PA1 Exam Review.doc

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1、PA1 Exam PreparationSpring 2004Presented in:BeijingMarch 15, 2004Presented by:PresenterLaura Dallas, CGAPA1 Exam Review Units 1 - 4 Part 1:IntroductionWelcome Each student should be extremely proud for being at this level of the CGA program. Each student has accomplished so much just to have qualifi

2、ed to be here preparing for the exam Not only do students come to the PA1 exam from all areas of accounting, also from all areas of the country. In some regions, a lecture/seminar program is also available for PA1. Some students have done PA1 assignments individually; some have done them as a group.

3、 Your preparation to date may vary significantly from student to student. Some students may be assistant controllers, some may be audit managers, and others may be in government positions. Some students may have extensive study skills, while other students may have extensive practical experience. Th

4、erefore, your study techniques for the PA1 exam may vary significantly. The format of the PA1 exam is significantly different from other CGA courses. You can not just memorize information for this exam. You must be prepared to respond to situations, as if you were a professional accountant. The PA1

5、examination consists of a series of questions designed primarily to simulate engagements and projects that CGAs may encounter in their professional experience. The purpose of the PA1 examination is to evaluate your ability to draw upon relevant core knowledge and to apply this knowledge to the speci

6、fic facts and requirements presented in each question.Miscellaneous Purpose of facilitators: timesavers, inform you of PA1 format, confidence builders we can not teach entire CGA program in 3 hours Most of you know the material now just a matter of presentation, concentration, & breadth!Comments fro

7、m the examiner:Many unsuccessful tend to do the same thing. That is to recite. They recite the case facts and they recite course material.What they fail to do is relate the course material to a problem. We see this both in the case results and in the multiple choice results. International students t

8、end to do very well on the multiple choice where it is not a scenario style question but poorly on questions that first give a scenario and then the multiple choice options are based on their analysis of that scenario. Before starting to study, students should go into the PA1 resource material and e

9、nsure they understand what PA1 is all about. That is it is testing the competency of applying the technical knowledge they learned in previous courses, and were already tested on, to a diverse situation, i.e. the case. The responses of the unsuccessful candidates leads me to question if they underst

10、ood what PA1 is about and its purpose. I also question if they truly understand the concepts of the competencies PA1 is designed to test. Suggestions for preparing for the exam and handling the case questions: First read the required and ensure they understand what the question is asking and the con

11、text in which the question is asked. For example, are you in the position as a knowledgeable person writing to someone who is not knowledgeable or what. Secondly prepare a template for the areas of the question. Is it asking for audit information, finance information, what. Emphasize that not every

12、question covers all areas of competencies. Then start to read the case facts and relate that to the required. What is the information that relates to the required? In other words, read and analyze the information Students must remember the business context in which to do the analysis. For example, i

13、f the question relates to auditing they need to understand what type of business or organization the question relates to. If the question relates to a not for profit that provides a service, auditfor inventory would be irrelevant as they would not carry a significant inventory. If the question does

14、not relate to tax planning do not talk about section 85 rollovers Work on previous exam examples and the annotated solutions. Look at the required, the rational and the suggested solution. Work at understanding the why of the question and relate that to the response. So not just look at a suggested

15、solution without understanding how it relates to the question. Understand where the type of solution would be applicable Emphasize the solution must fit the required, not the reverse. Miscellaneous Student Questions:I was at a lecture the other day, and I had a couple of excellent questions from stu

16、dents that I would like to share:1. Can I bring the Income Tax Act into the exam room?No. But, you do NOT need it. You needed to have the Income Tax Act when you wrote the Tax exam. That is because you were being tested in depth for Tax. For the PA1 exam, you are being tested on your broad, general

17、knowledge, and how to apply the information in the real world. You will NOT be asked a question that would require you to have memorized anything from the Income Tax Act. To re-assure yourself, have a look at the depth of the questions asked on Tax on the PA1 past exams.2. How do I know how much of

18、the technical information to study, for FA4, Fn1, TX1, etc?The answer to this question is very different for every student. But, let me assure you this is one of the most frequently asked questions. Exactly how much technical do I need to study? Only you can answer this question, but I can tell you

19、how you can answer the question. First, the knowledge you already have would be a determining factor. For instance, if you are currently working on Audits in public practice, your knowledge on Audit may be very good, but you may be a bit weak in Finance. And, if you are working for the Tax authoriti

20、es, your knowledge on tax may be excellent, but your knowledge of Auditing weak. So, based on the areas of your strengths, you may have to concentrate on your areas of weakness. But, now, we are back to that same old question how much do you need to study for the areas you are weak in? The answer he

21、re can be found in the past exams. If you review the past exams for the types of questions, and solutions, you will get a feel for the types of questions and answers. You will also then get a feel for what it is you need to study. 3. What should I be looking for when I go through the past exams?Many

22、 of you may know by know that I am like a broken record, repeating myself over and over, telling you to go through the past exams. (I might be old but the reason I repeat myself is not because I have forgotten what I have said. It is because the information is so important. I recommend that you prin

23、t out all of the past exams, suggested solutions and marker comment sheets. Heres one idea: Spend at least one evening going over all of the question 2 information. Look at the questions, marker comments and very briefly the solutions. Try and find what is common about the type of question. Review h

24、ow all of the marks are allocated for each questions. You will then be able to estimate yourself how the marks are allocated for your exam, giving you the advantage to cover all areas. How many communication marks, tax, accounting, finance, etc. Determine for the marks allocated how long the answers

