Running out of time!

Priyah

I have been ill since the last 6 months - constantly been in and out of hospital but I'm trying to soldier my way through! I'm getting a tad worried as it's the end of term yet I still have to retake Indirect Tax and Accounts Preparation. As a result I have failed both twice, is there any advice or suggestions that anyone can give me for these units? I passed FSTP first time and took AP1 few days after but still haven't succeeded.

JoshJ1992

Hi Piryah,

The key bit of advice that my tutor gave about ITAX was to use the source material. It has everything that you will need to know about the rules and regs surrowding tax, you just need to know how to use the information. Even if you confident you know the answer, it is always worth a look. The source material given is the practice assessment is the same as that you will be given the live assessment. I would have a look before the assessment and even have a go at the practice.

In times of Accounts Prep, it seems to have been the hardest assessment of them all. I had to re-take and I know other people in the same class as me have had to re-take it, some more than once. The advice I would give is to get really familar with your debits and credits (remember DEAD CLICK from level 2), make sure you are familair with depreciation and what goes where, the extended trial balance, the necessary journal entries (especially for the statement of profit and loss and statement of financial position) and there will also be a question on accurals and prepayments so make sure to practice that - I felt it was one of the hardest topics within the unit - I don't know how many times I had to practice this before I finally got it!

Hope everything goes well and that you are starting to feel better - most importantly don't give up - you will get there!

Priyah

Hi Josh, thank you so much for your kind words and suggestions I shall definitely take them into consideration! Omg yes I still use DEAD CLIC even to this day, it definitely is handy I will also look at the source material, never bothered to actually read it but it could help me. I did both assessments multiple times and felt like I nailed the actual exam this time but obviously not, I was foolish and overconfident!

StevenB89

Hi Priyah,

I haven't covered ITAX yet so I can't give you any advice on that. I passed ACPR, are there any specific areas you get stuck on? What tasks didn't you pass in the exam?

You'll get there eventually!

Priyah

Hi Stephen, according to my last results I need to revisit on tasks 2-5. Although, I've been doing well with the accruals and prepayments in particular which I believe is task 3. I actually watched a webinar today on Account Preparation earlier today which I think was quite useful. I'm not sure how else to revise - I've done chapter tasks, question bank, looked at the e learning and done both practice assessments multiple times. I will go through the assessments again but not sure what I can do additionally to grasp the concept of what I already know and put it into context. Thanks for the kind words!

StevenB89

Hi Priyah,

When you go through the practice assessments do you open up the answer sheet so you can check your answers before you click finish? I always find this helpful as if I do make any mistakes I can see which were wrong and also look at where I went wrong.

Also in the exam (or with any practice assignments) I find it useful to get a scrap piece of paper and draw out the T accounts needed and write it out first instead of just entering it on to the system, that way you can quickly cross out any mistakes and correct them. You can write out all the T accounts rather than just look at the one on screen to make sure you enter the double entry correct on both sides. Then I will just copy the T account needed from the piece of paper on to the system once I've double checked everything. I find this will help eliminate any silly mistakes!!

I look at accruals as temporarily making the account a higher value (use DEAD CLIC to determine if it's a debit or credit) and prepayments as temporarily lowering the account value as you're taking money out you've already paid. So if you have an expense account an accrual would debit expense (making the expense higher for that period) and credit accrual. Prepayment would be credit the expense as you're lowering the account value for that period.

With Task 2 you may get a disposal account or accounts for depreciation or accounts for the purchase of a new asset - Just write these out on paper first using all of the accounts needed for each double entry in the question and double check any calculations you have to make.

Task 4 - Most of the accounts will show a debit or credit in the T accounts shown, with the ones that aren't just be careful and think what the account type is then use DEAD CLIC to determine if it's a debit or credit. With the reconciliations at the bottom just take your time and go through each error and again write them out if It's easier to see which adjustments will effect the account.

Task 5 - With the adjustments or journals again just take your time and write out the accounts if needs be so you can see what changes are made, sometimes doing them in your head can result in silly mistakes.

Sorry I'm not very good at explaining! But hopefully at least something I've written may help!! Keep going, take your time try to avoid any silly mistakes and you'll smash it!

If you're stuck on a specific task I can try and help if needed

Priyah

Yes I do exactly that! And I just realised that's my problem - for every question I need to continuously think if it's DEAD CLIC which would help with journals, accruals, prepayments etc. No you're absolutely right and I understand where you're coming from! I actually never realised I got some questions wrong in my exams because of the way I worked them out. Thank you so much with all your help and advice, I appreciate it.

StevenB89

No problem! Just take your time with each task and always think of DEAD CLIC and write the T accounts out on paper if needed! Good luck! Let me know how you get on.

Priyah

That's the plan, was causing me problems by not thinking of DEAD CLIC on each task. Thanks once again