Examiner’s report-F7 Financial Reporting

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Examiner’s report F7
General Comments
The paper was regarded by most commentators as a fair test of familiar topics which a well-prepared candidate should have comfortably passed and that candidates’ results maintained a satisfactory performance.
The best answered questions were the core questions on consolidated financial statements (Q1) and the preparation of a single company's financial statements (Q2). The ratios required in question 3 were also generally very well answered. This gave most candidates a strong base on which to attempt the rather less predictable questions 4 and 5. Another welcome feature of this diet was that more candidates attempted all five questions although marks earned on questions 4 and 5 were generally much lower than on the other parts of the paper
However, there were still some examples of poor examination technique; for instance not reading (or thinking about) the question requirement carefully enough, thus misinterpreting what was required (particularly in Q5 (i) and Q5 (iii)).
Other issues relating to poor examination technique included: (i) a lack of cross-referenced understandable workings; (ii) poor handwriting that many markers struggled to read; and (iii) the needless repetition of figures and/or question requirements which resulted in a waste of the candidates’ time.
Overall this was an encouraging performance with many candidates displaying good knowledge and technique.
This is intended to guide candidates’ future studies and to highlight poor techniques with a view to improving future performance. This may appear to give an overly pessimistic view of candidates’ performance. This is not the intention, nor is it necessarily the case. There were many excellent scripts that were rewarded appropriately.