Exam guide

1. Paper structure

• Paper 1 is scaled up so that the two papers together come to a weighted total of 143. The grade thresholds below use this total.
• The structure has not changed from 2022 to 2026. Every Paper 2 has five 20-mark questions, and every Paper 1 has 35 items, in the same order as the syllabus (fundamentals first, principles and policies last).
• What has changed is the presentation of Paper 2. From late 2024 the booklets are longer and the scenarios come in stages ("REQUIRED" blocks spread over several pages). The final "Advise…" part now usually tells you exactly what to give, e.g. "two points for and two points against".
• The June 2026 grade threshold document also lists a "Component 50" (out of 90) as a separate route. No paper for it was in the files we analysed, so this report covers only Papers 1 and 2.

2. Topic weights

Shares of all tagged marks (9 sessions, one Paper 1 and one Paper 2 per session, 1215 marks in total). Every topic area was examined in all 9 sessions, but the depth varies a lot.

Subtopics, from most to least marks:

These figures understate accruals, prepayments, depreciation and doubtful debts. Those adjustments also appear inside almost every income statement and statement of financial position question, and those marks are counted under the type of business.

3. Bankers (examined in almost every session)

• Correction of errors and the suspense account. This is the biggest single area. A full Paper 2 question appeared in 8 of 9 sessions: journal entries for five errors, then the suspense account, then the corrected profit (sometimes the corrected capital or bank balance too). Paper 1 has 2–4 error items every time (types of error, effect on profit or totals).
• An "Advise… Justify your answer" part in every Paper 2 question. Each question usually ends with a 5-mark decision: how to fund equipment, whether to sell on credit, whether to take on a partner, whether to convert to a limited company, whether to employ a book-keeper, whether to change a depreciation method. That makes up to 25 marks per paper.
• A full set of financial statements in Paper 2. Every session has at least one income statement or manufacturing account, plus an appropriation account, statement of changes in equity or statement of financial position extract. The business type rotates: partnership, limited company, manufacturer, sole trader, club, incomplete records.
• Cash book, bank reconciliation or control accounts as Question 1. Paper 2 nearly always opens with a book-keeping question: a three-column cash book (2022 MJ, 2023 MJ, 2024 ON, 2025 MJ), petty cash (2024 MJ), bank reconciliation (2022 ON, 2025 ON) or a control account (2026 MJ).
• Ratios. Every Paper 1 has 2–7 analysis items: margins, inventory turnover, ROCE, current and liquid ratios, trade receivables turnover, what made a ratio change, and who uses the accounts. Paper 2 asks for a ratio calculation in 6 of 9 sessions.
• Accounting principles. Every Paper 2 has 1–5 marks of "name or explain the principle" (prudence, matching, consistency, going concern, business entity, materiality). Paper 1 always ends with 1–2 principle or policy items.
• Every Paper 1 includes items on depreciation and disposal, inventory valuation (lower of cost and net realisable value), irrecoverable debts or the doubtful-debt provision, club subscriptions, the manufacturing account (prime cost, work in progress) and incomplete records (profit from the change in capital, or missing purchases and sales).

4. Rarely tested

• Accounting policies (comparability, relevance, reliability, understandability, international accounting standards) appear only as the last Paper 1 item, and not in every session. No Paper 2 marks.
• The accounting equation appears only in Paper 1 (about 1 item per session). It is never a Paper 2 question.
• Business documents (invoice, credit note, debit note, statement of account) appear almost only in Paper 1. Paper 2 gave them 1 mark in total.
• Trial balance as a Paper 2 task appeared only in 2023 MJ (a corrected trial balance).
• Capital and revenue expenditure had only one Paper 2 table (2022 MJ). It remains a near-certain Paper 1 item.
• Clubs and societies in Paper 2 came up only twice (2023 MJ and 2024 ON), although every Paper 1 has 1–3 club items.
• Users of accounts and the limitations of comparisons are worth only a mark or two at a time, almost all in Paper 1.

5. Trends

• Manufacturing accounts have become a regular Paper 2 question. They appeared in 4 of the last 6 sessions (2023 ON, 2024 MJ, 2025 ON, 2026 MJ), often with costs to split between factory and office and with depreciation by the reducing balance method. In 2026 MJ the manufacturing question also asked for ratios (gross margin, inventory turnover).
• Incomplete records have also become regular. They appeared in 2022 MJ, 2023 ON, 2024 ON, 2025 MJ and 2026 MJ: rebuilding purchases or sales from control-account figures, using mark-up or margin to find missing figures, and the statement of affairs.
• Partnerships appeared every year from 2022 ON to 2025 MJ, but only as a 5-mark advice part in 2025 ON and 2026 MJ. A full appropriation account and current account question is overdue.
• Clubs have been missing from Paper 2 since 2024 ON, and control accounts last appeared in 2026 MJ. Both rotate back in.
• Depreciation and disposal grew from a Paper 1-only topic into Paper 2 parts in 2024 MJ, 2025 MJ, 2025 ON (a full 15-mark question) and 2026 MJ.
• The advice parts are getting more structured. Recent papers ask for a set number of points for and against, and they award the recommendation mark only when both sides are given.
• Paper 1 has fewer analysis items than before. There were 7 in 2022 MJ but only 2–3 per paper since 2024. Some of that space has gone to book-keeping and verification items.
• Grade boundaries have risen since 2022. 2022 thresholds were low (grade C was 36/143 in June and 38/143 in November). From 2023 a C needed 40–48 and an A needed 83–88.

