Feedback from the Examinations Team
General guidance applicable to all papers.
Following the April and August 2023 sittings of the CPA Ireland examinations, the examinations team for each subject have reflected upon the recurring issues they encountered while marking the scripts. The observations and commentary are focused on addressing those weaknesses demonstrated in scripts that failed to reach the required standard. High quality scripts were submitted, and they avoided many of the errors observed below.
As a general observation, for all papers, the importance of attempting all parts of questions selected was stressed by the marking teams. Examination scripts are carefully reviewed, and students receive generous interpretation of their attempts. The only circumstances where this cannot occur is where no attempt has been made.
Report writing skills were noticeably poor among scripts. Candidates should practice standard formats for reports and employ these in the exam. Where a particular format is requested there will usually be some marks available for presenting in this style – take advantage of these easy marks. There is the facility to attempt past questions in a simulated exam environment. This resource must be used by candidates. Candidates will find resources to support their exam performance at our online exams page.
Students are reminded of the recorded webinar on Open Book Exams. This is applicable to all exams at the Strategic Level.
Subject specific guidance:
Financial Accounting
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Practice the long question (SOPL & OCI & SOFP) and the double entries (not t-accounts) required for the long question over and over. This is now a 40-mark question, and it is highly likely to appear on the paper so students should be scoring around 30 marks here to set them up well for passing the paper.
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Journal entries are often required and are a source of weakness for candidates. Master this area.
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Historically there has been a ‘standards’ question worth 20 marks on the paper so looking at the syllabus, there are 6 IFRS standards to review and know which isn’t overly taxing for a student to have studied.
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Review past MCQ’s and ensure that you can score a good mark from this question.
These points should ensure that a well-prepared student will be able to pass the exam paper.
Management Accounting
Attempting all compulsory questions is essential. Overheads and variances are a core topic and are frequently examined, this topic must be mastered. Please refer to the article Understanding Variance Analysis for a review of this topic.
Attempting more than the required number of optional questions is time consuming and costly. Question selection should be an area of focus during your preparations.
Practice MCQ style questions and do not underestimate the challenge presented by this style of question. Broad syllabus coverage is essential to perform well on this question.
Recent past questions provide the best basis for preparation.
Taxation
The format of this paper has seen very little change in recent sittings and therefore these recent past papers provide the most useful resource in preparation for this exam. Capital taxes have been poorly attempted across all taxation papers and will be a focus of future papers. A relevant article Capital Gains Tax – Back to Basics should be studied and understood.
Candidates should emphasise the importance of compliance dates etc as they will feature in the 2024 exams.
Management Fundamentals
Candidates benefitted from the introduction of MCQs onto the paper. This allowed them to demonstrate an understanding of the breath of the syllabus. The major concern remains in relation to their ability to present essay style answers. Bullet points without sufficient adequate explanation or reference to real world examples are insufficient.
Candidates should prepare for questions that seek their ability to evaluate and present examples in an organisational context.
Financial Reporting
Certain key topics are frequently examined on this paper. Students should be prepared for questions relating to Consolidations and either Cash flow statements or Interpretation will appear among the compulsory section of the paper. It is essential that candidates master these areas as those failing to achieve the necessary 50 marks in the 2023 exam sittings invariable performed poorly in these areas.
Complete the easy elements of the consolidated balance sheet where no workings required.
Performance Management
Variances are a core topic and feature in almost every exam, this is an area that requires the application of a methodological approach and should provide good mark earning opportunities for all candidates. This topic must be a focus for exam preparation and must be mastered. Recent past questions provide the best basis for preparation.
A webinar Advanced Variance Analysis is available on this specific subject. Additionally a number of articles address this subject on the Related Articles page.
It is important that candidates should show workings fully for quantitative questions. In this way, candidates can score a good mark on a question if their solution methods are mostly correct even if they make an error which results in them arriving at the wrong answer.
Advanced Taxation
Some improvement has been observed specifically in relation to VAT questions and the presentation of income tax computations online. Corporation tax is weaker and capital taxes are very poorly understood. These tax heads will continue to feature significantly on the paper and must be a focus of study in preparation for the exam. Compliance dates will always attract marks and represent easily attainable marks for candidates.
While the syllabus is broad, it is important to emphasize that students are expected to be able to present tax calculations clearly, including workings and explanations where required. Recent past papers remain the most useful tool for revision.
