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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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STUDENT ACCOUNTANTACCA’S MAGAZINE FOR TRAINEES
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ToP fiVe eXam TiPs:1 Believe in yourself2 Learn the concepts3 Use mind maps4 You are not a genius – so revise5 If you have done everything that you can, be
confident and have faith in your knowledge
X
It’s virtually impossible to carry out a modern-day role as a finance professional without being an effective communicator. Whether you’re chasing payment from customers, patiently explaining the need for purchase orders to reluctant line managers or negotiating credit terms with suppliers, a whole host of factors around how you speak, write, and even listen can determine how successfully you subsequently perform in your job – as well as how you’re perceived by people you liaise with (internally and externally), and those who can influence your career progression.
Not everyone is a ‘natural communicator’ – but here’s the good news: verbal and written communication skills can be learned. After all, it’s something you can practise in every facet of your life.
But what can you do to improve the way you communicate? Here are a few useful pointers:
• Watch and learn from colleagues (or even public figures) who never leave anyone in any doubt as to what they mean. How might you modify your tone, volume, or vocabulary – while retaining your own personal style – to ensure you’re understood perfectly?
• Generate opportunities to stand up and talk to groups – such as explaining a new procedure to a departmental team or conducting a Q&A session on a specific area of your expertise with colleagues. Doing this as a pair to start with (perhaps with your workplace mentor) will help build your confidence in front of an audience.
• Audit your emails – tighten the waffle, clear up all that ambiguity and ‘listen’ to your tone: if you’re after something from your correspondent, are you asking in a way that’s likely to achieve the desired result? Could you sound more assertively persuasive, or less severely demanding? (Reading aloud first is a constructively revealing strategy).
• Don’t sit in silence during meetings – voicing your opinion or asking good questions not only forces you to make yourself understood by people at different levels and of various backgrounds, you’ll also cultivate an image of self-assurance (and the meetings will seem much faster too).
• Identify and attend career and networking events, especially those that involve participation, such as
Po 5: communicaTe effecTiVely
role playing to improve interviewing or negotiating skills.
• Be proactive and volunteer for committees or projects. Why not see how you can contribute your skills and experience to your local ACCA network? You’ll never be short of opportunities to stretch those communication skills.
• Learn to ‘actively listen’ – show you’re paying attention to the speaker and respond with honest feedback, or by repeating back the essence of what you understand you’ve been told.
• Practise purposeful writing – think about the outcome you want from any written exercise. What will the reader have to do with this report? How should people make best use of this procedure manual? What decision do you want from this proposal? If you read this document, would you know what action to take?
• Take meaningful telephone messages – if you don’t understand them, the chances are your colleagues won’t.
• Always prepare properly for effective face-to-face communication – if you’re on time, well presented and, most importantly, know your stuff (or at least know what you want to find out), your confidence will shine
through, and you’ll be far more readily listened to and understood.
Other examples are listed online – but why not try (at least once each day) to consciously consider how you’re planning to communicate something, and do one thing that’s different in order to improve your effectiveness?
The next step is to answer the three unique challenge questions:
• Describe situations where you have effectively demonstrated each of the forms of communication mentioned. (Think about what was required, in what format and with what purpose.)
• What did you do to help you communicate effectively? (Consider the method of communication used and why you decided to convey the information that way.)
• How have your communication skills helped you to improve your performance elsewhere? (What tangible results or qualitative outcomes have been achieved, and how might these have been lessened had you not stepped up your effort to communicate effectively?)
This performance objective is linked to all ACCA Qualification papers.
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Po 6: using informaTion and communicaTions Technology
Technology plays a central role in virtually every finance team. Today’s professional accountants must be web savvy, spreadsheet literate and comfortable adapting to new or bespoke software – especially those who aspire to wider business management and leadership roles. And mastering technology won’t just make you super-efficient in the workplace; you’ll be streets ahead of technophobic colleagues who shun any chance to turn computers to their advantage.
Whether you’re gathering or analysing data, preparing presentations or reports, building financial models, stress-testing budgets or implementing new systems, there’s no escaping technology for handling information and communicating your messages. But that means there are plenty of ways in which you can build and demonstrate your competency:
• Take advantage of relevant free downloads to expand your software knowledge – you’ll develop a mindset that’s totally adaptable to technology, making it easier for you to pick up any new software.
