The way help you to pass ACCA P5, change your mindset!

　　The way help you to pass ACCA P5, change your mindset!
 

　　At my last class for the ACCA December 2014 examination, the feedback and response from students astonished me, and that has inspired me to write this article to share some of the views from the June 2014 examiner’s report. I will offer suggestions to help P5 students to go forward and to begin preparing for the coming exam in Dec 2014
 

　　I asked students why they failed in the last exam. Some thought they did well, but did not know why the failed instead, and one of them was only one mark short of passing. Based on our analysis of the results, giving memorized answers seems to be one of the causes of failure, as students have admitted that they had done so.

　　The 2014 examiner report says, “Those who come to exam expecting to repeat memorized material will probably score only between 20-30%." One student said that she did not provide memorized answer, but when we were discussing on questions, she said that it was similar to the one given in the past exam. At that moment, I asked her, “So did you memorize the answer?”, she paused and then realized that her memorized answer had affected the way she answered that exam question.
 

　　The examiner commented, “Performance management is an area which, at advanced level, is dependent upon situation and environment”. From a practical point of view, one can imagine that situation and environment changes all the time, even within the same company, and more so in different situations and environments. Memorizing an answer means one fixes the situation and environment at one point in time and for a specific scenario. Unlike the law and financial reports, tax and audit etc., where memorization is required as there are fixed requirements and where the scenario may change, but the outcome is fixed, for e.g. the financial report.

　　The examiner goes on to say that knowledge, techniques and models should be related to the given scenario and the entity's specific environment. A good, professional-level answer will go beyond the mere repetition of the techniques, or merely providing an answer from a similar past year question on a specific environment and apply that to the a different situation stated in the question.  Remember, there is no such thing as model answers for P5, and memorized answer is not acceptable. Each question has to be analyzed and answered on its own merit. This will require a change of mindset from the students, as the examiner puts it so nicely, yet in great seriousness, “the students should have the right overall attitude to P5 which is intended to lie at a post-graduate level”. At a post-graduate level, the student is expected to "draw on knowledge gained across your studies to date" in order to present complete solutions to relatively broad business issues or problems. So the way to go is to begin with changing your mindset, on how you study and on how to approach the questions!
 

　　Learning to understand the basic knowledge is the first step. To do away with memorization is to make sure you understand what you are learning. Most students are used to memorization that they do not really understand the knowledge they learned. Some students are used to learning in Chinese, so they can only understand well when the material is presented in Chinese. Bear in mind that you are taking an international professional exam set in English. Students have to learn to understand the knowledge in English so that they could apply it in English during the exam. This needs a lot of practice, and it cannot be done sufficiently enough in only a few short months when preparing for the examination. Students with this habit have to change their mindset by beginning to learn to understand the knowledge in English only.

　　Let us take an example quoted by the Examiner in his 2014 report:

　　Many candidates at this diet failed to read the requirement properly:

　　Question 1 (i) asked candidates to ‘Evaluate the current performance report in Appendix 1’.

　　And not ‘Evaluate the current performance of Cantor using Appendix 1

　　In this example, by a mere one word difference between the preposition “in” and the verb “using”, we can see that there is a great difference in the answer that can be given. .

　　Most of the students in China do not have an English language environment and hence their incomplete cultural understanding of the language usage. The only way is to practice more questions to understand the different words used in examination questions. Practice does not imply memorization at all, it means practice to understand well and train your mind to respond appropriately.
 

　　In the 2014 June examiner’s report, the advice of the examiner is "future candidates should be aware that the ability to *uate the reporting of key management information in a business is an essential skill at P5”. Learning this key skill is to begin with learning to identify useful and relevant information presented in the examination question. To identify the useful key information is to learn to ask questions to clarify one’s understanding in relation to its usefulness and relevance to the questions asked. At the first class, we did this exercise. Many students identified the important information, but with no relevance to the questions asked. Students also realized that sometimes certain important information was given basically to test if he/she has a clear mind and the ability to identify and assess the information. Sometimes all information seems to be important and the students get very confused. One of the challenges faced by students is to ask questions to clarify the understanding, and again this will need guidance and practice. Being able to discuss with others will enhance this understanding.

　　Steps to prepare for examination:

　　1.         Internalize, that is to understand the basic knowledge.

　　2.         Practice critical thinking when analyzing the question content.

　　3.         Practice reading the question requirement carefully and really understand what they examiner wants from you to answer the question.

　　4.         Learn to make plan to identify info to meet those requirements.

　　5.         Learn the skill of identifying relevant and useful info and fit those info into your plan.

　　6.         Prepare answer to the question, paying attention to the format and use simple language to provide clear answer.

　　7.         For each topic, practice at least 4 questions using the above steps.

　　8.         Try doing mock examination yourself.
 

　　Performance Management is a subject that puts you in touch with the real business world.  Many businesses failed in this rapidly changing world. Performance management, in a nutshell, is to help the business to triumph in this competitive and ever changing business world. Decades ago, the business world is not as complicated and sophisticated; one can just do business and will be able to do well. Technological advancement has changed how business is being done now.  Performance management is seeking to bridge that need to help business to remain sustainable.  With this mission in mind, P5 at a professional level will not be confined to just knowledge but also to the needs of the real business world right now. And this will require one to have a more complete and diverse knowledge. As many students do not have the experience, it is to free their mind by developing their imagination to try and develop specific business and functional awareness of these areas. So, it is worthwhile to spend time to understand this subject for your future career, not just to prepare for examination.
 

　　As the saying goes ‘ 好的開始是成功的一半’, learn to understand, develop your skills and be systematic in your study and preparation for the examination, which is testing your capability in analysis and application and then to *uation, as stated in the ACCA 2014 June examiner’s report.

 　　　　　　

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