General questions
- Does ACCA offer various entry points onto its qualification?
- Is there a maximum time limit placed on completion of the new qualification?
- How does the CAT qualification articulate with the ACCA qualification?
- What is linked status?
- When will the qualification change?
- How will ACCA support the development of learning resources for the new programme?
- How will ACCA support ALP in preparing to teach the new syllabus?
- Do joint examination schemes (JES) operate under the new qualification?
- Why are there no exemptions available from any of the exams at the final level?
- Is there an increase in the use of computer-based exams (CBEs)?
- What are the exam progression rules?
- Is there a core paper rule?
- How many papers can students sit? Can students sit papers in any order?
- Who are the new examiners?
- Why have ACCA made all the papers at Fundamental level contain compulsory questions only?
- From December 2007, is it true that ACCA will follow other accountancy bodies by offering only accounting and auditing papers based on international reporting standards?
- Why has ACCA introduced ethics into the syllabus?
- Are tax and law variant papers offered?
- How will ACCA ensure its students have the appropriate IT skills?
- Which papers are new to the syllabus?
- Why has Paper P4 Advanced Information Management become an Options paper under the new syllabus?
- Will students be allowed to annotate the question paper during the 15 minute reading and planning time?
- Will students be allowed to use calculators during reading and planning time?
- The Examinable documents for December 2008 is confusing me regarding the 6 months calender rule. Does this mean for example that IFRS 3 (revised) and IAS1 (revised) which were both published in Jan 2008 but are effective until June 2009, will be included in the scope of the December 2008 exam? Should I assume any amendment/new standards published on or before June 30, 2008 will be within the scope of the Dec 2008 exam?
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.
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.
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.
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.
5. When will the qualification change?
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. However, based on previous timescales, ACCA usually completes a major review of its qualification on a seven-year cycle. The exact timing will be driven by the rate of change in the accounting environment.
6. How will ACCA support the development of learning resources for the new programme?
Teachers' conferences will run in the UK, South east Asia, Africa and the Caribbean in the run up to the introduction of the new qualification in 2007. Detailed syllabuses and pilot papers are available on the ACCA website. Approved publishers BPP Learning Media and Kaplan Publishing Foulks Lynch have study materials available and a series of technical articles on areas of the new syllabus were published in student accountant throughout 2006 and will continue to be published throughout 2007.
7. How will ACCA support ALP in preparing to teach the new syllabus?
In 2007 ACCA will be running a series of teachers' conferences in the UK, South east Asia, Africa and the Caribbean to give guidance to UCRS tuition providers on teaching the new syllabus. All UCRS tuition providers have been sent detailed copies of the syllabus and pilot papers. In addition, tuition providers will be kept up to date with the latest developments via e-mail, teach accounting magazine and the tuition providers section on the ACCA website.
8. Do joint examination schemes (JES) operate under the new qualification?
Yes. ACCA consulted with the national accountancy bodies in countries where it operates joint examination schemes as part of the ACCA2007 consultation process and these partnerships will continue under the new qualification.
9. Why are there no exemptions available from any of the exams at the final level?
This 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.
10. Is there an increase in the use of computer-based exams (CBEs)?
Knowledge papers - Paper F1, Accountant in Business, Paper F2, Management Accounting and Paper F3, Financial Accounting - will be available both as computer-based exams (CBEs) and as traditional paper-based exams. Under the current scheme only two papers - 1.1 and 1.2 - are available as CBEs.
11. 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).
12. Is there a core paper rule?
No. Under the new qualification 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.
13. How many papers can students sit? Can students sit papers in any order?
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 at one exam session Papers F1-F3 (all of the Knowledge module) and any one paper from F4-F9 (Skills module).
14. Who are the new examiners?
ACCA has recruited its new panel of examiners, some will have examined on the current syllabus, others are new appointments. ACCA will introduce its new panel of examiners over the coming months at teachers' conferences and student events; through articles in student accountant and teach accounting; and via the ACCA website.
5. Why have ACCA made all the papers at Fundamentals level contain compulsory questions only?
Allowing any degree of choice at the Fundamentals level might have encouraged some students to avoid learning certain aspects of each syllabus, on the grounds that they could avoid answering a question on this topic in any given paper.
