by Mary Kelly.
Due to the changes in the exam this year, there was plenty of choice and what is normally a very time pressurised exam was very manageable for students.
Section 1:
Students will have welcomed the additional question in this section. Question 1: Students had to choose between a Sole Trader Final Account or a Manufacturing Account. There were some reasonably challenging adjustments in these questions, which required students to think on their feet. Many of the adjustments in the Sole Trader were similar to adjustments that would usually appear in the Company Account.
There was a good range of short questions including a Tabular Statement, Depreciation of Fixed Assets and Debtors Control Accounts.
Section 2:
This section offered a great choice of questions and students were required to answer one out of three questions from this section.
As usual Question 5 was Interpretation of Accounts. Students were required to calculate ratios for a manufacturer of computer security devices and to outline if the ordinary shareholders would be satisfied with the performance, state of affairs and prospects of the company.
Published Accounts appeared as Question 6. There was quite a bit of repetition from previous exam questions.
Question 7 was a Cash Flow Statement. This was a very straightforward question.
Section 3:
In this section students had to answer either Question 8 or Question 9. Both questions were very manageable. Question 8 was Stock Valuation, Product Costing and Absorption. Question 9 was a Flexible Budget.
Overall, a fair and balanced paper with a nice choice of questions which students were happy with.