Learning providers' FAQs on Foundations in Accountancy

FFA, FAB and FMA - Foundations in Accountancy exams include 50 two-mark questions, which is more than the 90 marks available under the 2007 ACCA exam scheme.

All our exams go through a rigorous quality assurance process. Exam papers are completed by a number of exam panel members under exam conditions and with the same time constraints. We are confident that well-prepared students will cope with the number of questions.

FFA, FAB and FMA - From December 2011, the Knowledge Module papers will include 50 short objective-style questions. At a later date, a new exam format will be introduced that includes longer style questions for F1/FAB, F2/FMA and F3/FFA. How much notice will ACCA give about this change in format?

We will give candidates more than sufficient notice before the change in examination format.

Platinum and Gold learning content providers have been made aware of the upcoming changes and have included longer style questions within their materials.  Even though longer style questions will not be included in the December 2011 papers, they form excellent question practise and provide a good basis for the ACCA Skills papers should candidates continue onto these.

FAB - Has economics been removed from the syllabus?

No, it is now included within Section A.

FMA - Capital budgeting has been introduced to the new F2/FMA paper. Has the F9 syllabus been amended to reduce overlap?

There is very little overlap in the content between F2 and F9. F9 covers wider aspects of capital budgeting with a focus on the financial aspects. F2 mainly focuses on the understanding of the techniques used.

FMA - The syllabus for F2/FMA appears to be much broader than the old Certified Accounting Technician (CAT) paper T7 and the 2007 ACCA Qualification F2 paper. What is the reason for this and what are the implications?

For T7:

The new FMA syllabus is designed to be suitable for candidates without any existing knowledge of the subject. Consequently, the syllabus coverage is wider. It covers all the basic costing techniques and concepts, which in the old CAT programme used to be covered by the lower-level papers T2 and T4.

For F2:

The new F2 syllabus has expanded to include performance measurement issues -  mainly to comply with occupational standards. It was also felt that students need to have a good foundation in mathematics and the new syllabus has more statistical elements.

Students need to set aside enough time to prepare for exams and practise as many questions as possible. The multiple-choice questions from the old CAT paper T7 are a valuable source of practice material.

FFA - Why is partnership not part of the syllabus?

The FFA/F3 syllabus is designed to be suitable for candidates without any existing knowledge of the subject.  Consequently the syllabus coverage is wide.

We felt that including detailed accounting of partnerships would make the syllabus unwieldy.  However, the basic concept of what a partnership is continues to be part of the syllabus - just not the detailed accounting.

The impact of this on all other ACCA papers is minimal. Once candidates have understood the basic accounting principles for a business, these are easily transferrable to any business structure.

FFA - When ACCA introduce the long questions in F3/FFA, there will be a 15-mark question on both group accounting and accounts preparation. How will this be reflected in the initial 50 short objective question paper?

The areas on group accounting and accounts preparation represent 15 per cent each of the overall marks.  This will be the case in the 50 short objective question paper.  So group accounting will have in the region of seven to eight two-mark questions and accounts preparation will have an additional seven to eight two-mark questions.