Saturday, August 30, 2008

If you are studying ACCA F5, ...

In June 2008 sittings, F5 was the one with the lowest passing rate among all fundamental level papers. The current passing rate of 28% is even lower than that of the previous sitting. With that in mind, students should realize that this particular paper demands quite a lot of efforts.

You can compare the passing rates of F5 with other papers in the following table.
















There are a few things I would like to highlight if you are going to attempt F5 in this coming exam.

First of all, the thorough understanding of the topics under the syllabus is critical. In addition to textbooks and exam kits, you may read through online articles published on Student Accountant. For your reference, I list them down in the following.

  1. Costing basics for the 21st century
  2. Just-in-time operations and backflush accounting
  3. The ABC of overheads
  4. Relevant costs for decisions
  5. Relevant costs for decisions Part 2: identifying relevant costs
  6. Beyond Budgeting
  7. Variance analysis
  8. Variance analysis - part 1
  9. Standard costs - an effective tool for business?
  10. Standard costing and fixed and flexed budgets
  11. Performance Management
  12. The balance scorecard
These articles help improve your level of understanding on the subject matters.

Another thing is that, in the exam hall, time manageement is crucial although this is so not just for this paper. I didn't have enought time to complete the whole paper on jun 2008 sitting. About 30 marks of the paper was left answered although this is partly due to my lack of exam practice.

These are just some minor tips I could share with you as a student who attempted F5 in the last sitting. Hopefully these bits of information plus your hard work guarantee a pass for you in F5.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Blog Intro

Let me introduce to you two blogs in this post.

The first is focused on accounting and ACCA related stuff. I came across this site while making a Google search about some ACCA topics.

The second is mainly on Insurance, finance and current affairs in Singapore. The blog owner is a retiree from NTUC Income who completed 30 years as a Chief Executive.

Good Day

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Exam Results

Yesterday I was filled with excitement and anxiety expecting ACCA exam results. I was anxious because I was convinced that I will fail F5 after coming out from exam hall with approximately 30 marks left answered. In the end, around 12:15pm Singapore time, the exam results were out and i was released to learn that I did not fail any papers. I was happy that I cleared both F4 and F5 in one time while, at the same time, I was equally sad that some friends did not get through certain papers. I sincerely sympatize with them as it's tough to muster up enough spirit to try another round again. It reminds me of a quote by Sir Winston Churchill.

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal."

For me, this quote is useful in a time when we are emotionally down.

Anyway whether we pass or we fail, we got to try to move on and get geared up ourselves for the next round. As Churchill continued to say, it's the courage to continue that counts.