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Answering challenge questions

As a tuition provider, you have a close relationship with ACCA trainees, and as such they may come to you for advice on how they should complete their practical experience requirements (PER).

PER requires trainees to complete 13 performance objectives, and when the trainee has completed a performance objective they need to answer three challenge questions in the trainee development matrix (TDM). Challenge questions are the means by which the performance objectives are reviewed by the trainee's workplace mentor to ensure that the correct standard has been met.

This is a very important step to completing the performance objectives but it is often an area that trainees either miss or do not fully understand.

Below is some guidance to help you understand what the PER challenge questions are all about.

What are challenge questions?

Each performance objective has three unique challenge questions attached to it. They help the trainee to summarise their work activity so that the workplace mentor can evaluate whether the required standard has been achieved by the individual for that performance objective.

Challenge questions are not tests or exams that have to be passed. Instead they allow a trainee to reflect on their work and demonstrate that they can analyse the quality and value of what they have achieved - and see where they may continue to improve.

How do challenge questions help the trainee?

The completed answers to the challenge questions can provide the trainee with a basis to start a dialogue with their workplace mentor about the experience that has contributed to the achievement of the performance objective.

They are designed to help:

• describe the experience in a structured manner
• illustrate any unusual or individual circumstances that the trainee might have encountered, and how these were taken into account
• demonstrate that the trainee has thought about the quality of their work and reflected on their performance and achievement in the workplace
• provide evidence on the trainee's performance that the workplace mentor can review.

How should the trainee answer challenge questions?

The following should be considered when answering challenge questions:

• Keep answers concise, but relevant. As a guide, someone who doesn't know the trainee's work should be able to read the answer and fully understand and appreciate what work has been completed.
• Provide evidence and examples to help illustrate answers.
• Demonstrate that the performance indicators have been met on many occasions and over a period of time.
• Check back against the detail of the performance objective's indicators of effective performance. Have all the outcomes been met and has the trainee shown to have conducted themselves in an appropriate manner?

The workplace mentor and employer should obtain value from the answers to the challenge questions as they should provide useful information about the trainee's workplace achievement and contribution.

Is there anything that should be avoided?

• Avoid using jargon or abbreviations, unless they are explained.
• Avoid repeating information or making reference to other answers.
• Avoid duplicate answers - whether from question to question, or from other trainees - the situation and experience are unique to the trainee, so the workplace mentor and ACCA expects to see unique answers.

How should the answer be presented?

It is up to the trainee to decide how to present the answers to the challenge questions, as long as they ensure that the answer fully addresses the question set. They can use essay style, bullet points, or any structure they prefer, as it is the content, not the format, of the answers that is important.

PER RESOURCE

There is now a guide available on answering challenge questions including sample answers so you can understand what a suitable answer may look like.

Access this resource