the asset value by debiting it and then your credit has to go either in the income statement or the statement of financial position.
You can't credit the income statement because you haven't actually sold the asset so you haven't received any income from it yet and you don't know how much you'll really get until you actually sell it.
You know then that your credit has to be in the statement of financial position (the balance sheet). A credit there can only be either a liability (and you know this isn't a liability as it's an increase in value, not something you owe) or a reserve.
The revaluation reserve is simply an account where you keep the extra value in your balance sheet until you sell the asset. At that point you'll receive actual income from the sale so you'll want to include it in your profit. The way to do this is to debit the revaluation reserve and credit the revenue reserve which will then go in your income statement.

Hopefully this makes some sense- if you have more questions just ask!

Thats brilliant book thief,thanks so much!it makes much more sense.however there is still something that i cant figure out.
In the question im looking at at the moment we bought premises for 400k and after a number of years and two revaluations we sell the building for 750k.i would have assumed we dr the revaluation statement 350k and cr the rev reserve 350k.in the solution the correct figure is 336k.without looking at the question,any ideas why this might be the case.
You have been a great help.

redrebe81

The Book Thief wrote: »

Hi there, it's a while since I did leaving cert accounts but I am nearly a qualified accountant so hopefully I can try to explain this one!

When your asset goes up in value you want to show that increase in your accounts but you also don't know until you sell it whether the value will change again so you increase the asset value by debiting it and then your credit has to go either in the income statement or the statement of financial position.
You can't credit the income statement because you haven't actually sold the asset so you haven't received any income from it yet and you don't know how much you'll really get until you actually sell it.
You know then that your credit has to be in the statement of financial position (the balance sheet). A credit there can only be either a liability (and you know this isn't a liability as it's an increase in value, not something you owe) or a reserve.
The revaluation reserve is simply an account where you keep the extra value in your balance sheet until you sell the asset. At that point you'll receive actual income from the sale so you'll want to include it in your profit. The way to do this is to debit the revaluation reserve and credit the revenue reserve which will then go in your income statement.

Hopefully this makes some sense- if you have more questions just ask!

Thanks book thief,thats a great help but there is still one thing im struggling with.in a q im doing we bought buildings for 400k and sold them for 750k (after a two revalutions).i would have thought we dr the rev reservr and cr rev reserve with 350k.however the solution tells me its 336k.any ideas why that might be.
Many thanks

Michael in Wicklow

Hi there redrebe81
I'm an accountancy teacher and I have some videos for how to approach question one adjustments on my website.
What you need is located at

http://www.egs.ie/accountancy/q1/video/12.html

hope this helps.

May I suggest that it can be useful to look first at which of the 4 TYPES of account the account you are looking at is.
EARL = Expense, Asset, Revenue, Liability
Then immediately enter the closing entry (without or without the closing figure) be that a

An Asset c/dA or
A Liability c/dL or
A Profit/Revenue ⓟ & L
An Expense/Loss. P & Ⓛ

The more entries you have in a T account the easier it makes to figure out what is still missing.
CookieMonsterX above is spot on. You need to be able to look at any account and know which of the EARL accounts it is

Regards, Michael

Pk9712

Yeah just do every exam question. Our class didnt even use a book we just did exam questions and mocks. Ask your teacher for mock questions too and their answers. Alot of it doesnt change dramatically so when your blue in the face with the exam question you should be fine. Try understand bits of it not just learning off Just understand small bits like why you do things cause Im told that they are trying to reduce predictablity so they could add some different thing. For example flexible budgets are Kinda predicted as they havnt come up in ages but flexible budgets is fairly easy so they could add in something that will try too throw you off or they could mix it in with another Q9