6. Question styles

Command words in Paper 2:

• "Prepare": a ledger account, journal, cash book, income statement, manufacturing account, appropriation account, statement of changes in equity, statement of financial position extract or bank reconciliation. Layouts are often printed for you.
• "Calculate": a ratio, a corrected profit, opening or closing capital, a missing figure, a depreciation charge, an inventory value. Calculations are often "correct to two decimal places".
• "State", "Name" or "Explain": short theory worth 1–2 marks, e.g. a principle, a type of error, a book of prime entry, the meaning of a term, or two reasons or factors.
• "Complete the table" or "Place a tick": over/understatement grids, capital vs revenue tables, which book of prime entry to use, how an item affects the bank reconciliation.
• "Advise… Justify your answer": a balanced 5-mark discussion (points for and against) that ends in a clear recommendation.

Typical Paper 2 formats:

• Five errors leading to a journal, then the suspense account, then the corrected profit.
• A trial balance plus additional notes, leading to the financial statements.
• Transactions for one month, leading to the cash book, then a personal account or a control account.
• A bank statement compared with the cash book, leading to an updated cash book and a reconciliation statement.
• A sequence of depreciation and disposal accounts.
• A ratio table, then "explain why the owner should not be pleased".

Paper 1 styles:

• Four-option items. About half need a quick calculation (missing figures, corrected profit, ratios, subscriptions, depreciation).
• Two-column grids that ask which account is debited and credited, or whether a figure is overstated or understated.
• "Which statements are correct?" items with numbered options, e.g. "1 and 3".
• Items that end with "not correct" or "not shown". Read these carefully.

7. Common mistakes (from examiner reports)

Paraphrased from the June 2022 and November 2022 examiner reports. The later reports were not in our files.

• Weak double entry. This is the most repeated warning. Students lose marks when posting from the books of prime entry to ledger accounts: entries reversed or left out, or the wrong account names. Write the name of the other account (e.g. "rates", not "standing order"; "bank", not "cash paid to suppliers").
• Cash book errors. Students include credit purchases (only cash and bank movements belong in the cash book), calculate cash discount wrongly, or balance off the discount columns (only total them).
• Trade discount recorded in the ledger. It never is. Only cash discount is recorded.
• Bank reconciliation confusion. Students put items such as bank charges in both the reconciliation and the cash book, leave out unpresented cheques and uncredited deposits, or do not link the updated cash book to the statement. They also mix up a standing order (fixed amount) with a direct debit (varying amount).
• Corrections through the suspense account. Not every error goes through suspense. Only errors that make the trial balance disagree do. "Netting off" adjustments when correcting profit loses the method marks.
• Mark-up and margin mixed up. A 25% mark-up equals a 20% margin. Using the wrong one spoils drawings-of-goods and incomplete-records calculations.
• Profit from capital changes. Many students did not know the quick method: closing capital + drawings − capital introduced − opening capital = profit.
• Inventory valuation. Students forget to add carriage inwards to cost, or use selling price instead of the lower of cost and net realisable value.
• Doubtful-debt provision. Students put the whole provision in the income statement instead of only the increase or decrease.
• Ratios and working capital. Students include non-current assets or reserves, or treat an overdraft (a credit balance) as an asset. Always label what is in each total, because own-figure marks depend on it.
• Partnership appropriation. Students do not start from the profit for the year, charge interest on drawings for the full year instead of time-apportioning it, share the residual profit in the wrong ratio, or combine the partners' current accounts.
• Advice answers. One-sided discussions, or "academic" answers with no final recommendation, cannot get the recommendation mark. Describing two depreciation methods does not answer "should she change methods?".
• Theory answers that are too vague, e.g. "find errors" as a reason for bank reconciliation, or "send statements" instead of "send statements promptly".

8. Grade thresholds

Overall minimum weighted marks (out of 143) for the option that combines Papers 12 and 22:

Component thresholds (raw marks) for the same papers:

Roughly, a grade A has needed about 60% overall since 2023, and a C about 30%. Paper 2 decides most grades, because it carries far more weight.

9. Revision priorities for Oct/Nov 2026 and 2027

1. Errors and the suspense account. Practise full five-error questions until the journal, the suspense account and the corrected-profit statement come automatically. This is the single most reliable Paper 2 question.
2. Double entry and posting. Practise posting from the cash book and journals into personal accounts, control accounts and nominal accounts with correct names and dates. The examiners say this weakness costs marks across the whole paper.
3. Manufacturing accounts and incomplete records. Both are now regular in Paper 2. Know prime cost, factory overheads, work in progress adjustments and splitting costs between factory and office. For incomplete records, know control-account reconstruction, mark-up versus margin, and the statement of affairs.
4. Partnerships. A full appropriation account and current account question is overdue: interest on capital and on drawings (time-apportioned), salaries, loan interest, residual profit sharing, and what a debit current account means.
5. Limited companies and clubs. Practise the statement of changes in equity, the equity section, called-up versus issued capital, and dividends. Clubs have been missing from Paper 2 since 2024 ON, so practise the subscriptions account, the income and expenditure account with a café or bar profit, and the accumulated fund.
6. The advice part. For every scenario, practise writing two clear points for, two against, and a one-line recommendation that matches your points. This is worth up to 25 marks per paper.
7. Ratios and interpretation. Learn the formulas exactly (margins, ROCE, current and liquid ratios, inventory turnover in times and days, receivables and payables turnover). Practise explaining why each ratio moved and how to improve it.
8. Paper 1 quick wins. Learn the accounting principles and policies, types of error, business documents, the imprest system, capital vs revenue, the debit/credit grid items and the inventory rule. These cost little revision time and come up every session.