On returning from my holiday in France I was very pleased to discover that I had passed my financial reporting exam. It was a good mark but my lowest to date despite so far being the course that I had put the most hours into (too many hours to admit to!). I spent even more hours studying financial reporting than tax which until then had been the subject I had found the most challenging.
The exam is extremely time pressured. A number of qualified accountants have told me it is the most difficult of all the exams to complete in the required time. In fact the questions are so long it takes about half an hour just to read the questions. There is no time to think about which question to do first you just need to get stuck in immediately.
The very good advice I was given was that you must at least complete four questions to pass. Those that only complete three questions generally fail. To prepare myself for the exam I did lots and lots of exam questions. At first I completed them without a time constraint so that I learned the material and the techniques. Nearer to the exam itself I completed question after question timing myself so that I was able to complete them in the required time. The weekend before the exam I hid myself away and just did question after question ignoring the hot weather and distraction of the very noisy aircraft flying over the house from the local air show.
As with all exams it is very easy to just concentrate on the calculations but to be successful in financial reporting you have to understand each Financial Reporting Standard and be able to answer questions in an essay style. In fact this is an area you can pick up marks if you have revised well.
It is also worth remembering that when answering the questions not to linger too long on parts of the question you do not know very well. It is best to put something and continue with the rest of the question as marks are awarded for methodology and workings and not just the correct figure at the end.
Later this year I will be putting my financial reporting knowledge into practice when I have to prepare financial statements for one of the companies my employer runs. Thankfully in real life you have more than 45 minutes to complete each statement! Mind you anything less than 100% correct may upset the auditors.
Good luck to any of you that are doing the Financial Reporting exam in December.
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