FAE September 2014

Nead23

Has anyone got a good template for planning in the exam?

FlyingSolo13

how are people planning to do their roughwork, workings , appendix?

Do you include it in your answer book, at the start or part of your report?? They look great in the solutions!

It seems from the mock feedback that they appear to place some value on a plan & roughwork, however I know that my workings are very messy and wouldn't be good from a presentation point of view.

jny107

I'm just watching Pauls video on exam technique and he suggested putting rough work at the back so its nice and pretty for the examiner opening straight to your solution.

I always use the rough pages at the front of the book and start my answer on the "proper" pages

applehunter

Feedback from my Mocks was "where is your planning"

Am I supposed to put it in the answer book. I had been doing it on a sheet seperate from the answer book.

littlemiss123

I will do my planning in the answer book alright but as for this crap about appendices for workings and referencing stuff and keeping it in separate parts of the answer booklet is a joke. I will do my plan at the start of the booklet, then I will move onto my answer and all my workings will be in the solution. I am not wasting my time back and forth referencing appendix A etc. That's just me personal opinion, there's enough time pressure as is!

Miller1990

For the mocks I put my planning at the back of the workbook, one reviewer told me that was good and another told me to put it at the front because they nearly missed it... Quite confused now but I'll probably put it at the back.

Mark1916

Miller1990 wrote: »

For the mocks I put my planning at the back of the workbook, one reviewer told me that was good and another told me to put it at the front because they nearly missed it... Quite confused now but I'll probably put it at the back.

Possibly just put a quick note saying rough work is at the back of the book!

littlemiss123

Miller1990 wrote: »

For the mocks I put my planning at the back of the workbook, one reviewer told me that was good and another told me to put it at the front because they nearly missed it... Quite confused now but I'll probably put it at the back.

I wouldn't worry about that for the main exam. The speed and accuracy with which they mark the mock papers will be nothing compared to the real thing. In the real thing the examiner will have to look through the entire answer booklet and is obliged to take into account anything written within that booklet no matter where it is. To be safe, you could just put a note to examiner on the first page referring the your workings at the back.

FAEStudent2014

For the mocks, I had the first two pages of planning, noting indicators etc, next two pages was my executive summary - summarising my conclusion for each indicator and then behind that I just went one by one of the indicators.. Mentioned no appendices or anything! Got really good comments about layout and good planning and that answer was easy to follow!

Philip1988

How many indicators should we expect on the elective paper?

And do we need to be RC or C in them?

Nead23

Does anyone have a one page summary of all the tax reliefs?

Dellboy2007

Philip1988 wrote: »

How many indicators should we expect on the elective paper?

And do we need to be RC or C in them?

Elective is marked solely on sufficiency, there is no set benchmark but sean Murray said that if there was 10 indicators for example, it would be logical that if you got 5 C's that this would be enough to pass sufficiency.

lowenstein

just picking people's brains here did anyone do the aae elective for 2013 and find it much harder than the other years past exams papers? maybe my brain is just a bit fried.

joannejose2011

AM21 wrote: »

I did FAE 2013- I have all of the core books and the audit elective books. If anybody wants them, they're yours for free. But I would prefer if whoever takes them takes all of them! thanks!

Hi,

I need those books..is it still available..

LOccitane

lowenstein wrote: »

just picking people's brains here did anyone do the aae elective for 2013 and find it much harder than the other years past exams papers? maybe my brain is just a bit fried.

Hey - I thought the 2011 Paper was by far the worst? The volume in there on the third Sim was criminal... Some of the practice cases also have material that we never covered such as Company Law provisions on distributable reserves and modification to the audit report in that regard.

Also, with the increased emphasis on Corp Gov this year - I'm half wondering if we'll get one Sim that at least touches on the Auditor's Review of the Corp Gov Statement...

myshirt

LOccitane wrote: »

I'm half wondering if we'll get one Sim that at least touches on the Auditor's Review of the Corp Gov Statement...

Do you know what, I think the indications are that they'd love an indicator like that. It has spread across the competency statement.

Also, something worth touching on, no harm, is the audit committee having to report to the board on their activities during the year. It's new in the Corp Gov statement and has similar appeal.

searunner

Not long now until the FAE 2014 begins.

As a serial repeater who finally passed both the Core and Elective on my 3rd sitting, i give the following advice.

Develop a plan on how you structure your answer template, i spent more time last year on developing a structure in which i was able to develop my answers and make each indicator flow in to each other.

Read the paper in full, put the key issues into your structure and ensure as you reread a second time you can put more meat on the bones of the key issues by adding additional information given in the case. From your structure you will see a theme developing, this might not be given in black and white, but there could be a major issue which you might need to recognise on the indicators given.

Make sure you take a note of the indicators. if you miss one on the Tuesday make sure you hit in on the Wednesday.

I skimmed over the CG indicator in last years exam, and i still passed, so don't beat yourself up if you do miss on indicator on any given day.

