TIPS for written/report writing parts of Budgeting & Financial Performance?!?

gabriellenlewis

These questions/parts seem to be my downfall. I make sure i use key words and try to incorporate calculations within my answers.

Is there a trick or something?

Thanks.

Mike Webster

Make sure that you understand what the question is asking for and that you're addressing the task requirements.
Keep it simple - try shorter sentences (like bullet points) to help you form your answer - you can always expand on these short statements later.
Don't contradict yourself - it is so easy to do.
Whilst using the key words is good, sometimes I find students use words and phrases incorrectly - make sure that you understand what the words/phrases mean and that you're using them in the correct context.
In my opinion, the biggest problem with tasks like this is when students fail to RTFQ (Read The Full Question) - these four letters are always in my first lesson each year and repeated frequently throughout the year.
Another problem I find common is that students fail to recognise the hints in the question (for example, when you're asked a question about materials usage, they often fail to pick up that a machine in the task narrative has caused lots of wastage - this, of course would lead to an adverse materials usage variance which, in turn, is likely to lead to an adverse labour efficiency variance. So failing to see the problem (broken machine) causes the variances could cost you lots of marks.
Take time to RTFQ - remember, it's not all about number crunching at Level 4.
Good luck!