What to revise from three mandatory modules, for synoptic?

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I have studied for all the level 3 and 4 exams on my own with text books and it's been fine. However now I'm at the final exam, the synoptic, and I feel a bit lost as I'm just not sure what I should revise from the modules already done for Level 4 - Financial Statements and the two management accounting modules. I have a textbook I'm working through for the systems and controls element of the synoptic but was wondering what the best resource would be to pin down the main areas I need to recap on for those three modules gone. Any advice would be truly welcomed. Exam in 16 days and going to try and do 3-4 hrs per day. Kind of looking forward to it and dreading it all at the same time!

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  • Pian32
    Pian32 Registered Posts: 474 Dedicated contributor 🦉
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    So you'll want to recap everything to some degree as you can use the knowledge to help in written questions.

    Below is a rough overview of the tasks (based on practice papers and the information provided by AAT when I took the exam)

    Task 1:
    Task 1 is multiple choice questions based around ethics, errors and ledgers. How will an incorrect entry affect the TB.

    Task 2:
    Is a long written questions that's heavily based on the Budgeting module. Make sure you're happy with the different budget types and the pros/cons of each. This is a really good question to relate to the pre-release material because the best budget type tends to be related to the companies current situation.

    Task 3:
    Find 5 weaknesses. Based on the practice papers, you'll be given a detailed rundown of how a part of the business operates. You'll need to identify and explain 5 potential weaknesses in the system. This is based on the synoptic unique module. Accounting Systems and Controls.

    Task 4
    Is a long written question and will based around the decision and control module. This is probably the question which is the most open as their is a lot of different things you might need to do.

    Task 5
    Ratios and what they mean. The ratios are the same for both the Decision and Control module and the Financial statements module.

    Task 6
    Written question and will probably be either a SWOT or a Cost benefit analysis though based on what others have said there might be a third option that wasn't there when i took the exam.

    I'd recommend to prepare for this exam by task. (Save a paper to treat as a mock) Get the questions from multiple sources and do all the Tasks 1 questions then all the Task 2 etc This will give you a better feel for how each task is structured. For the written questions go through the answers and look for what the key points are and use that to help structure your answers in the future ones.

    Don't feel you have to do things in order. I did them as Task 1,3,5 then 2,4,6. Meant no time pressure while grabbing the 'easier' marks and could concentrate on the written sections.

    Hope this helps and gives some guidance you might want to look at the examiners overview and report as that will give more insight as well.
    AAT Level 4, MAAT
    ACCA in progress
    F4- Passed Aug 2020
    F5- Passed Dec 2020
    F6- Passed Sep 2020
    F7- Passed June 2021
    F8 - Passed Sep 2021
    F9 - Passed June 2021

    SBL -
    SBR - Passed Mar 22
    ATX - Passed Dec 21
    APM - Passed June 22
  • EdTheRed2020
    EdTheRed2020 Registered Posts: 6
    edited November 2020
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    Thank you, thats very much appreciated. I like the idea of seeing it as the 6 tasks and approaching each individually, helps to focus on revision topics for each one rather than a generalised blanket “revision of everything” type approach.
  • shoumeshd
    shoumeshd Registered Posts: 4
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    so in professional synoptic module , we don't have to do any spreadsheet or excel???
  • Pian32
    Pian32 Registered Posts: 474 Dedicated contributor 🦉
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    No that's unique to Level 3
    AAT Level 4, MAAT
    ACCA in progress
    F4- Passed Aug 2020
    F5- Passed Dec 2020
    F6- Passed Sep 2020
    F7- Passed June 2021
    F8 - Passed Sep 2021
    F9 - Passed June 2021

    SBL -
    SBR - Passed Mar 22
    ATX - Passed Dec 21
    APM - Passed June 22
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