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1. Does ACCA offer various entry points onto its qualification?
2. Is there a maximum time limit placed on completion of the new qualification?
3. How does the CAT qualification articulate with the ACCA qualification?
4. What is linked status?
5. When will the qualification change again?
6. Why are there no exemptions available from any of the exams at the final level ?
7. What are the exam progression rules?
8. Who are the examiners?
9. How is ethics integrated into the ACCA qualification?
10. Are tax and law variant papers offered within the ACCA qualification?
11. How does ACCA ensure its students have the appropriate IT skills?
12. Will students be allowed to annotate the question paper during the 15 minute reading and planning time?
13. Will students be allowed to use calculators during the 15 minute reading and planning time? 
14. If I obtain a marginal fail of 49% should I get this reviewed to see if I might have passed?
15. What are Professional marks?
16. What guidance does ACCA give on examination technique and how to organise and correctly complete their examination booklet and associated paperwork?
17. The Examinable documents are confusing me as i don't really understand the differnece between issue and effective date?
18. What is the difference between effective and issued date for audit and financial reporting papers?
19. What are the Certificates in International Financial Reporting and International Auditing?
20. How do I obtain a practising certificate?
21. Why has the six month rule changed to an annual cut off date?
22. What study resources are available to help me with my exams?
23. Why does it take so long to get my results?

1. Does ACCA offer various entry points onto its qualification?
Yes. The new qualification will continue to provide opportunity to people of ability and application, irrespective of their educational background or learning environment. Therefore, the minimum entry requirements to the ACCA Qualification remain unchanged. Individuals must have obtained university matriculation (2 A Levels and 3 GCSEs in five separate subjects including English and Mathematics), or equivalent, before they can register as an ACCA student. Individuals normally over 21 years may register through the Mature Student Entry Route (MSER). This is designed for students who have the maturity and skills to cope with the ACCA Qualification instead of first attempting the open access Certified Accounting Technician (CAT) qualification. MSER students must pass Paper F2, Management Accounting and Paper F3, Financial Accounting within two years of registering.

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2. Is there a maximum time limit placed on completion of the new qualification?
On the new ACCA Qualification, students will be required to complete the exams within a ten-year period from initial registration. Existing students will have their current time limits renewed due to the change in qualification. Students registered before 31 December 2006 will be transferred over to the new syllabus in August 2007 and given a further ten years to complete the new syllabus ie they will have until June 2017 to complete the new syllabus exams.
After ten years students will be offered the opportunity of moving to linked status. Linked status will allow individuals access to student resources such as student accountant, but will remove them from the exam process.
Students will be encouraged to complete their three years' relevant practical experience alongside completing their ACCA exams and will need to complete an annual return each year indicating which performance objectives they have achieved and how long they have been working in a relevant accounting role. However, students will still be allowed the flexibility of gaining their relevant practical experience before, during or after passing their exams.

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3. How does the CAT qualification articulate with the ACCA Qualification?
Students who complete CAT will be given exemption from the Knowledge module (Paper F1, Accountant in Business, Paper F2, Management Accounting, and Paper F3, Financial Accounting). CAT passed finalists will be automatically transferred over to the ACCA syllabus if they opted for automatic transfer when they initially registered for the CAT qualification.

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4. What is linked status?
Students will have ten years from their initial registration date to complete the ACCA exams. Existing students will have their current time limits renewed due to the change in qualification and will be given a further ten years to complete the new exams.
After ten years students will be offered the opportunity of moving to linked status. Linked status will give students access to student resources such as student accountant, but will remove them from the exam process.

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5. When will the qualification change again?
ACCA continually reviews its qualification to ensure it is relevant and meet the needs of employers. Students and tuition providers are kept informed of any small revisions made to the syllabus through the detailed syllabus and study guides and through the magazines student accountant and teach accounting. ACCA also produces a detailed list of examinable documents for financial accounting/reporting, audit, law and tax on an annual basis (See Question 22) to keep the examinations up to date. Other changes are made to syllabi as needed to enure they remain relevant.

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6. Why are there no exemptions available from any of the exams at the final level?
This rule preserves the integrity and rigor of the ACCA Qualification. Requiring all members to sit and pass the Professional level ensures that all ACCA members, wherever they qualify in the world, and whatever their prior educational backgrounds, share a common set of competences which have been specified and assessed by ACCA directly.

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7. What are the exam progression rules?
Students must pass or be exempted from all nine exams in Fundamentals level and pass all three Essentials exams and two Options from four in the Professional level. There is no requirement for students to sit and/or pass any of the exams together, including the three Essentials exams in the Professional level.
Students can take a maximum of four papers in a six-month cycle - this includes both paper-based and computer-based exams. The following six-month cycles have been designed:
June cycle - 1 February to 31 July (including the June paper-based exam session)
December cycle - 1 August to 31 January (including the December paper-based exam session).
Students must sit the exams in module order - Knowledge, Skills, Essentials then Options - but can attempt papers within a module in any order. However, as the syllabus has been developed to progress educationally in the order presented, ACCA recommends that papers within a module are taken in order.
Papers may be attempted from different modules at the same sitting as long as the modules are attempted in order eg a student can attempt Papers F1-F3 (all of the Knowledge module) and any one paper from F4-F9 (Skills module).

