【P1】ACCA Paper P1 Core Areas & Relevant Questions
【P1】-ACCA Paper P1 Core Areas & Relevant Questions
ACCA Paper P1
Professional Accountant
Core Areas & Relevant Questions
The areas that we would expect to see most regularly in the exam and in the compulsory section A of the paper are:
l Discussion of corporate governance best practice. You may be given a scenario which describes a business with poor corporate governance and be asked to assess its corporate governance practices.
l The role of non-executive directors features regularly, including discussion of their roles on various committees.
l Identification and discussion of stakeholders. You may be asked to identify stakeholders from a scenario, describe their claims, or distinguish between different types of stakeholders and how they can influence both the strategy and governance of a business
l Identification and assessment of business risk and/or a review of internal control mechanisms and failures. In sittings to date the examiner has asked for risks in the scenario to be identified and then either assessed or a suitable risk response identified,. Another variation is the requirement to analyse internal control failures and typical causes.
l Definitions and examples of different categories of risk
l Ethics or corporate social responsibility (including sustainability and environmental management). The questions in this area have either been knowledge based including definitions, or application, for example the use of Tuckers model for ethical decision making. Other key models that are always examinable are the AAA model and Gray Owen Adams views on CSR.
Other areas that we will expect to see, particularly in the optional part of the paper are:
l Discussion of one of the fundamental principles underlying good corporate governance. You may be asked to define and explain any of the core principles of corporate governance, and relate it to a scenario.
l The role of Internal Audit and the link to corporate governance is always a potential area, as well as a discussion around disclosure requirements and the impact of information disclosed on stakeholders
l Governance frameworks. In a couple of exams so far the examiner has described a scenario where there is an international conference discussing some aspect of corporate governance. The question requirements usually then require a discussion of two contrasting points of view in respect of governance, for example rules v principles, and a discussion for and against the harmonisation of corporate governance codes.
l Professional values and ethics. This may be similar to questions on independence in audit and assurance or ask for explanations of the priniciples and consideration of their importance, or may go beyond that to look at the wider obligations of professional accountants.
l Ethical Stances, and the impact these have on strategy, risk taking and decision making at board level
l Role and composition of various committees
Disclosure requirements as defined by the Turnbull report