Have sticky notes on each of the IAS and ISA's stuck on the inside of your notes, this will save time looking through your notes.

This exam is a test of endurance as much as intelligence, be steady and don't panic if something you havent seen before comes up. its about application of common-sense responses, What would your Manager do in this situation. If a technical indicator comes up, ensure you know how to apply the theory to the situation.

Best of luck to ye all.

Roll on November

lowenstein

LOccitane wrote: »

Hey - I thought the 2011 Paper was by far the worst? The volume in there on the third Sim was criminal... Some of the practice cases also have material that we never covered such as Company Law provisions on distributable reserves and modification to the audit report in that regard.

Also, with the increased emphasis on Corp Gov this year - I'm half wondering if we'll get one Sim that at least touches on the Auditor's Review of the Corp Gov Statement...

what would that even mean like?? Comparing their structure to the cg code??

ted2767

Hey guys passed last yr and had a look at the thread and wanted to give you guys my advice.

First I think it's vital you have your strategy planned out on the day re timing, planning etc. personally I spent almost as much time planning as actually writing.

Second I found last yr that using tools like SWOT analysis to be excellent as it means you cover all angles of a scenario.

Third for presentation I used tables where possible it lays out your solutions in a clear structured manner.

Forth you will come across indicators that you can't have prepared for no matter how many cases you do. The key is to approach it in a logical manner it's nearly as important here not to suggest something ridiculous as anything else.

Fifth link in your indicators if at all possible last yr there was a purchasing manager who wanted to buy cheap material this linked to fin reporting, costing and finance indicators.

Lastly make sure you finish the paper it's obvious but it improves your chances of passing even a few bullets may get you an RC which gets you over the line.

Best of luck to everybody.

Dreaming of sunshine

Did anyone else think the Runways case was crap? Couldn't believe indicator one was actually an indicator. And surely you wouldn't get away with answers to indicators 4 and 5 like the ones in the solution? They seem way too low on detail?? That being said, there wasn't a lot on the case to go on I suppose....

m1ck007

Is there anypoint doing the steps cases. They take about four hours to read and identify the indicators. Did the gems case today and got a lot out of it. Seems like the steps cases are out of sync.

Tricky1979

Hi all. Has anybody done distress financing ltd recently? Solution says as controlling shareholders neither get any relief for investment in dfl. I would have thought seed capital relief would have been applicable to both? If somebody could shed some light if would be appreciated. It's indicator 4.

suref

Tricky1979 wrote: »

Hi all. Has anybody done distress financing ltd recently? Solution says as controlling shareholders neither get any relief for investment in dfl. I would have thought seed capital relief would have been applicable to both? If somebody could shed some light if would be appreciated. It's indicator 4.

Haven't got it in front of me but there are a list of trades excluded from it (page 51 of the tax book) and financing activities are excluded

maninblack

m1ck007 wrote: »

Is there anypoint doing the steps cases. They take about four hours to read and identify the indicators. Did the gems case today and got a lot out of it. Seems like the steps cases are out of sync.

Agreed, the Steps cases are a joke, way harder than we're likely to face

Did that MiTo one today. 2 pages of an Appendix of issues with the cash and invoicing system. There was literally about 20 things wrong with it, information overload :rolleyes:

Tricky1979

suref wrote: »

Haven't got it in front of me but there are a list of trades excluded from it (page 51 of the tax book) and financing activities are excluded

Thanks for that. Actually reckon it's as a prof service co rather than providing finance but I got that from your page ref. a pity the solution would not clarify this!

Dreaming of sunshine

Guys... meltdown moment has arrived...don't think I can do this! I honestly feel like there's nothing in my head and that I'm going backwards even though my folders are. I start cases with max motivation and get RC/C in some indicators but there's also so many I's where I just tackle it all wrong(audit especially) or I miss the point altogether putting me in the red zone. Thought with 2 weeks to go i'd feel confident but think I was more confident 8 weeks ago what should I do?? Will sticking to cases really get me by?

zathan

There is still loads of time so no need to panic yet, or at all!

I would suggest the following:

1. Take a day off to break the routine that your in - if your not comfortable taking a day off doing nothing exam related, then just take a day off cases and sort out your folders or read a few business articles online - I did this last week and made a huge difference - the daily routine and cycle of case study after case study can have diminishing returns!

2. Take out Derry Cotters book "Problem Solving and The FAE" and go through it again - it puts things back in perspective after dredging through so much material and so many case studies.

3. Review the competency statement for areas that you are not fully up to speed on and review them / have reference material on them. It's also a good way of instilling some confidence in yourself by just ticking off what you know - don't forget that on the day you will most likely remember a lot more than you think - under exam conditions and pressure I find that I perform somewhat better!

Also from reading back through this and other old FAE Threads, it's clear that a lot of those who pass and look at the solutions produced say that they don't know how they passed as their solutions were nothing like what the institute produced - while elements of the exam have prescriptive answers - such as with Financial Reporting (The Standards) and Auditing, a lot of the exam is subjective and open to interpretation - I get hung up on lots of the suggested solutions but the fact is there is more then one answer to many indicators and if you are not totally off the ball and are logical in your reasoning and link your answer to the information in the case study, and what you write makes sense and is value adding then it's hard to see how you could be marked NC or otherwise.