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8. Who are the examiners?
The examiners are contracted by ACCA to write examination papers and answers and are responsible for managing the marking and moderation process.
Examiners are experienced education professionals and technical experts in their field. They are all highly qualified and many, particularly for the specialist technical papers in accounting, audit and tax are qualified accountants. Examiners come from various backgrounds, but most have extensive teaching and examining backgrounds, in either public or private sector education. Many also have professional experience in their fields.
ACCA examiners are also responsible for managing teams of markers and for ensuring that all marking is consistent and fair. They have a particular responsibility for moderating marginal scripts and ensuring that those candidates’ scripts who are just below the pass mark are looked at very carefully to ensure that no errors in marking have been made which could disadvantage candidates, and to see if the award of any more marks could be justified.

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9. How is ethics integrated into the ACCA qualification?
The ACCA syllabus has ethics at the heart of its qualification . The increased emphasis on ethics in the ACCA qualification recognises the increased focus on professionalism and ethics within the accounting profession - which is backed by strengthened codes of conduct, regulation and legislation. ACCA aims to teach its students through its new qualification how to embrace and adhere to a set of professional values and behave within an ethical framework, showing responsibility to stakeholders through operating within an effective system of governance, internal control and risk management. Ethics is examined in parts of 11 of the 16 exam papers in the syllabus and assessed through the achievement of all the performance objectives. The first Essentials paper; P1, Professional Accountant is an exam all ACCA members must take which includes key subject areas such as corporate governance, internal control and compliance, risk management and ethical and professional values. In addition, as part of their ethical development, students will be required to complete a Professional Ethics module. This will give students exposure to a range of real life ethical case studies and will require them to reflect on their own ethical behaviour and values. Students will be expected to complete the Professional Ethics module before or alongside Paper P1, Professional Accountant.

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10. Are tax and law variant papers offered within the ACCA qualification? 
Variant papers will continue to be offered where they are required for recognition in a particular jurisdiction or where there is a market requirement. The table below summarises the variant papers available in the ACCA Qualification.

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11. How does ACCA ensure its students have the appropriate IT skills?
The new qualification is based on the assumption that students are training in a computerised environment. Each paper in the new syllabus integrates the relevant aspects of information systems and information management (IS/IM) within their own context. Paper F1, Accountant in Business and Paper P3, Business Analysis will address the specific aspects of IS/IM. Competences relating to IT/IM will also be specifically addressed in the practical experience requirements (PER).

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12. Will students be allowed to annotate the question paper during the 15 minute reading and planning time?
Yes, but they will not be allowed to write anything in the answer book during the reading and planning time.

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13. Will students be allowed to use calculators during the 15 minute reading and planning time?
Yes, students will be able to use calculators during reading and planning time but will not be allowed to write anything in the answer booklets.

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14. If I obtain a marginal fail of 49% should I get this reviewed to see if I might have passed?
All scripts are very carefully marked. Marginal scripts receive even greater scrutiny than the clear passes or fails.
Anyone with a mark in the high forties has their script looked at very carefully by the marker who originally awarded this mark to see if there are any other marks that could be awarded and if there are, adjustments are made.
All of these marginal scripts are also reviewed by the examiner to see if there is any justification for any further marks, which the marker was unable to find, to be awarded.
All scripts are also checked by a team of checkers to ensure that no tallying errors have been made either within individual questions or parts of questions or in total.
Finally ACCA coordinators acting as examination auditors will also look at a sample of marginal scripts for each exam to ensure that the correct mark has been given in each case.
Therefore, someone who has received a mark of say 48% or even 49% can be very sure that their mark is correct and that no more marks were available.
As ACCA uses the full scale of 0-100% in its marking schemes, it is inevitable that some candidates will have a mark which falls just short of the 50%. While this is frustrating for those involved, the candidate can be at least confident that with a little more work, a clearer understanding and using a better technique will be enough to get them through the resit exam.
ACCA does offer an administrative review of examination scripts at a cost to the candidate. These are as follows:
CAT papers - £40
ACCA Fundamentals Knowledge papers - £40
ACCA Skills Module papers - £45
ACCA Professional level papers - £50 
These reviews only involve the checking that marks have been added correctly, that all pages have been marked and that no other administrative errors have taken place. The admin review does not involve a reconsideration of the educational rationale for the marks awarded for any part of the paper and the original marks arrived at cannot be changed.  Additionally, you will be told whether you passed or failed each individual question.

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15. What are Professional marks?
Professional marks are awarded at the Professional level of the ACCA qualification. Examiners may award between four and six professional marks in each paper which are available for demonstrating certain professional communication and analytical skills which are over and above the normal technical requirements of the paper.
For more information on how to earn professional marks see the relevant article in student accountant through the following link:
http://www.accaglobal.com/students/publications/student_accountant/archive/2007/80/3023577

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16. What guidance does ACCA give on examination technique and how to organize and correctly complete their examination booklet and associated paperwork?
ACCA has produced an article for student accountant on the above. It specifies what a candidate needs to bring to the exam room, what equipment they should have, how to complete their candidate registration sheet and their booklet.  It also advises them on how to organize their answers and how to make the best use of their time to gain the most marks that they can.

