Exam Advice June 2017 Session

The exam tips that are included in the following exam advice are not intended as a
guaranteed or definitive list of the topics that will be contained in the forthcoming
examination paper and should not be construed as such. What follows is presented as an
additional resource for students preparation, based on knowledge and past experience of
ACCA examinations. Becker Professional Education accepts no liability where final
examination papers differ from these suggestions.

Paper P1 Governance, Risk and Ethics

History shows that the well prepared candidate stands by far the highest probability of
passing examinations.

Exam Advice BE WELL PREPARED!

Being well prepared means, at the very least:

Working through all of the sessions in your Study Text (on the basis that an ACCA
Approved text covers the whole syllabus and not just a best guess 70%).
Working through all past examination questions and completing all monitoring/progress
tests and mock examinations under exam conditions.
Reading the examining teams articles they do not write for fun. Read all that are
relevant to P1, not just the ones published prior to the current exam.
Reading examiners reports on past examinations. These contain excellent advice on
what students should NOT be doing.
Ignoring Exam Tips that are just a list of somebodys favourite topics (examiners
strongly advise candidates to ignore exam tips).
Regularly visiting www.accaglobal.com/students
 Exam Advice June 2017 Session

The Exam

The exam has a well-established style and format. No changes are expected. Therefore
attempting the last four real examinations under exam conditions and then reviewing your
answers along with the relevant examiners report is an essential exam preparation
exercise.

The examiner has made it perfectly clear that following exam tips is a sure way to fail.
Also, students should not expect to be able to pass on rote-learnt theory alone. Far too
many students, for example, are able to list and describe ethical theories, but then
completely fail to apply such theories to a practical scenario. Without real world thinking,
exam tips are totally irrelevant.

Do not be surprised to see a scenario in at least one of the questions, especially Q1, that
you may recognise from a past corporate/non-corporate event. Exam questions are based
on real life scenarios and the continuing credit crunch/banking crisis still provides plenty
of sources to cover just about every syllabus area!

Exam Technique

The difference between passing and failing is only 1 mark. Ensure you attempt ALL parts
of Q1 and of the two questions you select from Section B. If you are not sure, write
something that appears sensible, reasonable and is related to the requirement that could
be the mark that gets you 50%.

Understand key words and phrases (e.g. embed, underpin) that you will see many times in
the published answers and know when and how to apply them in your answer.

A significant number of students fail because they do not get all of the available
professional presentation marks. For example, if a report format is required, write a
report; not a letter. Make sure you understand what a press report looks like (there are
plenty of examples on the internet) and lastly, look through the past Q1s to understand
what the examiner wants in relation to professional marks.

Ensure you read through the most recent examiners reports there are plenty of
examples of what not to do and how to construct a pass mark.
 Exam Advice June 2017 Session

Reading and planning time

Although there is no formal distinction between 3 hours writing time and 15 minutes
reading and planning time you are strongly advised to spend the 15 minutes on Question
1. Remember that this should not be all the time you spend in reading and planning. For
example, you might need to spend 20 to 30 minutes reading and planning Question 1 and
5 to 10 minutes on each of the Section B questions you choose.

Areas to concentrate on

Corporate governance (CG) concepts, underlying fundamentals and arrangements

CG in other organisations (e.g. public sector, NGOs)
Types and forms of CG (e.g. rules based, principles based, insider, outsider systems, UK
Corporate Governance Code, SoX)
Agency theory, stakeholders, Mendelow
Board structures, CEO/chairman, directors, NEDs, committees
Internal control and business risk, Turnbull
Ethical theories and business codes Kohlberg, Gray, Owen and Adams, Tucker, AAA
Professions and the public interest
Corporate social responsibility, corporate citizen, footprints and sustainability
Integrated reporting, social and environmental auditing

That just about covers the syllabus.

Good luck (or rather minimise the luck needed by being well prepared apply risk
management)!

In addition to noting the guidance set out above, students should make use of ACCA past
examination papers, pay close attention to articles published in Student Accountant and
should read the Examiners review of the last examination session at
www.accaglobal.com/students.