I've been doing case after case and you just need to step back and take in what's going on - that's clearly where the planning element comes into play - a logical graphical plan helps I find.

With regards to audit, I would suggest printing the PQA's and having them as your reference and then think of what stage in the audit process the indicator is referring to - eg if it's planning, the go to Section B of the PQA's and say then pre audit acceptance - all the logical relevant items are there and the ES's and Standards are referenced - so you can reference these in your answer.

I'm by far anyway confident yet in my knowledge of all the areas, and don't envisage I will be but you just have to keep the bright side up and remember it's just an exam - that's hard for me to say/ do but it's the reality - you can only do your best!

littlemiss123

Dreaming of sunshine wrote: »

Guys... meltdown moment has arrived...don't think I can do this! I honestly feel like there's nothing in my head and that I'm going backwards even though my folders are. I start cases with max motivation and get RC/C in some indicators but there's also so many I's where I just tackle it all wrong(audit especially) or I miss the point altogether putting me in the red zone. Thought with 2 weeks to go i'd feel confident but think I was more confident 8 weeks ago what should I do?? Will sticking to cases really get me by?

I reached this point last Wednesday! You're not alone!!!

Some great words of encouragement Zathan!!!

jny107

What are the PQAs??

littlemiss123

jny107 wrote: »

What are the PQAs??

Procedures for Quality Audit. They are uploaded onto the student site, or else I think someone uploaded them to this thread a while back .

jny107

littlemiss123 wrote: »

Procedures for Quality Audit. They are uploaded onto the student site, or else I think someone uploaded them to this thread a while back .

Is this for elective or core? If core could somebody please upload here? I don't have access to the student site

littlemiss123

jny107 wrote: »

Is this for elective or core? If core could somebody please upload here? I don't have access to the student site

Here ya go.

For both. They just represent an audit procedures toolkit. They're a useful summary for the exam. We had them at CAP 2 level too.

PhilipLuke

Timing is killing me

Tyrone2014

Is anyone else struggling with the consolidation indicators from this years mock core exam?

acastudent

Tyrone2014 wrote: »

Is anyone else struggling with the consolidation indicators from this years mock core exam?

Yes big time

Not a tall

Has anybody done the Argon Visio STEPS Case?

Any idea how the contributions from the contributions from the different projects were calculated? And how did they arrive at the €500k provision against the Twinkle project?

FAEStudent2014

Tyrone2014 wrote: »

Is anyone else struggling with the consolidation indicators from this years mock core exam?

Yes I still can't do them or even understand them! I've come to the fact that nothing that hard can come up, more of wishful thinking

autumnbelle

which case is the gems case? Is it an exam case?

Accountant81

autumnbelle wrote: »

which case is the gems case? Is it an exam case?

It's from the self study pack.

PhilipLuke

How are people approaching planning for the sims?

Plan all the sims and start answering or plan one sim then answer the indicators, plan the second sim and answer the indicators

Schickadee

In de vere where is the 3200 coming from in roce calc n capital gearing calc?? Someone plse tell me?

Torres999

Anyone seen how bad the building fixes case is, Indicator 1 in particular could be the worst I've seen to date, wasted an hour reading and planning that, vaguest indicators of any case I've seen

PhilipLuke

Torres999 wrote: »

Anyone seen how bad the building fixes case is, Indicator 1 in particular could be the worst I've seen to date, wasted an hour reading and planning that, vaguest indicators of any case I've seen

Joke!

Accountant81

Torres999 wrote: »

Anyone seen how bad the building fixes case is, Indicator 1 in particular could be the worst I've seen to date, wasted an hour reading and planning that, vaguest indicators of any case I've seen

Where is that case?

Torres999

Self study cases

PhilipLuke

Has anyone any extra Financial Reporting questions for practice?
I have covered Derry Cotters book but there are a few standards where there are only one or two questions

Accountant81

PhilipLuke wrote: »

Has anyone any extra Financial Reporting questions for practice?
I have covered Derry Cotters book but there are a few standards where there are only one or two questions

Try going back over the AAFRP papers maybe? I haven't got there yet though.

donnem33

donnem33 wrote: »

was just wondering how people are studying for strategy?

anyone?

PhilipLuke

donnem33 wrote: »

anyone?

I did the cases at the back of the book!! Made notes of the basics ie. Areas of Strategy, What is the Vision, Mission, Objectives, SWOT Analysis, Environmental Analysis, Pestal Analysis

Also as you do cases, print off the strategy solutions and have them in your summary folder, they will help you build up your knowledge of strategy and you will see a trend in preparing solutions

autumnbelle

Anyone else just not able to motivate themselves at this stage? I keep telling myself only 2 more weeks but feel like I'm getting nothing covered.