Candidates' Weakness

Some of the observed weaknesses in the candidates’ scripts were:
-           Poor understanding of the rudiments of financial accounting and basic principles of bookkeeping;
-           Lack of coverage of topics in the syllabus towards preparation for the examination;
-           Poor use of English grammar and expressions in explaining points;
-           Wrong placement of values and digits in computations;
-           Posting of entries with wrong narrations and account headings;
-           Inability to capture the necessary adjustments which have mark-earning capacity;
-           Poor knowledge of candidates to interprete theory questions requirement from measurable verbs or scenario questions both in theory and practice sections;
-           Inappropriate use of formulas for computations;
-           Failure to categorise items into appropriate account headings.

Some of these weaknesses were significantly reflected in the questions testing the following topics:

1.       Identification of Error/ Trial Balance
2.       Accounting Information;
3.       Accounting Ratio;
4.       Realization Account/ Partners’ Capital Account;
5.       Company Account.   

SUGGESTED REMEDIES

-           Candidates should improve in the application of accounting principles and fundamentals during practice and preparation for the examination.
-           Teachers should place more emphasis on rudiments and practical aspects of the syllabus for teaching and learning Financial Accounting in schools.
-           Candidates should prepare very well by covering all aspects of the syllabus before writing the examination.
-           Teachers should make use of past question papers during revision exercises for comprehensive exposition on examiners’ requirements for each question in preparing for examinations.
-           During examination revision, teachers should not only concentrate on SS3 topics but cover both the SS1 and SS2 topics respectively.
-           Qualified teachers should be employed to teach Financial Accounting in schools.
-           Candidates should improve in their studies to master the appropriate use of terminologies, narrations, headings and currency values in accounting.
-           Candidates should read to engage themselves in practicalizing accounting topics to real life situations to aid their better performance to scenario questions.
-           Candidates should prioritize personal study of topics in the syllabus to ascertain their readiness for examination.