in P7 you are more likely to be asked to analyse a situation and draft or comment on an audit report

 

　　· a common question asked in P7 is “Comment on the matters that you should consider ( 10 marks ) and state the audit evidence that you should expect to find ( 10 marks )”as in F8 there are many “standard” points which can be brought into auditing answers:

 

　　· last year‘s file

 

　　· discussions with management

 

　　· cash element of a transaction

 

　　· additions and calculations

 

　　· written representations

 

　　· internal auditors

 

　　· internal controls

 

　　· schedules prepared by client

 

　　· last year‘s recommendation letter

 

　　· ratio calculation and analytical procedures

 

　　· third party confirmations

 

　　· none of these is sufficient in its unexplained form – it‘s no good saying “Talk to management”

 

　　· you would need to explain exactly why you wish to talk to management, why you want to look at last year‘s audit file or what you want with the internal auditors

 

　　· not all of these will be applicable to all questions – in fact, its unlikely that they will all be applicable to any one question – but at least they can stir your thought processes

 

　　· in the fifteen minutes‘ reading time, start by reading through the requirements of all the questions “noting the rubric of the paper” ( finding out which topics are covered! )

 

　　· say it again!

 

　　· then take any one of them, say the second, and

 

　　· you‘ve nothing else to say? No more points that can be made? You‘re stuck on just nine?

 

　　· try this for each of your original six points – but it doesn‘t always work. Try making two points out of “An auditor reports on whether the financial statements show a true and fair view”!Ok, now we‘re up to more than six – say eight or nine. It‘s still not enough – what if the marker doesn‘t like one or two of those points – maybe they aren‘t really relevant. In addition, you‘re not giving yourself the greatest chance of scoring heavily and achieving a comfortable pass.

 

　　· surely, there are two separate points here – “strength” is one and “continuity” is the second

 

　　· so try this. Take any one of those six points and try to make two points out of it. For instance, if you have used the word “and” within the point, you could make two separate points out of it eg “The auditors should consider the strength of the internal controls and whether those controls have been exercised throughout the reporting period”

 

　　· for the fifteen mark scenario, if at the end of say six minutes you still have only six points, that‘s only 40% of the available marks and that‘s a fail. No good!

 

　　· thus, for a part question worth, say, six marks, that‘s a planning time of three minutes. For a full fifteen marker, that‘s 7.5 minutes planning

 

　　· this is done in your planning time for the question. Planning time? YES!!! Take the number of marks per the question – or, equally important – per part of question. Divide by 2 and that‘s the number of minutes you should be spending planning your answer and trying to stretch those five points into fifteen

 

　　· you therefore need to stretch those five points into ( hopefully! ) fifteen

 

　　· if you have only four or five then, without further things to say, you have a maximum of 27% – 33% of the marks available. Do that enough times and, no matter how good the remaining answers are, you will be unlikely to achieve the necessary 50%

 

　　· this outline plan now needs to be considered – “Have I got enough points to score all the available marks?” How many do you think you‘ll need to score, say, 15? Simple answer -fifteen! That‘s fifteen different, valid, relevant points.

 

　　· now, take the question you feel you could answer best, replicate your plan into your answer paper ( question papers are NOT marked )

 

　　· at the end of the fifteen minutes reading time, you should have four very rough outline plans

 

　　· do this for all four questions!

 

　　· then select the question you feel is the best to omit and jot down on your question paper those points / matters which spring immediately to mind for the other four questions

 

　　· change the subject of the original thought into the object

 

　　· express the point in an alternative manner

 

　　· don‘t repeat yourself

 

　　· use different words

 

　　· there are numerous ways in which a perfectly valid point can be made by cunningly changing the matter described