• Make the most of any tutorials that accompany your company software, or find them online.
• Join website forums where you can swap ideas and ask questions on various applications – often, the best hints and tips come from experienced users, not the manufacturers or vendors.
• Get into the habit of using the help facility on your PC to resolve any problems, or find out how to do something yourself, instead of always being first on the phone to your employer’s IT support helpdesk.
• If you use spreadsheets, try to master at least one useful new piece of functionality each week. Find the fastest shortcuts and demonstrate your prowess in the files that you use in the office.
• Learn to conduct advanced internet searches – watch your search times decrease and your results become more highly targeted.
• Teach yourself how to build and manage a database, from creating a basic structure through entering data to writing sophisticated reports and queries.
• Improve your organisational capability (and impress your boss) by tracking any projects with spreadsheet-based Gantt charts or by using specific project management software.
• Boost your presentation skills by getting to grips with PowerPoint or other slideshow applications, making you less reliant on colleagues in marketing or design.
• Make the most of your phone – learn how to use mobile technology to keep up to date with business and financial news, or sign up with a recruitment agency for SMS job alerts.
• If your tuition provider offers online facilities – such as podcasts, video lectures or chat rooms – take full advantage.
• Manage your schedule more effectively by integrating all your
emails, diary appointments and to-do lists.
The next step is to answer the three unique challenge questions:
• Describe your experience of using information technology. (Think about the reasons you’ve used IT and what challenges you may have to overcome.)
• How have you applied your IT skills to improve your personal performance? (List the ways in which you do certain parts of your job better, faster, or more accurately.)
• How have your IT skills and associated improved performance benefited the wider organisation? (Consider how you might have contributed to streamlining procedures, helping the team, saving money or time, impressing customers or suppliers, or coaching others to use IT more effectively.)
This performance objective is linked to all ACCA Qualification papers.
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Po 7: manage ongoing acTiViTies in your area of resPonsibiliTy
Whatever your level of seniority, it’s your responsibility to ensure that you effectively manage your day-to-day activities. Your career will progress faster and more in line with your long-term objectives if you can demonstrate an ability to plan ahead without needing your hand held at every step of the way.
Most good employers will, of course, provide relevant training and coaching – but it’s how you stand on your own two feet that will mark you out from your peers. That includes identifying and mitigating risk, working with (or delegating to) others, and setting and meeting the expectations of everyone you deal with, from colleagues to customers, from senior management to suppliers. You’ll also need to encourage innovation – in yourself and in others – as well as being on top of relevant business processes for your team’s function.
There are a number of ways in which you can show how well you manage activities in your areas of responsibility:
• Identify relevant people within your team to whom you can delegate work, explaining your requirements patiently and clearly, reviewing progress on a timely basis and providing meaningful feedback.
• Think outside the box – set time aside to consider potential innovative solutions or improvements, such as ending existing duplications in business processes, creating or updating system or process manuals, or sharing tips or specialist know-how with colleagues.
• Monitor feedback of those with whom you liaise – demonstrating listening skills, considering both negative and positive responses and taking appropriate next steps.
Remember that effective management of your own ongoing responsibilities requires a firm grip on the bigger picture. That means understanding how your role and that of your team fit within not just an organisational context but in wider political, economic, social, and technological realms. A professional accountant must also be able to apply their intelligence to support other functions within the business.
The next step is to answer the three unique challenge questions:
• Describe how you have managed the ongoing (business as usual) activities in your role. (A good way to look at this is to imagine interviewing someone for your own job – how would you explain the responsibilities from the perspective of doing it in the very best way possible?)
• Explain where you have recommended your own approach to managing ongoing activities to others and why. (This might be as informal as impulsively – and successfully – coaching a more junior colleague, or in a more official capacity as part of a supervisory role.)
• How does your approach to managing your activities contribute to organisation performance? (Consider the tasks you perform in the widest possible context, including where they sit between colleagues who might deal with documents or process components before or after you, and how your work might impact on outcomes such as efficiency, profitability, transparency or social sustainability.)
