EXAM TIPS!!!

I found this on the net (apparently given by BPP)

The examiners deliberately try to avoid question spotting. Use the tips as areas to have a good look at, but remember that no-one knows what’s in the exam except the examiner. Your safest bet is to achieve good syllabus coverage in your revision, as the examiner aims to do in the exam.

CAT5 BPP Tips:

* Business and accounting environment
* Internal controls and MIS
* Motivation, leadership/teams
* Personal planning and communication
* Health and Safety at work, and security

CAT 5 Health Check
If you can answer the following questions positively then you will be well placed for the exam.

Can you explain the political, economic, social and technological issues affecting a business and who the different stakeholders are in the business?

Do you know how an organisation is structured , the systems and procedures that are likely to be in place and how the accounting department co-ordinates with other functional areas?

Do you know the difference between internal and external auditors and what the management should do with respect to internal control?

Do you know the control procedures that there are in an accounting system, the main ways to prevent fraud and how management information systems help?

Can you describe the work of the main theorists concerning authority, responsibility, leadership and management, including the weaknesses?

Can you distinguish between a group and a team and know what makes them tick or not tick, including the key theories of motivation?

Do you know the main ways to improve individual effectiveness at work, including interpersonal skills and communication?

Can you describe how to make sure that training is effective, how the process of learning should occur in the workplace and then how workers should be assessed and appraised?

Can you outline the main provisions of relevant legislation on Health and Safety, what sources of danger there are in the workplace and how to prevent this danger?

Cab you describe possible sources of security breach in a workplace and how to prevent them?

CAT7 BPP Tips:
Following are the important Topics for this attempt.

* Principles of cost accounting/collecting and analysing cost information
* Variance analysis
* Forecasting/time series
* Decision making scenario/cost management/performance indicators

CAT 7 Health Check
If you can answer the following questions positively then you will be well placed for the exam.

Do you know about the role of a management accountant in detail, the limitations of management accounting information and how to collect, maintain and improve the information?

Do you know how to analyse and present information, including the use of index numbers?

Can you explain the budgetary process, including functional and departmental budgets, and how this ties into the planning and control cycle within an organisation?

Can you prepare master budgets and all the component parts of them, including the use of time series and scatter diagrams?

Can you calculate variances that arise from a flexible budgeting system, both in terms of physical units as well as pounds?

Can you explain why variances arise, how they are inter-linked and what action to take in response to a variance?

Can you work out suitable performance measures for an organisation (including job, batch, contract, service and process costing environments) and discuss the problems with selecting and monitoring the measures?

Do you know the different types of cost behaviour and apply these to different decision-making situations?

Can you prepare and explain break-even charts and profit-volume charts and then describe the advantages and disadvantages of using the analysis produced?

Do you know modern management theories including Life Cycle, Target, Activity Based costing and Total Quality Mangement?

CAT8 BPP Tips:
Following are the important Topics for this attempt.

* Regulatory framework/third parties
* Audit of balance sheet items/testing
* Accounting systems/control cycles
* Audit completion – analytical review/report qualifications

CAT 8i Health Check

If you can answer the following questions positively then you will be well placed for the exam.

Can you describe the chronology of an audit and explain the various parts of the audit in detail, including where the regulatory framework has an impact?

Can you describe the statutory powers and duties of auditors and how they are required to behave ethically?

Can you explain the different types of audit risk and how these affect the work that is needed on an audit?

Do you know the different types of controls that are likely to exist in a company and how to design tests that fit into the controls that are available, and how to design tests if controls are not available in the company?

Do you know how CAATs are used for control/compliance or substantive testing purposes?

Do you know why audit sampling is relevant to the auditor, can explain terms such as confidence intervals and outline various types of sampling with their advantages and limitations?

Can you explain the procedures involved with auditing all major balance sheet categories?

Do you know the function of review procedures in an audit, including analytical review, post balance sheet events, contingencies, opening balances, letters of representation and management letters?

Can you describe the purpose, significance and content of an audit report?

Do you understand auditor’s liability and responsibility?

Thats all folks =) Happy Studying for exams and best of luck. WE ARE GETTING OUT OF CAT THIS TERM!! Cheers ! Take care too people.

An "Amazing/Extraordinary/Superb" idea.

