Students and exam success 5

Ala n Sangster Lewis Gordon S olutions Manual For Frank Wood’s Business Accounting Fifteenth Edition 1 / 4

4 © 2021 Pearson Education Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Contents Students and exam success 5 Answers 9

Accompanying Chapters*

Chapter 29: Manufacturing accounts

Chapter 42: An introduction to management accounting

*These two accompanying chapters can be downloaded as separate files with this Solutions Manual and are from the 14th edition of this book.

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Sangster and Gordon: Frank Wood’s Business Accounting, 15e, Instructor Solutions Manual 5 © 2021 Pearson Education Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Students and exam success Experienced teachers and lecturers know just as much as we do about this topic. There will, however, be people reading this who are new to teaching, and who have little experience in understanding how the examiner views things. If we have anything to offer, it is simply that we have been involved in accounting education for decades and have both been examiners for several examining bodies.

The Notes for Students at the start of Frank Wood’s Business Accounting deal with exam technique. Make sure your students read these. Go through these with them. If we all tell students that what these say is true, then they are more likely to believe us.

How students lose marks 1) Lack of knowledge (obviously) but they throw away marks unnecessarily for all of the

following reasons:

(a) Untidy work, including columns of figures not lined up.(b) Bad handwriting. Do not make it difficult for the examiner to read and mark.(c) Lack of headings, dates, sub totals, etc., in accounting statements.(d) Not submitting proper workings.You can only get them to rectify everything under this heading by insisting on them correcting (a), (b), (c) and (d) from early on in the course. Do not wait until a few weeks before the exam to insist upon properly laid out and neatly constructed work.

2) Students very often do not follow the rubric on the exam paper. If it asks for two questions only from Section A, then it means just that. A remarkably high percentage do not follow the instructions per the rubric.

3) Students fail to answer the questions as set. If, for example, an examiner wants a list, students will lose marks by giving explanations instead. Students must tackle the question in the prescribed way and not do it differently. The percentage of students passing exams would rise dramatically if only we could correct this failing. A good plan is to get them to highlight the instruction that shows how the examiner wants the question to be answered, for example,

List the ways by which . . .Describe the ways by which . . .Write a report to the managing director about the ways by which . . .Discuss how the ways by which . . .Explain how the ways by which . . .Then, get them to underline the key words in the rest of the question.They need as much practice as possible in doing this, especially for essay-type questions.Practice is even more essential for students for whom English is not their first language.

At the end of this section are 20 essay questions in which we have already highlighted the instruction and underlined the key words. See if your students can do the same.

4) Poor technique with essay questions. Business Accounting, Notes for students, the section headed ‘Answering essay questions’ covers this point. Discuss this with your students who have to tackle essay questions.

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Sangster and Gordon: Frank Wood’s Business Accounting, 15e, Instructor Solutions Manual

6 © 2021 Pearson Education Limited. All Rights Reserved.

5) Not tackling the required number of questions. We have always found it very difficult to convince students to get hold of the idea that they will get more marks for five uncompleted questions than they will for four completed questions, when the examiner has asked for five to be attempted. Time planning is essential.

6) By not tackling the easiest questions first. Years ago, a lot of research was undertaken into the results of students who had followed this advice, compared with those who ignored it.Following the advice produced better results.

7) By simply regurgitating the contents of a textbook in essay answers. For instance, when an examiner set a question on, say, materiality. Most of the answers simply gave exactly the same examples, word for word sometimes, that we have given in Business Accounting.Examiners are looking for originality and imagination. Students will get excellent marks if they give their own examples. A good idea is that, for each of the concepts and conventions, they think up their own examples before the exam. There are going to be more and more questions on these things in the years ahead.

8) Examiners like to see answers where students realise that all accounting is not found in textbooks, but exists for the use of businesses. Get them to use examples in essay questions based on what they have observed in the businesses around them.

For example, a question on ratios and interpretation will often be answered by students just using figures. They should also say why the figures have changed; what possible causes there might have been.

In their life outside their studies, they should observe how accounting is carried out. They all go at one time or another to refectories, restaurants, shops, department stores, clothes shops, travel on buses and trains, etc. They should observe how the money is calculated and collected, what sort of bills or tickets are given out, how fraud or errors could occur and so on. They can give this flavour of the real world in their answers. Believe me, they will get better marks.

Sample essay questions with key words underlined 1) List the various pieces of information which should be shown on a sales invoice.2) Describe what is meant by an imprest system.3) Accounting based on historical costs can be misleading. Discuss.4) The bookkeeper has said that if an error does not affect trial balance agreement then it cannot affect anything else very much. You are to write a report to the managing director stating whether or not you agree with the bookkeeper.

5) Give five examples of different compensating errors and explain why they cancel each other out.

6) Explain the differences between the straight line and reducing balance methods of depreciation.

7) Briefly describe the benefits to be gained from maintaining control accounts.8) List six instances of errors which could cause the trial balance totals to disagree.9) Name three methods of inventory valuation, and briefly describe any one of them.10) ‘Without the use of accounting ratios, much of the accounting work already performed would be wasted.’ Discuss the amount of truth in this statement.11) How can retail stores use accounting ratios to help them to plan future inventory levels?12) Assess the benefits of double entry as compared with single entry methods of bookkeeping.

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