This performance objective is linked to all ACCA Qualification papers.
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The purpose of a technical article is to do one of the following:• Elaborate on a technical area in which
students perform badly in the exam• Give extra information about areas
that are newer to the syllabus, which may therefore have less coverage than more traditional areas
• Give an examiner’s specific focus on a given topic
The articles are not intended for one sitting only, with the possible exception of taxation. Tax articles tend to be updated annually to comply with legal changes. Otherwise, we aim for a suite of articles relating to a paper.
Students should give equal attention to all articles on the website in preparation for a specific exam. Articles are not simply written to target one exam.
Since changing to the new syllabus, any articles deemed equally relevant to a new paper were carried forward. These have as much value as more recent articles.
All technical articles – whether written by examiners or other writers – are equally important as no article is published if it does not assist students in some way.
imPorTanT
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To increase processing speed and reliability, ACCA is launching a fully online service for registration, exam entry, exam dockets, exam results and certificates.
From 1 August 2012, these services will be available exclusively online and will no longer be issued as paper documents in China, South Africa, Russia, Romania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Malta, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
Most students are currently interacting with ACCA online and this initiative reflects student demand for, and positive feedback on, our online services.
The June 2012 exam results will be made available for students to view online and sent by email or SMS from 8 August 2012. ACCA has also introduced a service that lets students print out their results via the ACCA student portal, myACCA.
Students in all countries can print an official notification of their results via myACCA. Paper copies of exam results will not be issued to students in the above listed locations.
acca sTudenTs go onlineACCA rolls out web-bAsed system for exAm results And other student serviCes
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ACCA undertakes many checks and controls during the marking process to ensure that all exam results are accurate. Before the marking starts, markers attend a meeting with the examiner to discuss the exam paper and agree a detailed marking scheme. The examiner moderates the marking process closely and there are various steps in place during the marking process to enable the examiner to review marked scripts to ensure that the marking scheme is being applied consistently by all markers. In addition the examiner pays special attention to scripts where marginal marks have been awarded. Checks are also built in to the marking software used by markers to ensure that each question on your script has been marked, the marks have been recorded against the correct question and that the total for the final mark is correct.
Altogether, there are nine independent checks during the marking process to verify that data returned to ACCA by markers is correct. Any discrepancies that
are found during this process are investigated and resolved before results are finalised. Once your results have been added to your student record, and your entry options have been created for the next exam session, ACCA then conducts further checks to ensure that the results are accurate before they are released.
The quality controls applied at each stage of the marking process ensure the integrity of ACCA’s results data. However, ACCA recognises that students may sometimes feel that their results do not reflect their perceived performance in the exam. In response to this, you can request an administrative review of your results if you:• receive an absent mark but you
were present at the exam and submitted an exam paper
• were not present at an exam but received a mark for your paper
• feel that ACCA’s quality controls have not been applied properly in arriving at your mark.
The marking ProcessAt the December 2011 session 891 administrative reviews were carried out. One error material to the overall result was confirmed and, as a consequence, the result originally awarded to the candidate was changed.
You can request an administrative review for any paper-based exam attempted. The administrative reviews allow ACCA to ensure transparency and fairness. As an additional benefit to this service, along with the outcome of your review, you will receive a breakdown of passes and fails for each question attempted.
The deadline for requesting an administrative review of your June 2012 results is 3 September 2012. You will receive written confirmation of the outcome of the review in the week commencing 10 September 2012.
Should an error be found in the review, you will receive the corrected mark before the exam entry closing date for the next session. Your mark will be adjusted to reflect your true result.
Please note that your mark may be lowered if an administrative error had inflated your original mark. If your mark is amended as a result of the administrative review, you will receive a refund of your review fee and a revised Examination Entry Form, if applicable.
If, on receipt of the outcome of your administrative review, you believe that ACCA has not applied its procedures properly, you may appeal to the Exam Appeals Committee.
To do this, you should submit your appeal in writing to the head of examinations within eight working days of the issue of your administrative review. Your appeal will then be forwarded to the committee for consideration.
To request an administrative review, complete the form available at www.accaglobal.com/en/student/Exams/Exam-results/Administrative-reviews.html
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