December 2013 ACCA Exam Tips ACCA Paper P1 – Governance, Risk and Ethics

The format of this paper is quite straightforward – one compulsory 50 mark question and a choice of two from three 25 mark questions. Often, the compulsory question is set within a scenario based on real-life events allowing all three parts of the syllabus to be tested: you should therefore consider organisations with governance issues and how they control their exposure to risk and any resultant ethical dilemmas, often requiring some form of written or verbal communication.

Optional questions tend to focus on governance, risk and ethics more discretely, but we could still see some cross-over, for example, boardroom diversity is the subject of an article recently published by the ACCA and could quite easily fall into a governance-related question. The exam in June 2013 saw an approach like this, testing an article on environmental accounting and reporting, although articles have not always been tested so soon after their publication!

Candidates should ensure they are familiar with all the various theories introduced within the learning materials as they are frequently examined – good exposure to past papers will illustrate the kind of test most likely to be faced in December.

Good luck!