A key issue examiners want ACCA F4 students to focus on...

ACCA F4 Students must take care to read the question carefully in the exam. Not doing this is the easiest way to lose marks!

Examiners have identified this as an ongoing issue across a number of ACCA F4 sittings. 

This is what the examiners had to say and some important advice on how to overcome it:

"The suspicion continues that candidates may be tempted to skim read questions and answers and simply do not spend sufficient time on thinking about them.” - ACCA F4 Examiner’s Report – December 2015

“Questions are sometimes more subtle than candidates allow for.” - ACCA F4 Examiner’s Report – December 2015

“This question was at the difficult end of the spectrum and it was also structured in a way that required close reading.” - ACCA F4 Examiner’s Report – December 2015

“Evidence of the June 2015 paper it would appear that candidates are not paying sufficient attention to either the questions or the answers, with many questions being incorrectly answered through simple carelessness.” - ACCA F4 Examiner’s Report – June 2015

“As has been stated above, time is not an issue and candidates should not rush through questions and should certainly resist the temptation to get into a simple read and click routine.”  - ACCA F4 Examiner’s Report – June 2015

So, as you can see this is vital but obvious issue to consider in your preparations for the exam. Take time to read the question slowly and at least twice. Identify the key words as this will help you to understand what answer the examiner is looking for.

Time pressure is the common reason for students failing to read questions carefully. The best way to overcome this is through practising past exam questions against the clock.

Access the ACCA F4 past exam papers by going to - ACCA F4 Past Exam Papers. 

This is just one of the points addressed in our ACCA Examiners' Guide. See what others issues had been identified by going to - ACCA F4 Examiners' Guides