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17. The Examinable documents are confusing me as I don’t really understand the difference between issue and effective date?
All standards/legislation in issue by the cut off date are potentially examinable.  The issue date refers to the date the standard was released and the effective date is when the standard should be applied.  The ACCA website lists all standards that are examinable. However, there is a new annual cut-off date for examinable documents from 2009.

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18. What is the difference between effective and issued date for audit and financial reporting papers?
The date of issue of regulation is when the details of the regulation have been made available to the public. This date is often not the date that the regulation must be applied to the preparation of financial statements or how assurance/non assurance work/reports must be conducted/prepared.  The effective date represents when regulation must be applied by the accountant.  In the main the effective date is set later than the date of issue.  ACCA uses the date of issue to decide for audit and financial reporting papers what becomes is an examinable document.  
  

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19. What are the Certificates in International Financial Reporting and International Auditing?
The certificates in International Financial Reporting and International Auditing are comprehensive conversion courses for students who have been qualified in, or are familiar with,  country specific financial reporting and/or auditing standards. The material included in the on line certificate is quite wide ranging and deals with all the main relevant international financial reporting and auditing standards, mainly from a knowledge and comprehension basis. It covers the material assuming that the candidate is already familiar with UK or other country specific standards and reinforces this knowledge through a series of interactive activities and refresher tests. The Certificates assess knowledge entirely by 25 multiple choice questions which a candidate can undertake at their own PC.

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20. How do I obtain a practising certificate?
All questions on practising certificates can be referred to the following link:

http://www.accaglobal.com/documents/pctr_uk_new.pdf

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21. Why has the six month rule changed to an annual cut off date?
With the exception of Zimbabwe for taxation all ACCA papers have changed to an annual cut off date when deciding what becomes an examinable document.  The exact cut off date is 30 September for all audit and financial reporting standards and for most of the tax jurisdictions.  For specific details of examinable documents please refer to the examinable documents section for the paper you are interested in.
There are a number of reasons for the amendment. Below is a list of just some of the reasons behind the change
• Efficiencies in material production for colleges and hence materials remain current for longer with the need for supplements being reduced
• Fairness to students as they will be guaranteed two sittings of the same accounting, audit and tax regulation/legislation
• One of the many aspects of ACCA qualification is to ensure that candidates are technically competent which they will be as the principles remain the same despite changes in accounting, audit and tax regulation/legislation
• This system is comparable and in many instances more current than that of other professional bodies

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22. What study resources are available to help me with my exams?
There are many avenues available to individuals wishing to undertake ACCA exams namely
• Classroom tuition at one of the many colleges offering ACCA courses.  Some of these colleges have met ACCAs high standards of achievement.  A list of these colleges can be found within
https://portal.accaglobal.com/accaweb/faces/page/public/tuitionprovider/searchtp/XXTPQuickSearchVO1Table.jspx
• Distance learning products such as
o Study texts and revision banks
o Pass cards
o Interactive learning
There are a number of good tuition providers and publishers which specialise in producing all or combinations of the above listed materials. Each of these publishers will be able to provide greater details of what their products entail. ACCAs official publishers are BPP Learning media and Kaplan Publishing.  However there are a number of other publishers on the “Alternative reading list” at the back of each study guide. These texts have not been subject to a detailed review by examiners, but are considered to cover the syllabus adequately to prepare you for the relevant exam. 
ACCA itself provides considerable support on the website and by way of email, road shows, pod casts and magazine communications to name just a few mediums.  All candidates should make themselves familiar with this guidance if they are to improve their chances of passing first time.  To find out more please refer to the study resources section of ACCA website. You will find examiner approach articles and interviews, student accountant articles, examiner’s reports detailing what examiners are looking for in exams, as well as other examiner feedback and past exam questions and answers . Please note, past questions and answers are not updated for changes in legislataion or accounting/auditing standards.

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23. Why does it take so long to get my results?
ACCA s a large global accountancy body. As such, we receive very high exam entries from candidates in 170 countries around the world. In December 2008, for example, there were 360,000 exam papers sat. From the time a student sits an exam paper to when a result Is delivered there is a rigorous process to follow to ensure that each student gets the appropriate result. Each examiner holds a markers' meeting to ensure the markers all correctly understand the marking guide and how to apply as envisaged by the examiner. Markers also have to mark control scripts at this stage to confirm their understanding.  Scripts are then sent to the markers by the examiner. Each marker has to give regular feedback to their examiner. Should a marker find they have a marginal script, they are urged to examine this script again. The examiner will also review all marginal scripts as part of the moderation process. This all takes time and is vital to ensure the correct results are delivered.
Once the examiner is satisfied by the marks, the CRS's are returned for scanning and input to our system. At present, people work around the clock to meet the results deadlines. Although it seems like a long time, the results date has moved by only a couple of days over many years although student numbers have tripled in volume. Thus, many people are working very hard to stick to this deadline.

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