ACCA's view is that all the subject areas within the nine subjects are 'fundamental' to the work of an accountant. Therefore, offering no choice at the Fundamentals level will encourage students to study more broadly to gain a more rounded knowledge and understanding of all subject areas within each syllabus.
16. From December 2007, is it true that ACCA will follow other accountancy bodies by offering only accounting and auditing papers based on international reporting standards?
No. ACCA is a global professional accountancy body and it recognises that its students, affiliates and members operate in many different countries and employment sectors and international reporting standards may not always be the most appropriate to follow. ACCA will therefore continue to offer students based in Hong Kong, Ireland Malaysia, Singapore and the UK the opportunity to take accounting and auditing papers which have been adapted for national accountancy practices. Students in these countries have the option of taking the following papers based on either international standards or national adapted standards:
F3, Financial Accounting
F7, Financial Reporting
F8, Audit and Assurance
P2, Corporate Reporting
P7, Advanced Audit and Assurance.
17. Why has ACCA introduced ethics into the syllabus?
The current syllabus addresses the issue of ethics and corporate governance in all of its final level papers. However, increasing emphasis is being placed upon these subject areas under the new qualification to match an 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. 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.
18. Are tax and law variant papers offered?
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.
| Paper designation | F4 Corporate and Business Law | F6 Taxation | P6 Advanced Taxation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Botswana | BWA | * | * | |
| China | CHN | * | * | * |
| Cyprus | CYP | * | * | * |
| Czech Republic | CZE | see GLO | * | |
| England | ENG | * | see UK | see UK |
| Global | GLO | * | ||
| HK | HKG | * | * | * |
| Hungary | HUN | see GLO | * | |
| India | IND | see GLO | * | |
| Ireland | IRL | * | * | * |
| Lesotho | LSO | * | * | |
| Malawi | MWI | see GLO | * | |
| Malaysia | MYS | * | * | * |
| Malta | MLA | * | * | * |
| Pakistan | PKN | * | * | |
| Poland | POL | * | ||
| Russia | RUS | * | * | |
| Scotland | SCT | * | see UK | See UK |
| Singapore | SGP | * | * | * |
| South Africa | ZAF | * | * | * |
| UK | UK | see ENG or SCT | * | * |
| Vietnam | VNM | * | * | |
| Zimbabwe | ZWE | * | * | * |
19. How will 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).
20. Which papers are new to the syllabus?
The only completely new paper is P1, Professional Accountant. This paper acts as the gateway into the Professional level, setting the other Essentials syllabuses and advanced Options into a wider professional, organisational and societal context. The syllabus for Paper P1, Professional Accountant begins by examining the whole area of governance within organisations in the broad context of the agency relationship. This aspect of the syllabus focuses on the respective roles and responsibilities of directors and officers to organisational stakeholders and of accounting and auditing as support and control functions. The syllabus then explores internal review, control, and feedback to implement and support effective governance, including compliance issues related to decision-making and decision-support functions. The syllabus also examines the whole area of identifying, assessing and controlling risk as a key aspect of responsible management. Finally the syllabus covers personal and professional ethics, ethical frameworks and professional values, as applied in the context of the accountant's duties and as a guide to appropriate professional behaviour and conduct in a variety of situations.
21. Why has Paper P4 Advanced Information Management become an Options paper under the new syllabus?
An understanding of the fundamental techniques of project appraisal, raising finance and working capital management are regarded as vital by ACCA members. To reflect their importance, Paper F9, Financial Management - has been created in the Fundamentals level. The more strategic areas of corporate governance and risk management are addressed in the new Professional-level Paper P1, Professional Accountant. Specialist areas of finance such as treasury management are regarded as more suitable to individuals working, or aiming to work within a corporate finance environment. Therefore, Paper 3.7, Strategic Financial Management has been removed as a compulsory paper at the final level and replaced in the new syllabus by optional Paper P4, Advanced Financial Management.
22. 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.
23. 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.
24. The Examinable documents for December 2008 is confusing me regarding the 6 months calender rule. Does this mean for example that IFRS 3 (revised) and IAS1 (revised) which were both published in Jan 2008 but are effective until June 2009, will be included in the scope of the December 2008 exam? Should I assume any amendment/new standards published on or before June 30, 2008 will be within the scope of the Dec 2008 exam?
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.