It is no surprise that difference exams require different types of preparation. In a discipline often driven by numeric requirements the ability to respond clearly to ‘wordy questions’ can make a real difference to your marks. This exam advice comes from the challenging ACCA F5 syllabus – covering the necessities of performance management accounting.

If you struggle with your writing, then you will find the following advice very useful. You first need to master the basic skills of outlining, identifying, describing, suggesting and explaining in order to pass the test. After that you can work on improving your marks by practising the techniques used below. Using the Paper F5 exam as a model, the following guidelines will be important when being asked to establish understanding and knowledge of performance management:

To achieve higher marks, you need the ability to …

Interpret

When asked to ‘interpret’, you need to explain the approach in your own words and give your opinion on the effectiveness. This is a much higher-level requirement, and as such will usually be reflected with higher marks.

Compare

The instruction ‘compare’ requires you to discuss similarities between two or more things and draw conclusions. For example, if you are asked to compare product costs using activity-based costing as opposed to traditional costing, you need to say why the costs are different. This will involve looking in detail at the activity-based costs and ascertaining the reason why the overheads absorbed into one product are, for example, higher under activity-based costing than traditional absorption costing. In this kind of question, ‘comparing’ needs to be preceded by a degree of analysis.

Discuss

This task requires candidates to give their own thoughts on a certain subject and support it with facts and logical reasoning. The opinions you give in any discussion must be sound and well-reasoned. It is no good saying that variances are de-motivational without explaining why. Also, you are expected to look at both sides of the story. Examiners will be able to get a sound feel for you understand through this instruction.

Evaluate

This requirement would not be expected to arise much in Paper F5. Most of the evaluation work is reserved for Paper P5. If you are asked to evaluate something, you are being asked to decide on the merits of it. It is most definitely a higher-level skill.

Justify

This instruction requires you explain why a certain answer or position is valid. For example, if you had to justify the use of backflush accounting within an organisation, you would have to mention the relative immateriality of inventory balances, presuming this was in fact the case (otherwise you would struggle to justify the use of backflush accounting in the first place).