25、 are. How are the answers presented? The paragraph formats? Headings? Review the marker comments. Is there a common error that students seem to make? Being aware of the deficiencies will help you study to ensure that you dont make the same errors. Repeat the same procedure for questions 3 & 4 to ens

26、ure that you are comfortable with the types of questions. Now that you are comfortable with the types of questions, start going through and actually doing some of the questions from each area. Work on preparing outline answers for as many questions as possible. Save a few exams that you can sit down

27、 and write from start to finish.Sections PresentationPartDescription1Introduction2Unit 1 PA1 exam / writing skills3Unit 2Writing Effectively4Unit 3Short answer questions5Unit 4 A case analysis frameworkPreparing for PA1 Exam Part 2:Unit 1 Introduction to PA1 resource materialsYou should be quite fam

28、iliar with the PA1 Resource Material binder and a PA1 CD. PA1 CDUnder the contents of the CD you will find the following: Course refreshers GAAP/GAAS updates Course updates Practice Examinations GlossaryFrom the CD, you will find the link to the CGA Canada PA1 Web page with pre-requisite course mate

29、rial. You can “GO” to the website automatically from the CD, or you can use the below URL. www.cga-canada.org/eng/designation/become/pa1.htm You will find:1. Prior Exams2. Exam Marker Comments3. Suggested Solutions4. Annotated Solutions5. Lesson summaries for: (these are different from the course re

30、freshers) Auditing 1 (AU1) Financial Accounting 4 (FA4) Finance 1 (FN1) Taxation 1 (TX1)Annotated solutionsAfter talking with many PA1 students, almost all students seem to agree that the annotated solutions are one of the best tools available for preparing for the PA1 exam. The annotated solutions

31、are 2 or 3 answers for each question on the exam. These answers are all passing answers, with critiques by the marker for each answer.I definitely recommend taking some time to look through the annotated solutions.Unit 1 - Overview of the PA1 examIt is very important that students recognize the goal

32、 post before they set out to prepare for the PA1 exam. Notice I say prepare and not study. By looking at the goal post, I mean have a look at the style, purpose and format of the PA1 exam. The below is from Unit 1 (and from the web site) and is very important that you recognize the importance of eac

33、h competency to be examined.Objective of the PA1 Examination The objective of the PA1 examination is to attest that the CGA candidate can take the professional/technical knowledge learned in the courses and apply it to a range of situations in the real-world environment. In other words, Professional

34、 Applications 1 (PA1) assesses the integration of knowledge, skills, and professional values, as well as decision-making in the context of the work of the professional accountant. Integration of KnowledgeIn the context of PA1, integration means integration of knowledge and integration of issues.PA1

35、emphasizes the integration of knowledge from more than one subject area or topic. You may be required to combine knowledge of topics from different subject areas, or knowledge of different topics within the same subject area. You will be assessed on how well you apply that knowledge as a whole to th

36、e solution of problems.If, for example, a question on a financial statement has financial accounting, audit, and tax implications, you are expected to deal with all three subject areas in your response unless specifically instructed otherwise. In addition to integration of knowledge from more than o

37、ne subject area or topic, a PA1 question may contain a number of issues that must be considered in relation to one another and as a whole. Dont treat a question as though it contains a series of separate, unrelated problems arbitrarily put together. For effective decision-making, you need to conside

38、r not only the separate issues, but also their interrelationship, and therefore, the integration of issues.Application of Core KnowledgeThe PA1 examination consists of a series of questions designed primarily to simulate engagements and projects that CGAs may encounter in their professional experien

39、ce. The purpose of the PA1 examination is to evaluate your ability to draw upon relevant core knowledge and to apply this knowledge to the specific facts and requirements presented in each question. Responding solely with memorized information is not sufficient to constitute a satisfactory professio

40、nal response.Core Knowledge RequirementsPA1 candidates must possess a broad understanding of the economic, legal, and business environment in which professional accountants work. This background knowledge is necessary in order to understand and apply accounting knowledge. You are required to draw up

41、on this background knowledge in formulating a professional response. You must make use of core professional competencies to produce a professional response to comprehensive, multi-subject, and single-subject questions. In addition, current knowledge of professional material, such as the CICA Handboo

42、k, is also required.Major Features of the PA1 Examination The PA1 examination is a written four-hour capstone examination. The examination assesses the competencies required at an entry-level position, such as integrating and applying academic and technical knowledge as well as ethics to the profess

43、ional practice of accounting and related fields of management activity. Technical knowledge already examined in the subject examinations will not be re-examined in specific detail in the PA1 examination; however, the examination will test the integration and application of that knowledge. Performanc

44、e on the examination will be reported on the statement of marks as Honours, Pass, or Fail. Numeric information will not be provided. To meet widely accepted standards of professional certification examinations and to provide a report to candidates who fail, CGA-Canada will supply question-by-questio

45、n information on their performance to individual candidates.Primary Competencies to be ExaminedThis section lists the primary competencies that may be examined in the PA1 examination. The primary competencies are those considered to be essential to an entry-level position in the professional practic

46、e of accounting.Basic communication skills Writing logically and coherentlyInterpersonal skills Demonstrating initiativeOrganizational skills Applying professional standards and ethics Applying knowledge of information technology to work situations Demonstrating accountability for professional workP

47、ersonal skills Demonstrating effective time management Identifying ethical issues and demonstrating personal integrity Making decisions Showing open-mindedness to alternativesProject management and supervision skills Providing effective service to clients/users of financial information Recognizing a

48、 problem or situation that requires immediate action Setting work prioritiesProblem analysis and problem solving Analyzing the information Applying professional judgment Gathering information from various sources and in various forms Identifying costs and benefits of alternatives Identifying and structuring a problem Identifying key elements