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!