Corporate Law
Recent past questions remain the most useful tool to prepare for the exam. Students must ensure they are familiar with the content of recently published articles (available on the ‘Related Articles’ page on the CPA Ireland website).
Read the question carefully and only answer the question being asked – in particular review what the question is asking you – such as “list”, “explain”, “outline” …
Avoid a discussion of irrelevant issues – this will not gain you additional marks.
Always define the legal concepts, and include explanatory case law, where appropriate. Even if your application is not correct – you will still be awarded marks where you have explained the relevant concepts.
Audit & Assurance
The link between Audit and Financial Reporting has been a feature of recent exams with candidates expected to perform some calculations and extract appropriate amounts. The performance has been weak, and this is an area where students should expect further examination. Risk assessment is a recurring topic and those risks identified must relate to the specific circumstances of the case presented. Familiarity with recently published articles specifically related to this subject is essential. Candidates should be able to distinguish between a reasonable (statutory) and a limited assurance engagement.
Managerial Finance
Question 1 will again include an investment appraisal question that requires them to forecast a project’s net cash flows and to calculate the NPV of the project.
When answering questions requiring discussion, explanation, critical analysis etc., students need to demonstrate their understanding i.e. bullet points or one sentence answers are not enough. You need to elaborate and / or use examples.
Advanced Financial Reporting
This is an open book exam and there is evidence that students do not take advantage of their permitted access to reference materials to maximise their marks. For example, number of scripts in the April sitting failed to present the Cash Flow Statement in an appropriate format. This should have been readily accessible from their reference materials.
That said, it is important to be very selective with regard to this material as experience in prior years has shown that an over reliance on it is likely to be time consuming and unproductive. Practice using these materials as efficiently as possible.
All primary financial statements are examinable, and students should expect to see all statements appear on this paper over time. This point has been highlighted previously and therefore candidates ignore them at their peril.
Attempting all elements of your chosen questions (compulsory plus optional) is the only way to provide the marking team with the opportunity to award marks.
Strategy & Leadership
The change to the format of this exam paper is beneficial in that it facilitates a compulsory question on both Strategy and Leadership. There appears to have been some confusion regarding this change and therefore is stressed in advance of August.
No ‘industry sector’ has been identified for the 2024 examinations as it was felt that this distracted students by directing their attention to a particular area of the economy. The focus of questions will be on the application of the theories and models of strategy and leadership to practical scenarios.
Advanced Tax Strategy
Capital taxes are particularly disappointing. Candidates are unable to deal with reliefs. Compliance dates were examined and could have been addressed by reference to the allowed ‘open book’ materials.
Practice of past exam questions should include the use of the permitted materials. The recommended text contains all the information necessary to address every question. Familiarity with the content and use of this material in the exam will greatly improve performance. Recent past papers remain the most useful tool for revision. All information provided in the paper is relevant and no false/misleading information is presented. Use handwritten notes to identify core points from the question and cut & paste the requirement into the answer to ensure the information is to hand.
Candidates are expected to consider the tax implications of a given scenario across a number of tax headings. Capital Gains Tax, Income Tax, Stamp Duty etc may be relevant considerations and students should be able to identify and consider these issues.
Advanced Audit & Assurance
Candidates need to practice the identification of audit risks that are directly related to the scenario provided. Bullet points without context are insufficient.
Candidates should not assume that there is a “correct” answer to all the questions asked. At this level, there are many possible approaches to the different questions and the examiner will take a holistic view of the candidates’ attempts.
Data Analytics for Finance
Attempting all parts of questions selected is critical in providing the marking them with the opportunity to award marks and therefore move candidates to an overall passing grade.
A feature of open book exams is that candidates should not waste time in the exam by writing answers consisting of material which has been (or could have been) transcribed from a textbook or other published source. Questions are deliberately designed so that they cannot be answered in this way; candidates would receive no marks for transcription-type answers because they are irrelevant to the question asked.
Strategic Corporate Finance
An investment appraisal will continue to form a significant part of this paper. Practice on recent past questions and careful comparison with published solutions will allow students identify their weaknesses and correct basic errors.
In order to pass, candidates need to be able to apply their comprehensive technical knowledge in a previously unseen setting where they need to evaluate given investment opportunities. The project appraisal process is as much an art as science, as such candidates are expected to clearly state any important assumptions that they are making (which of course do not contradict the provided information).