Ok what i need now is not lots of luck. I desperately need someone to slice my brain open, and insert a hard drive...err wait i think a M2 memory stick will be enough. It MUST be filled with audit, tax and costing notes. The surgeon would then insert a card reader together with it into my brain and connect it to my nervous system so i can write everything and anything i need during the exam without me realizing. I don't even need to understand.

IF ANYONE OUT THERE IS READING AND KNOWS HOW TO DO SO, THIS PLEASE CONTACT ME!!

right, i'm waffling again. I NEED TO STOP CRAPPING!!! CRAP

Exams

Well, i just came back from indiana jones and am too lazy to study (as usual)*smirking*. Papers round the corner and i am just baffled by how fast time actually flies. The day which i just entered college is still fresh in my mind..and now i'm left with what? 216 hours before my CAT exams? duh... Anyways i'm taking my exams in M'cca so i guess that next week will be my last week in college this semester. Feels kind of weird though.. At one time you are going to college everyday whether a not there're classes and now you're leaving it for 1 month. Well it isn't long, i know but it feels different though.

Anyways enough bout those, if i look back into what actually happen these past few weeks of my life, it seems kind of pathetic.. each day i'll wake up, eat, study, eat, plant myself in front of the pc and sleep. Goodness me, i seem to really have no life... Haha luckily i studied in coll or there would have been moss growing round me right now...

Exams soon once again and i am once again forcing myself to plant myself in front of books reading dull stuff which can put you to sleep in 3 seconds. Audit is for one the best example. You don't really get what you're reading and waffle all your way though the tests and when you see the answers it just seems to be common sense. Well the only logical conclusion now is that i guess i have no sense at all during tests and lets pray that doesn't happen next week or the week after.

Saw this equation years ago and guess that its has some truth in it. XD

study = no fail ------ 1
no study = fail ------ 2

1 + 2,

study + no study = fail + no fail

so,

study (1 + no) = fail (1 + no)

that means,

study = fail .... =P

Well frankly i don't really know whats my purpose posting this today and now. I'm just too random i guess. Cheers people. And before i forget,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHUYING!!!

PS : Good luck to everyone this exam and make sure we bloody get out of CAT this round. This sem was great(except the studies of course) Hakuna Matata people!!!

Torn

WOW!! Saw this video on youtube. Guess i'll share it with you guys. Awesome. Thanks Li Xing.
Cheers =)

AUDIT!!!

Hey just wanna pen this link down for you guys =)

For those that want the KAPLAN passcards, click HERE!.

PS: Click on the "Save file to your PC: click here" at the bottom part of the page.

Cheers

Thoughts and ponders

Well got to do some thinking and just noticed that people(including myself) are not as easy going or jolly as it seems... There will surely be times, let it be any relationships where conflicts (or at least the slightest bit of anger/the irritated feeling) will definitely occur. And that's when everything gets shitty. No one can be blamed. Be it anyone's fault. The worst part is that to you it'll never seem the same again. Old memories are bound to bounce back whether a not you want it...

Even after apologising and the 2 parties stating that they have let go, there is still a part of them not doing so. Something is always bugging inside and you'll tend to be wary of the person. You'll then tend to be paranoid and it won't be as usual anymore. You just can't help it! Well is it worth it? No of course not... but trying to let go is not such an easy matter too. In front of others, you pretend you have but you have yourself to answer to in the end. Why? Well the only reason i can put it is that there's still some part in me that still care and fear of the incident. I guess that the best solution is to just let time heal all the hauntings of the past...

There's a saying, "Sometimes people do terrible things but that doesn't mean they are terrible people." I know that...but it is not that easy to apply as well.

PS: Just felt like penning this down. Don't exactly get to know the reason. Maybe its just me?

Random

Well one week has gone by and I'm in malacca. Audit book's beside me and not even giving a glance to it...(as usual)

Frisbee competition is on now in UM and i guess they won 2 games d? =) Congrats people.

Hmm just thought of some random quotes when i was emo-ing. Too bored i guess..

Here goes..

"The day i stop thinking of you is the day my soul is ripped apart and ceases to exist"

"The definition of true love is the unification of 2 souls till eternity"

"Life? A journey till death?"

"Hatred will only exist when there's love...even without hatred there won't be love"

"People are always offended with the smallest things in life"

"A small gesture will put a priceless smile on those needing it"

OK... All of these are RANDOM... and there's nothing or no one related to it..
Cheers!